Legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal on his bowling partnership with Kuldeep Yadav, not worrying about conceding runs, and playing Pakistan for the first time

Interview by Sidharth Monga and Shashank Kishore18-Sep-20182:16

‘Playing Pakistan was always on my bucket list’ – Chahal

In white-ball cricket, you’re never worried about flighting the ball. How did that come about?
That is my strength, but it also depends on the situation. If the batsman is batting for long, I try to flight the ball, bowl the hard ball, and let him make a mistake. In T20 cricket, especially, even if you don’t do much, the batsman will surely come after you. So I always look to bowl to my strengths and not bowl looking at who the batsman is.Has this become your bowling style in ODIs too by default?
In ODIs, you have the extra six overs, so you have a lot more deliveries in which to unleash your variations. I always look at the game situation and then decide if I should flight the ball and go for wickets or try to restrict runs. I look at the scores of the batsmen and the situation they are in. If a new batsman is on, he’s probably trying to play himself in, so that gives me a chance to attack.You’re always happy to concede the extra runs if it means there’s an opportunity for a wicket. Has this been ingrained in you?
Kuldeep [Yadav] and I have been given a specific role: take wickets in the middle overs. It doesn’t matter if we concede 10-15 extra runs, but if we manage to get two or three wickets, it automatically transforms the innings. Teams that may have had a chance of getting 280-290 tend to then finish with 220-230. So we’re not really worried about conceding runs. The focus is always on wickets.Tell us about your bowling partnership with Kuldeep.
We’ve been playing a lot of cricket together. Even when he was first with Mumbai Indians [2012], we were together. We bond well. If I come in to bowl before him, I talk to him about how the wicket is behaving and what he can try to do to trouble the batsmen. If he comes on first, he comes up and chats with me. Obviously if one of us applies pressure from one end, there’s a chance of wickets at the other. So if I don’t strike, he takes over, or it’s the other way round.At what point do you decide what you’re going to bowl?
I know in my mind while running in what I want to bowl.The trend in ODIs is for spinners to try and bowl fast. But you have consciously made an effort to slow it down.
I got the idea during the [2014] IPL. The Chinnaswamy Stadium is a small ground, and the batsman gets used to it if you keep bowling fast. So I decided to work on my variations and look to change the pace to get the batsman thinking. If you flight the ball, you’re giving him room to make a mistake, because he has to step out and force the pace.
Because I play a lot of cricket at Chinnaswamy, my mindset is different from other spinners. Others, when they bowl here, will probably think, “It’s a small ground, let me try and restrict runs by firing it in.” When I played here first, there was the fear of getting hit. That is not there now.

“When a batsman sweeps you for singles, that annoys me, because they’re still picking six runs without any trouble”

How has bowling to Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli in the RCB nets helped you?
When you bowl your variations to them, it makes bowling to some of the other batsmen a lot easier. They’ve given me a lot of feedback, told me the kinds of deliveries I can bowl, what lengths I should look to stick to. Even if they hit me for big sixes in the nets, they come and tell me what was good about the delivery, what difficulties they have faced while executing a certain kind of shot. That helps.Once, in Kolkata, AB came up and told me how the training wicket was entirely different from the wickets on which the games were being played. He asked me to tune my mind towards what the actual surface will be like and not bowl with the kind of rhythm or plan from the training session.What do you look to achieve in the nets?
I tell all the batsmen my field, and try and bowl to that. I bowl with the new ball, because sometimes I’m required to bowl in the Powerplay. Whatever I need to do on match day, I try to simulate.You said you decide your deliveries beforehand. What if the batsman makes an early move?
Obviously then you have some time to change. I look at his body movement, not just feet movement. Sometimes you get an intuition about what the batsman will do. Then I try to change my plans. If a batsman has faced two or three dot balls, then by observing him, you kind of know he may try and slog or play across the line. So I try and vary my plan accordingly.If you get hit for a six off a good ball, what is your mindset?
I don’t feel bad if I get hit for a six off a good ball. It’s sixes off short balls that hurt. But I know I have five more opportunities to come back, whereas one mistake and the batsman is out.”Self-belief is key. If you don’t have it, nothing others tell you will help”•Getty ImagesThe bats are bigger now, and sometimes outside edges carry for six. How do you try and plot your comeback as a bowler?
I’ve been hit for plenty of sixes and fours at Chinnaswamy. There is no fear anymore. . I don’t think, “Oh god, I’ll be hit for sixes.” When I run in to bowl, I know I could be hit for three sixes, six sixes, or maybe even get the batsman out. So I don’t worry about being hit.When I first played for RCB here, I conceded 45 or something off four overs. In Kolkata, I conceded 50 odd. In my mind I was like, “Okay, I’m bowling well and still going for 50. What’s the worst that could happen? I’d give away 60, 65?” Once I started thinking this way, the fear of going for runs went away. Unless you experience it, the fear doesn’t go away. It had happened to me twice, so I realised it can’t get worse.Who do you talk to about spin bowling?
Narendra Hirwani, our spin coach at NCA [National Cricket Academy]. I also chat with Maninder Singh [former India left-arm spinner] and my personal coach, Randhir Singh.Against big hitters, you tend to bowl just a touch wide. Can it get difficult to control it sometimes?
Sometimes it’s a gamble you have to take. In a T20, you have to understand the batsman is out to hit you, so if he is good enough to hit me inside-out over cover, you have to accept it. But if you bowl it wide and try and get it outside his reach, you get the batsman thinking. If he steps out and misses, he knows you’ve got him. Yes, he can middle it too, but that’s a gamble you take. I keep mixing it up because you have to try and be a step ahead.Shane Warne said if conditions were loaded in favour of the batsmen, he eliminated everything he couldn’t do. How do you approach it?
I try and not waste time on things that aren’t in my control. If I decide I’m going to get hit just because I’m bowling on a small ground, I’m already in the negative before bowling a ball.So you’re not influenced by how the surface behaves before you come on to bowl?
Sometimes you have runs to defend, so you attack. Sometimes you have to save runs. It’s situation-dependent. You can’t set the field for bad balls, but for good balls you have to ensure runs aren’t leaked. If the wicket is slow, you can’t bowl slow. If it’s pacy, you try and bowl length to get skid off the deck. In South Africa, I had the experience of playing with India A. I knew there was bounce, so I adjusted. In England, this time, the weather was hot and conditions were dry. So it was different.How much did you learn from that game in South Africa, where Heinrich Klaasen hit you for five sixes across two overs and turned the game?
It was raining continuously [at the Wanderers]. If there’s dew, I don’t face too many issues generally, because at least the wicket remains dry. There was a lot of rain, so the wicket was damp, and the ball started to skid. Whatever little turn there was on offer was gone too. That made it easy for the batsman. But it was a learning experience. I knew the next time if I was faced with something similar, at least I’d know how to approach it.

“If four matches don’t go well, it doesn’t mean I’m a bad bowler. It’s best to figure out why something isn’t working and try getting better”

Can you pick out an instance where the opponents have started really well but were pulled back because of your spell?
The game against New Zealand in Kanpur last year, where I dismissed Colin Munro and Kane Williamson, is one I look back at fondly. Both batsmen were set, their partnership was more than 100 runs and we needed a wicket. I got them both in three overs, and that helped us make a comeback. We knew restricting runs wasn’t an option. I wanted to bowl the best delivery, in areas where he [Munro] is weak and doesn’t generally like to score. He has to get runs eventually, so the pressure is equally on the batsman.I got Munro on the drive finally. For a couple of overs, I observed he didn’t move his feet and was playing from the crease. Then I beat him on one delivery, and Mahi [MS Dhoni] even appealed for a stumping. I knew he wasn’t leaning into the drive, and this was my best chance to get him driving. There was a gap between bat and pad, so I set him up to do exactly what I wanted. He tried to drive and was bowled.I’d kept cover inside the ring. If the fielder is back, the batsman generally doesn’t have it in his mind. But if he is in, the batsman is also aware he can try and score by chipping the ball over. Therein lies an opportunity for me too.Another game in Indore [against Sri Lanka], Kuldeep and I had gone for 52 [each] in four overs, but we got seven wickets between us. In two overs, we’d given away 35-36 runs, but we knew at least we have two more overs to make a comeback. Our thinking was, even if we don’t get wickets, we’ll try and not give away more than 10-15 in the two overs. When we returned, I got two wickets in four overs, and he got three, I think. If I think, “Oh god, I’ve been hit for two overs. How many more will I concede?” then negative thoughts creep in.Self-belief is key. If you don’t have it, nothing others tell you will help. If four matches don’t go well, it doesn’t mean I’m a bad bowler. It’s best to figure out why something isn’t working and try getting better.What is MS Dhoni’s role in plotting these dismissals? He’s very vocal on the stump mic.
When Kuldeep and I bowl, he tells us very early how the wicket is behaving. He also tells us what the batsman is trying to do. So that kind of gives you an idea even before you bowl, instead of me finding out after bowling two or three overs. He’s been captain, he’s played for so many years and has a wealth of experience. He watches the batsmen closely. He’s a batsman too, and knows what it is to play on such surfaces. Sometimes when I have a plan that is different to what he thinks, we discuss it. It’s not like he rejects our plan. Then we formulate a plan B.”Dhoni tells us very early how the wicket is behaving. He also tells us what the batsman is trying to do. He’s a batsman too, and knows what it is to play on such surfaces”•AFP/Getty ImagesSometimes it happens that he gives you instructions, but the execution is wrong. But he doesn’t lose his cool. In that Indore game and in South Africa, where Klaasen hit me, he just said, “Don’t worry. It’s just not your day. At least try to bowl to ensure your spin partner tries to get wickets.”How do you approach bowling to someone like Glenn Maxwell, against whom you have had some success?
We watch videos to assess their strong and weak points, but the pressure of a match situation is different. They’re playing for a place, so are we. So there is pressure on both of us at that point. With Maxwell, I know he can’t stay at the wicket for long. He has to try and slog, and leg side is his preferred area. If he hits me over cover, fine, it’s a good shot. But if I bowl outside off, he has to drag me from wide, so there’s a chance for me. In Kolkata, I had him stumped with the ball sneaking through his legs when he was trying to slog me over the leg side.What annoys you the most as a spinner?
When a batsman sweeps you for singles – that annoys me, because they’re still picking six runs without any trouble. It’s not like they’re taking a big risk for the same runs.You’ll be playing Pakistan for the first time in your career in the Asia Cup. Excited?
Growing up as a young kid wanting to play for India, it was always on my bucket list. I haven’t experienced what it feels like but I’m more excited than nervous. I’ve watched all India-Pakistan games. I try and look at which batsman is in form and who is playing how. The 1996 World Cup game stands out; every game is a favourite actually, but it’s about the expectation that people have from you. But for me, whichever team I’m playing, I value wickets the same. I know if I take five wickets, I’ll be Man of the Match.Have you now looked at making strides in red-ball cricket?
I played two games for India A against South Africa A. Red ball needs you to practise more. I have to be prepared to bowl 20-25 overs in a day. The batsman is also willing to be patient, so you have to devise plans to get him out. You have to bring all your skills into play. But yes, you develop [those skills] the more you play red-ball cricket. In white-ball cricket you know the batsman is going to come after you, so you try and restrict. [In longer-form cricket], the fielders are in, so you have to hit the same spots consistently. Strength levels, stamina, everything is tested. The challenge is what do you do when the batsman is patient and wants to play you out. So your mind has to tick all the time.

Where will Virat Kohli bat for RCB? Have KKR insured well against injuries this time around? Here’s what we know – and wonder – about the teams post-auction

Sreshth Shah18-Dec-20186:57

IPL 2019 auction: Rating the squads

Chennai Super KingsThe IPL Champions filled the only two spots for Indian players that they had available. Mohit Sharma returned to CSK following the franchise’s failure to pick up a left-arm pacer in Jaydev Unadkat after a heated bidding war with Rajasthan Royals. MS Dhoni’s familiarity with the two pacers during their stints at CSK and Rising Pune Supergiant respectively may have influenced the CSK management’s aggressive bidding for those two. Mohit was CSK’s most expensive buy at INR 5 crore, but they failed to secure a left-arm quick and a back-up Indian offspinner for Harbhajan Singh.Total players: 25
Number of overseas players: 8
Openers: Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, M Vijay
Middle-order batsmen: Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Sam Billings, Dhruv Shorey, Ruturaj Gaikwad
Wicketkeepers: MS Dhoni, N Jagadeesan
Allrounders: Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Monu Kumar, David Willey
Wristspinners: Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir
Fingerspinners: Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Santner
Fast bowlers: Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, KM Asif, Lungi Ngidi, Mohit Sharma
Delhi CapitalsThe new-look franchise came with assistant coach Mohammad Kaif, flanked by fresh team owners. They filled the gaps left by allrounders – that have been traded with Sunrisers Hyderabad – by picking up Axar Patel (their most expensive Indian at INR 5 crore), West Indian hard-hitter Sherfane Rutherford and Kerala allrounder Jalaj Saxena. They also backed India’s Test duo of Hanuma Vihari and Ishant Sharma, together with pinch-hitting Guyanese fast bowler Keemo Paul. T20 specialist Colin Ingram, a late buy at 6.40 crore, added variety to their middle order that is primarily composed of young Indian batsmen.Total players: 24
Number of overseas players: 8
Openers: Colin Munro, Prithvi Shaw, Manjot Kalra, Shikhar Dhawan
Middle-order batsmen: Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Colin Ingram
Wicketkeepers: Rishabh Pant, Ankush Bains
Allrounders: Chris Morris, Jalaj Saxena, Axar Patel, Bandaru Ayyappa, Sherfane Rutherford
Wristspinners: Amit Mishra, Rahul Tewatia, Sandeep Lamichhane
Fast Bowlers: Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Ishant Sharma, Keemo Paul, Nathu Singh
Kings XI PunjabThey started the auction with the most money to spend and bought 13 players under the watchful eyes of new coach, and former New Zealand coach, Mike Hesson. They beat four other teams to get mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy for INR 8.40 crore, and also snapped up England allrounder Sam Curran for INR 7.20 crore. Apart from these big buys, they picked up Australia’s Moises Henriques, who will be available for the whole tournament, and some young Indian allrounders.They also backed pacers who bowled hard balls. Hardus Viljoen – who finished with the most wickets in the T10 league – and Mohammed Shami were added to their pace battery. Prabhsimran Singh, only 17, went for a whopping INR 4.80 crore, presumably due to his performances with India’s Emerging squad at the U-19 Asia Cup. Harpreet Brar and Agnivesh Ayachi were also among those who were shortlisted by Kings XI’s player scouts. Nicholas Pooran, who gave a solid audition during West Indies’ tour of India, was taken for INR 4.20 crore.Total players: 23
Number of overseas players: 8
Openers: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle
Middle-order batsmen: Karun Nair, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan
Wicketkeepers: Prabhsimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran
Allrounders: Agnivesh Ayachi, Varun Chakravarthy, Darshan Nalkande, Harpreet Brar, Moises Henriques, Sam Curran
Wristspinners: Mujeeb Ur Rahman, M Ashwin
Fingerspinners: R Ashwin
Fast bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot, Andrew Tye, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Viljoen, Mohammed Shami
Kolkata Knight RidersWhat KKR lacked last year – back-ups for their overseas players plus an experienced pace attack – has been sorted, somewhat. They’ve got Carlos Brathwaite at a slightly-inflated INR 5 crore and England’s Joe Denly as possible replacements for an injury-prone Andre Russell. Denly’s addition gives KKR a cushion if Chris Lynn leaves early for Australia’s World Cup prep. That will allow Uthappa to slot in as opener with Denly taking the fourth overseas spot.With Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson discarded, KKR added Anrich Nortje – who bowled 150kph+ in the Mzansi Super League – and New Zealand’s right-arm pacer Lockie Ferguson to their overseas bowling team. From a very thin 18-man squad last year, they’re now at 21. It remains the smallest of all eight squads.Total players: 21
Number of overseas players: 8
Openers: Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa
Middle-order batsmen: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh
Wicketkeepers: Dinesh Karthik, Nikhil Naik
Allrounders: Andre Russell, Joe Denly, Shrikant Mundhe, Carlos Brathwaite
Wristspinners: Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav
Fingerspinners: Sunil Narine
Fast bowlers:: Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Raj, Harry Gurney, Anrich Nortje, Lockie Ferguson
Mumbai IndiansTotal players: 24
Number of overseas players: 8
Mumbai were one of the first teams to stop shopping at the auction in Jaipur. They bought six players, mostly to fill in gaps, and their biggest buys were Lasith Malinga – at a base price of INR 2 crore following a mentoring stint with them last season – and Yuvraj Singh, twice the IPL’s most expensive Indian, after his name came up for a third time following two unsuccessful calls for a bid by the auctioneer.They also added fast bowlers Barinder Sran and Rasikh Salam, in case Jasprit Bumrah is not available for the whole season. Mumbai’s primary XI was already set up with the addition of Quinton de Kock via a trade with Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier this year, and they chose to simply plug a few holes in their bench. Mumbai, however, failed to get a back-up wristspinner for IPL 2018 sensation Mayank Markande.Openers: Evin Lewis, Quinton de Kock, Anmolpreet Singh
Middle-order batsmen: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad
Wicketkeepers: Ishan Kishan, Aditya Tare
Allrounders: Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Ben Cutting, Yuvraj Singh, Pankaj Jaiswal
Wristspinners: Mayank Markande, Rahul Chahar
Fingerspinners: Anukul Roy, Jayant Yadav
Fast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jason Behrendorff, Rasikh Salam, Lasith Malinga, Barinder Sran
Rajasthan RoyalsComing into the auction, their primary focus was to look at safety-guards due to the limited availability of (upto) three English superstars and Australian Steven Smith, but they weren’t able to fully do that. They moneyballed on Perth Scorchers’ Ashton Turner and former Lancashire captain Liam Livingstone, while West Indies quick Oshane Thomas was bought for INR 1.10 crore.Varun Aaron joined Oshane – and Jofra Archer – to strengthen their pace line-up, while last season’s most expensive Indian Jaydev Unadkat was brought back for INR 8.40 crore – 3.10 crore less than his price tag from last season. With a squad still having some spots available, Royals picked up three youngsters during the third accelerated bidding process. Barring allrounder K Gowtham, however, Royals’ squad has no fingerspinners.Total players: 25
Number of overseas players: 8
Openers: Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Tripathi
Middle-order batsmen: Steven Smith, Aryaman Birla, Manan Vohra
Wicketkeepers: Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Prashant Chopra
Allrounders: Ben Stokes, Stuart Binny, Jofra Archer, K Gowtham, Mahipal Lomror, Riyan Parag, Shashank Singh, Liam Livingstone, Ashton Turner, Shubham Ranjane
Wristspinners: Shreyas Gopal, Midhun S, Ish Sodhi
Fingerspinners: –
Fast bowlers: Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni, Varun Aaron, Oshane Thomas
Royal Challengers BangaloreTwo high-profile purchases in Mumbai allrounder Shivam Dube (INR 5 crore) and West Indies batsman Shimron Hetmyer (INR 4.20 crore) took a large chunk of their purse away. Heinrich Klaasen’s addition solved RCB’s dearth of wicketkeepers after the exit of Brendon McCullum and Quinton de Kock.They failed to buy any Indian bowlers, opting to instead purchase Milind Kumar – the fastest man to 1,000 Ranji Trophy runs this season – and wicketkeeper Akshdeep Nath. But one problem they failed to solve was that of their opening combination. Parthiv Patel aside, they don’t have a senior opening batsman, and that raises a question on Virat Kohli’s batting position in 2019..Total players: 24
Number of overseas players: 8
Openers: Devdutt Padikkal
Middle-order batsmen: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Milind Kumar, Himmat Singh, Shimron Hetmyer
Wicketkeepers: Parthiv Patel, Heinrich Klaasen
Allrounders: Moeen Ali, Colin de Grandhomme, Marcus Stoinis, Prayas Ray Barman, Akshdeep Nath, Gurkeerat Singh, Shivam Dube
Wristspinners: Yuzvendra Chahal
Fingerspinners: Washington Sundar, Pawan Negi
Fast bowlers: Kulwant Khejroliya, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mohammad Siraj, Tim Southee
Sunrisers HyderabadSunrisers Hyderabad were astute in the auction room. Wriddhiman Saha, released last month after being bought for INR 5 crore, was bought back for INR 1.20 crore. Sunrisers also added wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow and opener Martin Guptill to their roster.With David Warner likely to miss the first and last week of the tournament and Shikhar Dhawan traded to Delhi, Bairstow and Guptill could make up for their lack of openers. Having already procured three players in Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar and Shahbaz Nadeem from Delhi in a swap for Dhawan, the Sunrisers kept their shopping list short, but finished with no overseas replacement for the injury-prone Billy Stanlake.Total players: 23
Number of overseas players: 8
Openers: David Warner, Martin Guptill
Middle-order batsmen: Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Ricky Bhui
Wicketkeepers: Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Jonny Bairstow
Allrounders: Shakib Al Hasan, Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Deepak Hooda, Mohammad Nabi
Wristspinners: Rashid Khan
Fingerspinners: Shahbaz Nadeem
Fast Bowlers: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddarth Kaul, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Billy Stanlake

He came up in cricket idolising the West Indian superstar. Last year, he equalled Gayle’s record for fastest T20 fifty. Last week, he made 162 not out in a game

Sidharth Monga27-Feb-2019″Meet Hazrat,” said Rashid Khan to Chris Gayle. “He is a big fan of yours. Back home, they call him Afghanistan’s Gayle.”This was at the Afghanistan Premier League last October. The next day the 20-year-old Hazratullah Zazai smacked six sixes in an over, joining Gayle in sharing the record for the fastest T20 half-century, off 12 balls.Five years ago Hazrat was getting a hang of playing with the cricket ball for the first time. He had been a tape-tennis ball superstar in and around Kabul for a while. He had already won the title of the Afghan Gayle. Big crowds used to gather to watch him bat in ten-over tape-ball matches. The sixes used to be big. Anything overpitched or short used to disappear.Then he had to adjust to the cricket ball. Wear pads for the first time. Guards. Gloves. Helmet. Before he did so, he painted the pads and helmet in the Afghanistan colours. He had decided long ago – “”, during the 2010 World T20, when he saw Afghanistan on the international stage for the first time – that he was going to represent the country.ALSO READ: Hazratullah Zazai 162*, Afghanistan 278 – a record-breaking T20IHe played three or four cricket-ball T20 matches every week, on barren outfields, on cement pitches. He had never seen a coach or an academy or a green outfield until he was selected for the Under-19 side.”At club, we didn’t have any coaches,” Hazrat says. “I just watched TV and videos and learnt and made adjustments. We just wanted to play matches.” He played in the day and worked as a watchman at a mobile service provider’s tower in the night. He made 10,000 Afghanis a month, 300-400 of which went into the pool for each match for his club, Sulha (the name translates to “peace”). There was no money to be made by playing, not even if you won. They played for the love of it.Then one day in 2014, Hazrat played an inter-region T20 club match in Jalalabad, where all the cricket in Afghanistan was concentrated. The home team scored more than 250. Everybody was relaxed. Hazrat, though, scored a century and won not only the match but also the crowd over. The Afghan Gayle was now famous outside Kabul too. His team’s manager, a future Afghanistan Cricket Board chairman, got him off the job so he could focus just on cricket.Which one’s the big hitter? Gayle and Zazai after the match in which the latter made a 12-ball fifty•APLIn Sharjah four years later, Hazrat was on the big stage, hitting the veteran left-arm spinner Abdullah Mazari for six sixes in an over. ESPNcricinfo played him a video of it, which he looked at. “I usually like to take a look at the bowler, but the target was 245, so I had to go after every ball,” Hazrat says. “He is an experienced bowler but I had to try to hit him.”He bowled the first ball flat and full, and that is my area, so I went for it.” The ball sailed over straight midwicket even though both mid-on and midwicket were back.”He slowed the second ball down, but it was just a touch too full and I felt I could go for it.” He cleared his front leg to give himself room to swing, and put it over long-on. Mazari was bowling from round the wicket to deny him that angle into his favoured leg side, but Hazrat had found a way around it.The third ball is fired down the leg side. Wide, beating his attempt to place it past short fine. “I was looking to hit this for four, but it was a wide. So he was unlucky,” Hazrat says with a smile.Unlucky indeed in hindsight. Had Hazrat connected, there would have been no six sixes. When did he start thinking of it? “Not until I had hit five.”The third ball was flat and on a length again, and was a few feet in height from clearing the roof of the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.Mazari now went over the wicket with the same field, but Hazrat went inside-out. His main aim was to clear mid-off, but he connected well enough to send the ball over the rope. Mazari was now running out of ideas. “But he was still looking to get me out instead of trying to give me a single,” Hazrat says. “That is why he went for six sixes.”Zazai (left) painted his first pads and helmet in Afghanistan colours, 2013With the fifth ball Mazari might have tried the single trick, but by now “I was looking to score big off every ball”. This was smeared into the pads, trying to york him, but Hazrat stayed in the crease, collapsed his back knee to let him get under the ball and then let his hulking forearms do the rest without much of a flourish. This one cleared the roof; a new box of balls had to come in. The six also brought up Hazrat’s fifty, but nobody noticed.Mazari tried to now go wide on the other side, but Hazrat had time to let his back foot shuffle towards the ball and then hit it over long-off for the final six. Mazari watched bemused. The players in the balcony were on their feet. Gayle watched on the field. “He later told me I should keep batting the same way, and that my game was good.”The fandom began eight years ago, when Hazrat saw Gayle score 333 in a Test in Galle – he watched all cricket – and he became a fan. “It was amazing that such a quick scorer could play such a long innings in a Test.”In the way of long innings was Hazrat’s fitness. Umesh Patwal, the former Afghanistan batting coach, and also the coach of his team in the APL, says he challenged Hazrat to work on his fitness two years ago. “He had all the shots but he was too big,” Patwal says. “He needed to lose some weight to be able to play longer innings.” Patwal is pleased Hazrat has put in the hard work. He is still big, mind, but he has gone from Inzamam-ul-Haq to Nasir Jamshed.In an official career of a little over two years, Hazrat has played 74 innings. The longest has been 161 balls; only two have gone over 100 balls. He has scored six hundreds: three in first-class cricket, two in T20, and one in 50 balls in a List A match. His highest of course is the 162 not out in a T20 international in Dehradun last week – against Boyd Rankin and George Dockrell – but it’s List A season right now. He has five ODIs against Ireland to seal a World Cup spot. “I will play my natural game,” he says, “but with some respect for the format so I can bat long.””What will you do if you happen to bat long in an ODI?””If I bat 30 overs, I will be close to 200,” Hazrat says.Like many Afghan cricketers of his age, Hazrat has taught himself off the TV and YouTube. He knows how to hit big, but now he has the best of the coaches to teach him how to bat 30 overs. Or more.

South Africa have now won five home Test series in a row, and key to that success has been a reinvigorated pace culture, reignited by coach Ottis Gibson

Liam Brickhill10-Jan-2019Forget elite honesty, all South Africa have needed to make home a fortress is elite fast bowling. Under Ottis Gibson, South Africa have now won five home Test series in a row, and key to that success has been a reinvigorated pace culture: a coach rooted in Barbadian pace traditions has been at the forefront of a South African fast-bowling renaissance.South Africa has always produced great quicks, and the fast men have been their greatest – and sometimes, it seemed, only – asset. Outdoor childhoods, grassy pitches that spur bowlers on, and a natural proclivity for the hard work that bowling quick requires probably have something to do with it. Whatever the case, this is a fast-bowling country with a proud history.Gibson played with and against some of South Africa’s finest as an overseas pro for no less than three South African provincial sides in the 1990s, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Peter Rawson, Allan Donald, Brett Schultz, Fanie de Villiers, Meyrick Pringle and Shaun Pollock. Now he is nurturing the next generation. The success of the current crop, and South Africa’s renewed focus on pace, is no accident.ALSO READ: Life lessons from Donald and Pollock”Since I’ve been here, over the last 12 months, we’ve set up what we call an elite fast-bowling group,” Gibson explained after South Africa’s four-pronged demolition of Pakistan in the second Test at Newlands. “Coming from the Caribbean, I believe that fast bowling is the bedrock. Most of the teams that dominated world cricket have always had strong fast-bowling stocks.”The fast-bowling programme was launched ahead of the 2017-18 season after Gibson held a series of meetings with the leading franchise and high-performance coaches on his arrival in South Africa. The aim was to widen the pool of elite fast bowlers in the country, and it has worked.”We’ve looked at how we can find out what we have with regards to fast bowling, nurture it, and then get it all together under one umbrella so we know what guys are doing,” he said. “We manage workloads. We look at actions, if any actions need tweaking. We have a group of people looking after that, from sports scientists all the way down to trainers and stuff like that. That’s only going to grow and get better. Cricket in South Africa, even in the 90s when I came, has always been built on fast bowling.”That’s what I was raised up on. If you have four fast bowlers of the quality we have here, then it would be silly not to use them. The skill, the fitness levels. The way they kept coming in. And they’re all very different. Duanne [Olivier] is fast and aggressive, Dale Steyn is highly skilled, Vernon Philander is very accurate, and [Kagiso] Rabada does a bit of everything. So there’s a lot of variety in it as well.”Dale Steyn made the opening incision•AFPRabada has blossomed under Gibson, taking 68 wickets at 16.95 and a strike rate of 33.1 in 12 home Tests during his tenure. While he, Steyn, Philander and Olivier are as fearsome a foursome as you will find in current international cricket – and right up there with many that have come before – the list doesn’t end there.Gibson name-checked Anrich Nortje and Lutho Sipamla, two young fast bowlers who made a splash at the Mzansi Super League, and there are more waiting in the wings. Lungi Ngidi will be back in the frame come February, when it is expected that he will be fully recovered from a knee injury, while Dane Paterson and Beuran Hendricks have both enjoyed fruitful first-class seasons, and Junior Dala has no trouble making his presence felt with the white ball. Down the line, Corbin Bosch may follow in his father Tertius’ foot-steps to become a South Africa quick.But before the baton is passed to any of the above, South Africa will enjoy a couple more years with Rabada, Steyn et al tearing in off their runs. With new talent coming through the ranks, Steyn’s role in the side has inevitably changed, particularly as South Africa have often had to make do without him as he battled his way back to full fitness. Neither his captain nor his coach see the fire dimming in his eyes and fittingly Steyn could be the first fast bowler from South Africa, a country that champions cricket’s fastest art, to take 500 Test wickets.”Certainly he’s enjoying his cricket, and he’s back to his absolute best,” said Gibson. “At 35 he’s steaming in and bowling 90mph with a smile on his face. The Dale Steyn angry eyes are back again, and he’s enjoying cricket.”When he broke the record last year, I went to him and said ‘I think your next hundred wickets will come much quicker than your last hundred’. The last hundred, with all the injuries that he’s had, took a long time. I think his next hundred wickets will come a lot quicker, as you can see from how he’s performing on the field.”ALSO READ: When Babar met SteynThe continued presence of the greatest of all South African fast bowlers will breed confidence in rest of the attack, as will home tracks weighted in favour of seam and swing. South Africa will keep winning Tests, and home will remain a fortress. For captain Faf du Plessis, that is enough.”For me, confidence, for any sportsman around the world, is probably the biggest factor,” he said. “Mentally, if you’re doing well, that is the biggest asset to have. Our confidence in our bowling unit is very high, purely because they’re doing well, they’re getting wickets and they’re winning Test matches. A confident bowling attack for me trumps everything.””I think we’re right up there,” added du Plessis. “What we need to do to win Test matches, we’re doing that. For me that’s enough.”

Had Royals had the rub of the green they would have made the playoffs. Super Kings, on the other hand, could have been knocked out at the end of the league phase

ESPNcricinfo Stats team14-May-2019Chennai Super Kings rode their luck to the playoffs and Rajasthan Royals were unlucky not to have made it to the playoffs of IPL 2019, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index. Royals only marginally avoided the wooden spoon this season, but were at the wrong end of a few lucky breaks for the opposition that flipped the results against them. Had these events not occurred, Royals could have notched up a net of two additional wins, which would’ve taken their points tally to 15 – enough to carry them into the playoffs. Super Kings, on the other hand, could have been knocked out of the IPL at the end of the league phase.One defining moment that epitomised the season for Royals and Super Kings came in the match between the two teams in Chennai. With Super Kings already floored at 27 for 3 in the fifth over, MS Dhoni got an early reprieve on zero: a delivery from Jofra Archer rolled back on to his stumps but the bails didn’t fall. Royals had had Chennai Super Kings on the mat by then, and Dhoni’s wicket would’ve reduced Super Kings to 27 for 4. Luck Index estimates that Dhoni’s reprieve cost Royals 15 runs. This cost is arrived at by assuming that Dhoni is dismissed and simulating the rest of Super Kings’ innings. The remaining balls in the innings are allocated to rest of the batsmen, and an estimate of their scores is calculated. Needing 12 to chase down off the last over, Royals ended up losing by eight runs. The result of the match could well have been different had Royals had to chase 161 instead of 176.That game was just one of the several fortuitous instances for Super Kings this season. In another example of how the rub of the green went their way, Shane Watson’s 96 won them a match, having been reprieved against Sunrisers Hyderabad, in Chennai. The home team were chasing 176 and secured the win with just one ball to spare. Luck Index estimates that Super Kings ended up scoring 31 runs more than they would’ve had Watson’s catch been taken.Had things panned out differently, Super Kings would have had two fewer wins to show for their efforts this season than they actually managed. Considering that Sunrisers could’ve ended up with a net of one additional win and already had a much superior NRR, it was quite possible that Super Kings would’ve been eliminated at the end of the league stage on the basis of NRR. The below graphic shows how the points table would’ve looked at the end of the league stage after taking out all the luck events for the teams.Getty ImagesThis is not to say that Super Kings didn’t deserve to be in the finals. Chances are worth as much only when they are made use of. Super Kings’ batsmen top the list in terms of extra runs that were added to the team’s total thanks to those reprieves. Incidentally, these chances came in matches where the additional runs mattered, often in relatively low-scoring games.To illustrate this, let’s look back on the qualifier against Delhi Capitals. Watson got a reprieve in the first over of the chase, with a run-out chance. He went on to score 50 off 32 balls after that. Twenty-four of those runs came in the last nine balls he faced and sustained the momentum Faf du Plessis’ had given to Super Kings’ innings in a do-or-die contest. Luck Index estimates that that Watson innings shaved off 18 runs off Super Kings’ chase, without which it would have been a far tighter affair.Contrast this with Ishant Sharma’s drop of Ajinkya Rahane in the game in Jaipur. Rahane went on to score a century after benefitting from the chance in the fifth over. Luck Index estimated that the chance added 33 runs to Royals’ total. But unlike in Watson’s case, those 33 runs came in a match where both teams scored over 190 runs and the home team’s total in the end was not enough to win them the match.The below table shows the top batsmen whose reprieves were impactful for their teams. The column is an aggregate of the additional runs their teams ended up scoring because these batsmen got reprieved. The third column presents the normalised for result margin and the relative size of the target set up in the match. In the match against Sunrisers, the normalized value for Watson’s Impact Runs of 31 are normalised to 15. This is calculated by dividing the impact runs by margin of win and then adjusting by a factor for the size of the target. This takes both the importance of the runs, to the win margin, and the size of the target into account. In the words, the same would have higher normalized value should it come in a close match in a low-scoring game than if it were to come in a high-scoring match. Evidently, Watson’s reprieves were more useful to Super Kings than those of other batsmen to their respective teams.ESPNcricinfo LtdWatson is not the batsman to have the highest aggregate this season, though. Andre Russell, in fact, leads the list. Russell’s chances benefitted Kolkata Knight Riders by 141 runs. But two of those chances, while adding big runs to Knight Riders’ total, were immaterial when seen in context of the match. In the game in Chennai, Russell got a reprieve that added 42 runs to Knight Riders’ total – the highest any chance has cost this season – but the team could put up a total of only 108 runs even with that chance. The Super Kings to chase down without breaking a sweat.The other big chance came against Royal Challengers Bangalore when he was dropped in the 14th over. Russell clobbered 54 from the next 17 deliveries he faced before getting out on the penultimate ball of the match. Knight Riders, however, managed just 13 out of the 24 required off the last over. Russell’s chance resulted in additional 30 runs to Knight Riders’ total, but those runs were not enough to take them over the line.Overall, some of the other teams were recipient of at least as many chances as Super Kings had, but the ones the losing finalists converted proved more consequential. Super Kings were fortunate enough that their batsmen made use of their luck in crunch situations, as Watson did, again, in the final. But in that game it wasn’t enough to take them over the line.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

An analysis of the opener’s ODI career using the survival curve – which shows you the exact distribution of a player’s scores

Himanish Ganjoo08-Jun-2019Following a shot at captaincy in 2013 (in the IPL), a man who had struggled for over half a decade despite being labelled talented by all and sundry turned a new page. Rohit Sharma had averaged 30 in ODIs since 2007, not quite living up to his billing as a worthy successor to Sachin Tendulkar despite some handy knocks. His shift to opening unleashed a ruthless beast, and he has since then churned out a sense-defying three double-centuries. He averages 63 since after the last World Cup, the highest for an opener with 20 innings or more.Yet, following Rohit’s career can be a frustrating hobby, with his behemoth innings peppered with damp squibs in between. When he doesn’t go big, his manner of dismissal often seems to betray a lack of technique, as he falls to the laterally moving ball; or a lack of game awareness. Without getting into the data, it also seemed like his big innings hid away his numerous failures – scores that were not only low but also wasted precious deliveries in the Powerplay, owing to the way he constructs his ODI innings.ALSO READ: ‘Wouldn’t have been scoring like this if I didn’t take risks’ – Rohit backs his ODI methodIn data like cricket scores, where a few very high figures can inflate averages, the exact “distribution” of scores becomes essential. This is the survival curve, which tells us about the batsman’s chances of passing a given score.The shape of the survival curve tells us about the spread of scores: flatness in one area of the curve means the batsman is less likely to get out in that range of scores. The average condenses all information about a career into one number; the curve splits the details open.Looking at Rohit’s survival curves, his career as an opener is revealed to be a story of two halves, split by the 2017 Champions Trophy.Himanish GanjooBoth curves show a steep fall early in the innings. In fact, between the 2013 and 2017 editions of the Champions Trophy (both included), half of his innings end at or before the measly score of 29, although he averages 55.24. This indicates an inflation of the average by a low number of very high scores. Rohit is a feast-or-famine batsman – after the median, his survival curve flattens out, which signals extreme difficulty in getting him out once he crosses that barrier.ALSO READ: How can India best use Dhoni in the World Cup?After the 2017 Champions Trophy, we see Rohit Sharma 3.0, if you will: more dangerous when he goes big, but also more consistent: his median sees an upward shift of six runs, now at 37, and his average is 65.78. The devil in the detail is that he is now more likely to get out very early: his survival curve dips before the 15-run mark. After that, it flatlines, going much flatter. He still gives teams a window to get him out, but the width of that window has shrunk: attack him before he gets to 15 runs and you have a great chance of seeing his back. After this point, he “settles”, is less likely to get out, and goes big.We can use medians to look at the “skewed-ness” of the distribution of runs made by a batsman. The more the difference between median and mean, the more his numbers are inflated by very high scores. Let’s look at the ten highest-scoring openers since the 2017 Champions Trophy, sorted by median.