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Sachin Tendulkar and The Evolution of ODI Batting

Aman Patel
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Sachin Tendulkar and The Evolution of ODI Batting

Limited overs cricket, A madness that began on May 1st 1963 with a two-day game between Lancashire and Leicestershire in the preliminary round of the Gillette Cup with a 65 over per team at Old Trafford, Manchester and welcomed with a hundred by Lancashire All-rounder Peter Marner, a 121 to take Lancashire to 304/9 off 65 overs. (4.65 runs per over, not bad for the 60s).

8 years later, On 5th January 1971. It turns into a full-fledged international format. Now it only took test cricket 16 matches from 1877 to 1884 to witness a double century (William Ward’s double century for MCC against Norfolk in 1820 notwithstanding), but for the one-day cricket, the wait was much longer. 

It was only on Oct 19th 1974 that Graeme Pollock, the uncle of the legendary South African all-rounder Shaun Pollock, scored 222 for the Eastern Province in a 60-over game against Border, But in the one-day internationals, It was a lot different. 

Roughly 10 years after Pollock’s 222, Sir Viv Richards scored 189(170) against England, running out of overs and falling just 11 short of what would be the first-ever ODI double hundred. His record stood for another 13 years before Saeed Anwar scored 194 off 146 against India in Chennai before falling to Sachin in somewhat of an ironic dismissal.

And just like Richards, it would take another 12 years before Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry equalled Anwar’s record with an unbeaten 194 off 156 against Bangladesh that sadly came in a losing cause.

Now here’s something funny about Sachin Tendulkar. On March 8th 2009, He retired hurt in the 46th over of the innings against New Zealand while batting at 163 off 133, possibly missing out on the first-ever ODI double century, kind of like how he ran out of overs at Hyderabad in 1999 and finished at 186 off 150.

After all the years of trying to scale the mountain of the ODI 200, something that had been achieved 9 times in List A cricket, none of which had come in India unless you remove the gender criteria since Belinda Clark scored 229 at Pune in 1997. 

It finally happened on this very day, 14 years ago at Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior. Being 1-0 up in the series, India batted first and with the small boundaries, Sachin was in pole position to go big and if it had to one person to achieve the unachievable, it was the god of cricket himself. Supported well by Dinesh Karthik, Sachin got to his 50 in just 37 deliveries and his hundred in just 90 deliveries, with 13 boundaries in the effort.

From there, Sachin found good company in Yusuf Pathan and MS Dhoni as he took only 28 more deliveries to get from 100 to 150. While Dhoni blitzed to a 29 ball 50, it created a bit of a conundrum for Sachin, Now by the 4th delivery of the 45th Over, Sachin was already on 196 off 141, having broken the record of a certain Saeed Anwar who he had stopped from scoring from the first ever ODI double hundred back in 1997.

But for the next 3 overs, Sachin would only get 3 runs off 5 deliveries in this phase, getting to 199 off 146 deliveries with just one over to go while Dhoni would go from 18(14) to 53(30) in the same timeframe. In the last over, Dhoni would hit the first ball for a six and follow it with a single where a double was actually available.

On the 3rd ball of the final over, it finally happened. After 2962 ODIs, 442 of which Sachin played, scoring 45 hundreds, he finally managed to convert one in a double hundred, with a single towards point and a dream of a billion fans came true at the hands of the god himself.

It wasn’t just an innings; it was the reaffirmation of the fact that nothing was impossible. Sachin’s double hundred made people believe that they could do it too and who else to follow him up but his apprentice, Virender Sehwag, who got 219 off 149 against West Indies at Indore in 2011.

Since Sachin’s double hundred, List A cricket has seen as many as 33 double centuries being scored in just 14 years, as opposed to just 9 double centuries in the 47 years before.

Rohit Sharma has 3 of them in the internationals while Pathum Nissanka, Shubman Gill, Chris Gayle, Ishan Kishan, Martin Guptill, Fakhar Zaman, Glenn Maxwell and Virender Sehwag have one each. Gayle ironically got his ODI double hundred on the 4th anniversary of Sachin’s double hundred, while Glenn Maxwell’s double century was the only one by a non-opener and scored in the second innings.

Even Ali Brown’s 268 off 160 against Glamorgan that looked impossible to break, even Rohit falling 4 short of it during his 264(173) against SL, was broken by a certain N Jagadeesan who scored 277 off just 141 in a Vijay Hazare Trophy for Tamil Nadu at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

While ODI cricket has become a lot more about batters getting runs than anything else, with more and more rules being initiated to favour the batter, one thing is for sure. Sachin’s knock changed the world in so many ways, making it the sport’s equivalent of landing on the moon in some ways.

Babar Azam Just Loves to Bat

Aman Patel
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Babar Azam Just Loves to Bat

9 years into his international career, Babar Azam has always been in the news for one reason or the other. May it be his prolific run with the bat for God knows how long now or his captaincy and run-ins with the Pakistan cricket board for several reasons.

More recently he got to 10000 T20 runs, becoming the quickest to get to the landmark in just 271 innings, but he has also taken 7764 balls to get there, making him the 2nd slowest of the 13 batters to score 10000 T20 runs.

As I said, positive reason or negative, Babar Azam always makes the news, but that’s not what this one is all about. We all know about his 10066 T20 runs or his 8646 List A runs or his almost 6000 FC runs.

So what is it about? So the other day, I stumbled upon this video on the A Sports YouTube channel where they currently cover the PSL tournament on a daily basis under the moniker of “The Pavillion”, often including questions that were sent to them via Twitter.

Now on this certain episode, they received a question where the panelists were requested to talk about their first impressions of Babar Azam. What is even more interesting is who are the panellists on this show?

Let’s see, they have got Wasim Akram (1984-2003), Misbah-ul-Haq (2001-2017), Mohammad Hafeez (2003-2021) and Azhar Ali (2010-2022). That’s 4 people where at least one of whom has appeared for the Pakistan national team almost every year from 1984 to 2022. That’s 38 years, 5 different decades and at least 4 generations of cricketers.

So what were their views on Babar Azam when they first met him?

Azhar Ali

“Immediately as he arrived, it felt like he belongs here. Some players always worry about their place in the team, but he didn’t. All he wanted to do was to contribute towards the team’s cause. Runs or no runs, it never changed him. Some people might think they’re undroppable once they’ve got a lot of runs and are often rendered pretty lonely due to their buying into their own hype, he (Babar) wasn’t one of them.”

Mohammad Hafeez

“The first time I watched him play was in a club in Lahore and Muddi Pa told me — agle Kai saalan ch sirf Babar ne khelda hona hai” (think we’re gonna see Babar bat a lot in the future) and when Babar finally arrived on the international scene, all I noticed were his (Babar) work ethics. The hunger never dies. The hunger to learn, improve, and strengthen the work ethic keeps getting stronger. Once he is done batting in the nets, he doesn’t fool around, he just starts fielding or bowling. The things that make one a great professional have always been in Babar, his never-ending desire to keep grinding, that’s how he has competed with the top guys in the last few on the international stage

Misbah-ul-Haq

“He just loves his batting. He absolutely hates getting out, anything below a hundred is not an option. Since a very young age, club cricket or international, there’s zero satisfaction even after getting to his hundred. Desire to turn a 50 to a 100 and 100 to a 200. He wants to improve every day. Most importantly, he would always stick to the basics, the discipline always stays the same. Even while practising, something as small as a fault in technique would bother him a lot and he would almost remind himself to correct his mistake the next ball. His desire to improve upon his mistakes is the key to his consistency. He debuted under my leadership in tests and the times were rather difficult, New Zealand tour, Australia tour, but eventually everyone that if he keeps going, he will only get better and he eventually did.”

Wasim Akram

“He is just a nice and happy guy who wants to hard work. I remember first watching him when I was commentating at the Under 19 World Cup 2010 in New Zealand and he was the captain of the Pakistan Under 19 team that made it to the final. Over there he kept getting runs and even bowled some off-spin as well. Ultimately, he was all about working hard and being easy-going”

Now after going through all of these opinions, one might think of their opinions as a bit of a pandering but it is important to remember that each of these four individuals have been involved with the cricket setup in Lahore for decades, Lahore being the city that Babar hails from.

But the huge takeaway would be a sentiment that each of these four individuals keeps echoing, Babar Azam just loves to bat. He has this almost eternally unfulfilled desire to keep batting and batting for as long as possible.

Babar, who has previously said that his favourite Pakistan batter is Javed Miandad, seems to often impersonate the biggest trait of the great man and that is to stay consistent for long periods or time with almost no signs of budging on the horizons.

A rather calm and fun-loving character who is often seen off the field cracking jokes and sharing a laugh or two with his teammate, it won’t be a surprise if almost everyone who met Babar would attest to the words of these four legends.

Runs, no runs, captaincy issues, and questions over his form in a multinational tournament aside, one thing is certain. Babar Azam’s love and passion for batting and, by extension, for the game, is almost unparalleled.

Beyond the Maidans: CK Nayudu’s Epic 153 and India’s Test Saga

Omkar Mankame
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Beyond the Maidans: CK Nayudu’s Epic 153 and India’s Test Saga

The Bombay Gymkhana was buzzing. Thousands of workers and cricket enthusiasts had thronged to the iconic maidan of their masters, which had to raise temporary stands to accommodate these many spectators. The first day was a bittersweet affair for them. They had witnessed the MCC side piling up 363 runs by the end of the day’s play. The highlight was, of course, 130 from Guy Earle, which he smashed in about 90 minutes while launching eight deliveries among the crowd. The Hindus, who had to bat for a while on the opening day, finished at 16/1. At the start of the second day, no one had anticipated what was to come. No one on 1st December 1926 had expected that they were witnessing the birth of a behemoth that would go on to become the most dominating cricket entity of all time.

The Birth of Cricket in Mumbai

The Bombay Gymkhana in Mumbai is, in many ways, the cradle of Indian cricket. It was this metropolitan city that first adopted and adored the British sport. Among the many communities that lay claim to the port city, Parsees were the first who gravitated towards it. Bombay (now Mumbai) was effectively a town living inside a fort in the 19th century. Outside of the fort were lush green patches, the esplanade. The esplanade became the primary playground for cricket and nurtured the game for the British and the natives alike.

The Parsees soon became a cricketing force to reckon with. In 1848, they formed their first club dedicated to the game known as Oriental Cricket Club. Many more such clubs sprang up in the nooks and corners of Mumbai. By 1877, the Parsees had become strong enough to challenge their imperial masters. The Bombay Gymkhana represented the British cricketers, and they faced the Parsees for the first time in the same year.

Parsees set a Precedent

In 1877, the first such encounter, later referred to as the Presidency Match, took place. The Parsees showed their mettle by taking the first-innings lead against Bombay Gymkhana. The match ended in a draw but served as the proof of concept. It was all set to be an annual feature, but after 1878, the sport of Polo became a cause of controversy. The Parsis and Hindus of Bombay became locked in a struggle against the governing Europeans over the use of the playing fields. Gymkhana members would play polo on the field, rendering much of it useless for cricket because of the large divots left by the horses.

Eventually, the British settled the dispute in 1884 by offering a special piece of land, which we now know as Parsee Gymkhana. With a strong native team present, many touring parties from England started trickling in and competing with the teams present. Hindus went on to form their clubs and became a part of the Presidency matches in 1907, which was then termed the Bombay Triangular. The addition of the Muslim team in 1912 saw it being renamed as the Quadrangular. The Rest joined in 1937 to make it the Pentangular. Before the tournament was called off owing to its communal nature in a soon-to-be partitioned India, it was the most popular cricket tournament in the subcontinent.

English Tours come Calling

The growing enthusiasm for the sport saw the Parsees tour England in 1886 and 1888. The Britishers reciprocated this in the coming years with G. F. Vernon’s XI in India in 1889–90 and Lord Hawke’s XI in India in 1892–93. The rapid growth of the native sides contributed to raising the standards of the game. By the end of 1918, first-class cricket was established in India. In such circumstances, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) led by Arthur Gilligan, arrived in India in 1926-27 to play as many as 26 first-class matches. After playing in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Ajmer, they arrived in Bombay to take on the Hindus.

On 30th November 1926, the MCC side won the toss and chose to bat first, as was the norm. Andy Sandham, who scored the first-ever Test triple century three years later, posted 52. Guy Earle’s stormy knock of 130 and another half-century from Maurice Tate ensured MCC posted 363. Shankarrao Godambe was the star for the bowling side with four wickets. Hindus batted and ended the day on 16/1. The next morning, they lost Janardan Navle at the score of 67, and in walked Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu – CK Nayudu.

Nayudu Storm hits Bombay

India’s future test captain sowed the seed of the country’s promotion with his supreme knock. It was a whirlwind innings that captivated the imagination of all those who witnessed it. By the time he walked back to the pavilion, Nayudu had smashed 153 runs in less than two hours of batting. He clonked 11 fours and 13 towering sixes. He targeted Stuart Boyes, a left-arm spinner, in particular. Nayudu started by depositing him on the roof of the pavilion. He then launched him into the tents twice and then sent a delivery soaring over the Gymkhana in the same over. It is said that the umpires joined in applauding this last stroke.

The massacre was over soon as the Hindu team finished just 7 short of the MCC total. However, its impact left an indelible impression on both parties involved. A unanimous decision was made on 10 December 1927 to establish a provisional board of control, leading to the formation of the BCCI in December 1928. R.E. Grant Govan was elected as the inaugural president, while Anthony de Mello assumed the position of secretary.

Stepping into the Test Arena

The golden age began on 25th June 1932 in London as CK Nayudu stepped out for India’s first-ever toss in Test cricket. Mohammad Nissar’s fiery spell reduced the hosts to 19/3, and England felt early jitters. India was not up to the mark in the remainder of the Test and lost by 158 runs. However, the inexperienced lot showed that they were no pushovers.

Our story completed a full circle next year. In 1933, India played their first home test. The opponents were England, and the Test was played at the same venue where Nayudu had played his miraculous knock – Bombay Gymkhana. Captain CK scored 28 in the first innings and followed it up with 67 in the second innings. But the Test belonged to someone else this time. Lala Amarnath scored India’s first-ever century in the second innings, and so emerged a new star. The Indian cricket galaxy would go on to create many superstars in the decades to come, and it all started with that epic 153 from CK Nayudu on one fine day in Mumbai.

Jaiswal and Tom Hardy

Aman Patel
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Jaiswal and Tom Hardy

The 2015 movie “Legend” is the story of the real-life organised crime figures known as the Kray twins. East London gangster brothers named Ronald “Ronnie” Kray and Reginald “Reggie” Kray, both played by the veteran actor, Tom Hardy. Raised by a strong mother, Violet Annie Lee, as per the movie, the twins were two different kinds of monsters. 

Reggie, a socially likeable, suave and street-smart yet ruthless boxer who doesn’t shy away from flaunting his power to get his way. Ronald, a “savagely petulant”, sly and psychotic prisoner who does not believe in mincing his words or take any pride in being socially liked.

When it comes to Yashasvi Jaiswal, his story is no less staggering than the rise of the Kray twins from a humble Haggerston family to the underground crime superpower of London. 4th youngest of the 6 children born to Bhupendra and Kanchan Jaiswal in Suriyawan, Uttar Pradesh, Yashasvi moved to Mumbai at the age of 10 to train at Azad Maidan and found a residence in a dairy shop in exchange for working there only to be evicted due to him often not finding time to work there.

This would lead to Jaiswal living in the tents with the groundsmen for the next 3 years, later being spotted by a Santacruz-based cricket academy owner named Jwala Singh, who would later become Jaiswal’s legal guardian. After 6 years of rising through the ranks in the Mumbai local tournament system later, Jaiswal would make it to the Indian U-19 World Cup team.

Jaiswal, a prospect forged with the shades of the two Haggerston-born lads, may it be his once-in-a-while malignant narcissism (more on that at the bottom) on the field or his sly, sometimes elegant, sometimes ugly yet powerful display of skill on the field regardless of the format across Ranji Trophy, IPL or Vijay Hazare Trophy. He knows his strengths, and he does not shy away from backing it or flaunting it.

Now obviously Jaiswal is no saint socially speaking, let’s go back to an incident from the Ranji Trophy 2022-23, where Jaiswal was sent off the field during a first-class game by his captain Ajinkya Rahane after multiple attempts to subdue Jaiswal while he had several verbal go’s at the opposition batters while fielding. 

Safe to say, temper isn’t been the best attribute of Jaiswal’s conduct, but what is interesting about Jaiswal is his ability to exhibit a wide range of approaches in a game situation, no matter what the format is.

May it be his Duleep Trophy 2022 final knock of 265 off 323 against the South Zone when his team (West Zone) were behind by 57 runs. Full of patience and aggression across the 100+ overs that he was on the crease. hitting 30 boundaries and 4 sixes in the innings, along with long hauls of defending deliveries.

Or his unbelievable 13 ball 50 in the IPL 2023 against Kolkata Knight Riders where he smashed the first over itself for 26, reaching his fifty in the third over of the innings itself and ending the season with 623 runs striking at 163 with 5 fifties and 1 century.

Or his prolific vigils in the Under 19 Asia Cup 2018 and the Under 19 World Cup 2020, where he was the highest run-getter for India in both the tournaments. Jaiswal is a potential legend in the making with his flamboyance, strong yet smart style of batting. Whatever happens to him in the future, it is safe to say that he has already shown so many signs of greatness.

The Rise of a Shah

Aman Patel
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The Rise of a Shah

“Where are you going to pitch it?”

“On the pitch, hopefully” replies Naseem Shah with a chuckle during an Islamabad United training session on a cold February evening.

A Pathan by the lineage but quadra-lingual due to his chosen path, Naseem, who is making a much-awaited return to cricket after being sidelined from cricket in September owing to a troublesome shoulder injury, has always had his way with words in the interviews and sometimes his actions. May it be mimicking his national teammate Azam Khan’s way of walking mid-game or him replying with “kutt badi pendi aa T20 ch” (bowlers get whacked a lot in T20, you know) while chuckling when asked about the possibility of him talking a 5fer in the PSL during an interview with Aftab Tabi. Of the Tabi Leaks.

As he turns 21 today, Naseem already has 98 international wickets in 50 games averaging 28.44 and taking a wicket every 40th delivery. Almost a prodigy of sorts, Naseem can move the ball both ways at some serious pace, being able to clock in at almost 150 kilometres per hour. Something that troubled his fielding cohorts during his teenage days of playing in Lahore U16s.

“No one is taking the catches off my bowling”, asked Naseem to his coach Mr Sulaman Qadir, the son of Legendary Pakistan spinner Abdul Qadir. “That’s because you are bowling a little too fast for them”, replied Sulaman to Naseem, who had moved from his rather remote and humble abode in Lower Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Lahore at a tender age of 13 back in 2016. “I liked watching Shane Bond” said Naseem during his Wisden interview with Aadya Sharma, who also narrated the aforementioned story of him being a little too fast for the poor Under 16s fielders.

And it’s rather easy to see. His physical build, bowling action and bowling style, all have a lot of shades to the legendary Shane Bond. While it is not feasible anymore to clock over 145 clicks each delivery like Bond used to, mainly due to the far bigger workload in the modern cricketing era along with the compromised health and fitness owing to COVID, Naseem is still in essence a spiritual successor to Shane Bond.

With his international career spanning almost 5 years, Naseem has already featured in multiple Asia cups, a T20 World Cup and a few test matches overseas along with a test hat-trick which he got at just the age of 16. He has gained a lot of experience on and off the field, the accolades came along with some heavy personal loss in his mother and many fitness issues owing to a terrible management of his workload.

“Those two sixes caused one of biggest spikes in the sales of our bats” says Uzair Minhas during his interview with Backward Point Podcast, Uzair is the owner of UZ Sports, the brand that sponsors the Naseem Shah’s bat, specifically the one that he used to hit the now unforgettable two sixes against Afghanistan in the last over of the game at Sharjah to take Pakistan to the final of the Asia Cup 2022.

Hunain and Ubaid Shah

But the future is not only bright, it already at such a young age has a sense of a developing legacy. Naseem’s younger brothers Hunain and Ubaid, who were just 12 and 10 when Naseem first moved to Lahore, have now evolved into their own versions of fast bowling giants thanks to the player development program of the PSL franchise Lahore Qalandars.

“His (Naseem’s) selection and rise boosted my confidence, it was him who encouraged me to attend the under 19 trials which led to my selection for Central Punjab” said Hunain during an interview on the PCB YouTube channel. Hunain has already featured in 30 games for Central Punjab and got 46 wickets averaging 29.15 and striking every 36th delivery.

“I was told just to be myself and not try to pull anything unnatural” said Ubaid Shah to BBN Sports after taking 2/49 in the Asia Cup game against India U19 when asked about his discussion with Naseem before the game.

Ubaid has been a revelation for the Pakistan U-19 team throughout the Asia Cup and the World Cup, taking 32 wickets in just 12 games averaging just 15 and striking every 20th with a 5fer that helped take Pakistan to the semifinals of the U19 World Cup 2024 in a low-scoring thriller against Bangladesh.

Conclusion

With PSL 8 almost here, Ubaid turned 18, just 10 days ago while Hunain turned 20 a day before that. All three of the Shah brothers are supposed to be featured in the PSL franchise Islamabad United, which might be a rare modern instance of three brothers playing for the same franchise.

With age, talent and knowledge all on their side, it might be fair to say that the future might belong to the Shah brothers.

Bazball and Captain America

Aman Patel
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Bazball and Captain America

Captain America: The First Avenger is a weird movie, it sees the debut of a superhero that was basically made in the lab. In the pop culture material, this is usually the way a villain is born, but this one is not about Captain America. The movie also saw the debut of a worldwide faction that fascinates me to the day, that faction is Hydra.

The famous quote “cut off a limb, and two more shall take its place” strikes an unprecedented amount of fear in the minds of anyone who hears it, and that naturally includes me. After roughly 20 months of its inception, it is fair to say that the Bazball mentality is as close as it gets to the Hydra when it comes to cricket. They are fearless, they are ruthless and they are not scared to make the sacrifice achievements on the field to push the game towards the conclusion.

Now obviously, Ben Stokes or Brendon Mccullum are not some red skull or Striker kind of figure even if they are figuratively trying to take over the world (of red ball cricket), what’s more interesting is the resemblance of the mentality and how stronger a team looks when there’s a lot of trust shown in the abilities of a player and they are allowed to play without the fear of instant criticism or being dropped (ridiculously low hopes from the English red ball setup in the past few years aside).

Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Ben Duckett have all scored more than 1000 test runs in the last 20 months with Stokes being the slowest with a strike rate of 69.06 and Crawley being the least prolific averaging just 34.35.

Everyone else of the 7 has been averaging at least 46 and striking at least 74, even though Bairstow’s form has deserted him post-injury, he still averages 55 and strikes at 87 thanks to his 5-test streak of madness. This group also boasts of scoring as many as 23 centuries and overall 62 scores of 50 or more in this period.

To go with that, there are as many as 7 bowlers who have got 20 wickets or more with all-rounder Joe Root sitting at 20 wickets off 20 games, while Woakes sits at 19 wickets in 3 games for good measure. With a combined 7 fifers and everyone averaging less than 40, which might sound like a very mediocre bar to set but when you realise that this includes up to the 6th bowling option, it becomes far clearer how much of a team effort it has been.

Two 7-headed dragons with so little dependence on the individual success outside Anderson and Root who themselves house an experience of 320 tests is insane. Get one batter out and the other will attack almost instantly, attack one bowler and the other will strike, the Hydra mentality reflects a lot in the mental makeup of the current English red ball team. A lot of teams are built around working together to build the innings which is fair and sensible but the test allows for a lot of flexibility of approach throughout an innings because of the length of the format, the spread-out fields and the pitch easing out later on, which is not utilised enough by a lot of teams who have their eyes on batting long.

England’s on the other hand, look for “that” one innings or the one spell that picks the team, may it be Ollie Pope’s 196 at Hyderabad or Mark Wood’s rather simplistic 24(8) at Leeds. It is more about knowing what can shift the momentum than trying to dig down in a long-game gamble.

Just like the Hydra, England’s confidence in their resources and their chances of succeeding in a given situation is staggering and possibly something that often gets in the opposition’s mind pre-game. Many people across the game might pitch it as a smoke screen or simply something that might get exposed in certain conditions is equally fair but as pointed out previously, test cricket allows for a lot of flexibility in terms of approach which is rarely exploited by the teams and England have tapped well into it.

At the time of writing this, England play India at Vizag with the score for India standing at a rather underwhelming 336/6 on a pretty flat pitch thanks to some great bowling and some very irresponsible batting from the Indian batters despite the frontline English spinners having a combined experience of 2 tests.

With them having won in Pakistan, drawn 1-1 in NZ and standing at 1-0 in India, the future for England’s test cricket is fascinating, to say the least. Will it continue or will it fall apart at a certain, it remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain, these are going to be some exciting times for test cricket.

The Rise and Fall of India’s Test Batting Cartel

Aman Patel
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The Rise and Fall of India’s Test Batting Cartel

28th Jan 2024, England turned out a deficit of 190 runs into a historic victory against India at Hyderabad thanks to an all-time great 196 from Ollie Pope and 7/62 from Tom Hartley.

While India’s bowling was nothing to write home about, India had laid down the signs of decline with Jaiswal, Rahul and Jadeja all struggling to get past the 80s, leaving the great day 3 batting surface for the English team to capitalise on.

For one thing, Indian batters have only touched the 3-digit mark in the home test only 4 times in the last 2 years (or 7 games). So what happened to the Indian batting juggernaut that once boasted of red ball behemoths like Kohli, Pujara, Vijay and Rahane?

For that, let’s first go far back to when Virat Kohli first took over the test captaincy and the new cycle began in 2015. Around the time, the team had a core that was all mid-20s to late 20s folks, with M Vijay being 31.

A squad in the 20s meant a lot of batters in the team would often dig down for the long hauls with the highest scores of 254 (Kohli), 199 (Rahul), 303 (Nair) or Pujara having a 525 ball vigil against Australia at Ranchi in 2017, a knock that would be the longest by an Indian, beating possibly his idol Rahul Dravid’s 495 ball effort at Rawalpindi in 2004 against Pakistan.

What would also be a regular staple in the team’s batting effort was their ability to just grind the opposition down across 100s of overs in the Indian heat often led by the said marathon named Cheteshwar.

Roughly 9 years later, the team is mainly comprised up of folks in their 30s. Of the 11 to take the field against England, only Jaiswal and Gill are the ones who are not in their 30s while Siraj and Iyer are set to turn 30 this year.

Add to that the fact that the schedule is much more crammed in 2024 than it was in 2015 along with the wear & tear on the field, and the after-effects of COVID off the field and you have got a team filled with a lot of injury prone and out of touch players. But honestly speaking, India is not the only team with an ageing squad. So are England and Australia. So what else?

Well for starters, once England beat India at Chennai in 2021, India decided to fall back on raging turners which meant the huge scores that India used to put regularly put up were no longer to be seen regularly even if in the middle of it, there were some decent pitches against New Zealand and Sri Lanka where India would go on to get the scores in and around 320-550.

But here is the bigger picture of the Indian batting in the post covid era:

  • It has been 4 years and 2 months or 36 tests since an Indian batter last got a test double hundred, which was 243 by Mayank Agarwal against Bangladesh in Indore.
  • During these 36 games in the 2020s, India has only seen 23 hundreds being scored as opposed to 52 hundreds in 36 games prior to that double ton.
  • This set of 36 games (2016-2019) also saw 10 of those 52 hundreds being converted to double hundreds, including 1 triple hundred.
  • Between 2015-2019, India had 74 100s being scored across 85 innings in 53 tests(2 washouts), while in the 2020s, Indian batters have only been able to get 22 100s across 35 tests.
  • Between 2015-2019, there were 13 instances of Indian batters playing 300+ deliveries in an innings, but in the 2020s there have only been 2 such instances.
  • Between 2015-2019, India had over 10 instances of the team batting more than 150 overs in an innings, down to just 1 in the 2020s.
  • Between 2015-2019, India had as many as 6 batters scoring 1000 or more runs in tests averaging 40+ which has fallen to just 2(Pant and Sharma) in the 2020s.
  • Between 2015-2019, India had as many as 5 batters (Kohli, Pujara, Rahane, Vijay and Dhawan) scoring 5 or more tons in the given period, a number which is yet to be achieved in the 2020s. The current most test tons in the 2020s for India is 4 by Rohit Sharma.

Statistically speaking, 2020-2024 has been a nightmare for India’s test batting. From the embarrassment of 36 all-out to the 0/6 collapse in Capetown and 78 all-out at Headingley. With big names like Gill, Kohli, Pujara, Rahane, Iyer, and Agarwal all averaging between 25 and 37.

As the 2nd test against the English juggernaut arrives, India has tried to influx the team with some young blood in Washington Sundar, Sarfaraz Khan, Sourabh Kumar and Rajat Patidar all of whom had a role to play in the ongoing India A team series against the England Lions where Sarfaraz scored a run-a-ball 160 while Sundar and Sourabh scored 57 and 77 respectively with Sourabh also getting 5fer with the ball in the 2nd innings as India A won the game by an innings and 16 runs.

With all this promising talent around the squad and more promising talent in guys like Shams Mulani, Devdutt Padikkal, N Jagadeesan and several others waiting in the wings, the hopes of a batting resurgence are high despite the current big names of the Indian test cricket in Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara possibly having seen their last days in Indian whites, Jadeja & Rahul being the subject of the medical team’s assessment every now and then along with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma not hitting their straps like they used to in their heydays.

But what will actually happen in this era of T20 fatigue, unexpected injuries and post-COVID impact is still tough to predict.

Ashwin and The Great English Lafda

Aman Patel
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Ashwin and The Great English Lafda

Lafda – A term used by the natives of central and West Central India to describe a petty squab which often has funny or somewhat funny implications.

The fact that Ravichandran Ashwin is not really good at mincing his words is no secret unless you legitimately live under a rock. From never backing down to mankad a batter who is repeatedly getting out of the creasing or getting into a war of words with opposition players (read Tim Paine) or having funky celebrations after dismissing certain batters. Ashwin is not the kind of guy to back down from a fair fight may it be on the field or off the field or even verbally.

Now we are well aware of the war of words between Tim Paine and Ravi Ashwin on the last day of the 3rd test at SCG, Sydney when Ashwin along with Vihari was trying to save the test match for India when the sentences “Can’t wait to get you to the Gabba” from Paine were met with “Can’t wait to get you to India, that’d be your last series” from Ashwin in an equally fierce reply.

But honestly speaking, Paine is one of the rather less fun lafdas that Ashwin has been in. As far as the war of words goes, Ashwin seems to have an extra liking for the England cricket team. Interestingly, Ashwin had pretty bad early matches against England with India getting beaten 1-2 at home in 2012, followed by a 1-3 beating in England in 2014 where another Indian spinner, Ravi Jadeja, would get into a rather ugly squabble with James Anderson.

But the English run-ins for Ashwin would begin in late 2016, when England would tour India for an all-format series. At the end of the 4th day of the 4th test at Mumbai, James Anderson would be asked to comment about Virat Kohli’s evolution from a failed tour against England in 2014 to his prolific run at home in 2016 only to be met with somewhat of a bitter reply from Anderson where he’d argue that the Indian pitches hid Kohli’s technical deficiencies (didn’t that one age badly).

The next morning, when England was 9 down, Anderson would walk into bat only to be met with Ashwin accompanying him to the crease while serenading him with the good old “You shouldn’t have said that, James” which in hindsight I think is a little creepy to say to a guy who is touring your country but hey, worse things have been said on the field. Safe to say that this was just the beginning of the English run-ins for Ashwin.

Just over two years after the Ashwin-Anderson confrontation, Ashwin would happen to bowl to a certain Jos Buttler (who is ironically James Anderson’s teammate at the Lancashire county) during the game between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. At the 12.5 over mark, when Rajasthan was at 108/1 chasing 180 to win. Ashwin, who had previously warned Buttler about getting out of his crease, would Mankad Jos Buttler as he was batting on 69 off 43 deliveries, leaving Buttler along with several international players irate and creating possibly one of the most iconic cricketing moment in the recent history as Buttler walked begrudgingly off the field.

The battle thought would take a turn to a more hilarious turn when James Anderson, a week after the incident, would be seen shredding a picture of R Ashwin. Not that a 37-year-old printing a picture of another grown man isn’t creepy as well as hilarious with supervillainous overtones.

Ashwin on the other end would continue his run-ins with the English players as late as 2022 when Deepti Sharma would mankad Charlie Dean at Lord’s, sparking a huge online debate where James Anderson and Stuart Broad would weigh in on the dismissal along with Sam Billings (for some reason) who seemed to think that Mankad dismissals are counted as wickets for bowlers (funny how a professional cricketer doesn’t know the rules of his profession).

Billings would again be met with a relatively angry yet sarcastic reply from Ashwin, where he would propose the idea to further incentivise the Mankad dismissals, and somehow earn the favour of Alex Hales (again, for some reason).

Not that weird press conferences, confrontations, tweet wars and shredded pictures weren’t enough comedy. We would ring into the 2nd day of the 2nd test between India and England at Vizag with a weird halt when Jimmy Anderson would stop mid-action due to Ashwin, who was already standing closer to the stumps on the non-striker’s, flexing his right hand a bit, seemingly distracting Anderson and met with Harsha Bhogle comments on the comms “If Anderson doesn’t like it, Ashwin will definitely do it”. Anderson would soon get Ashwin out, but that would not get rid of Ashwin’s antics.

On the 4th day of the test, as England stood at 194/5, Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Jonny Bairstow leg before and Ashwin being his usual self, celebrated the wicket by doing a double fist pump right in front of Jonny to a rather confused yet angry reaction from Bairstow.

Fair to say that Ashwin’s antics bring an entertaining yet somewhat enlightening twist to the game with his tendency to defy the norms about certain dismissals and traditions that are rather sacred to the English cricketers but I would be lying I didn’t say that as long as Ashwin plays cricket, entertainment would never be off the table.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar: The Aussie Amongst Indians

Aman Patel
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Bhuvneshwar Kumar: The Aussie Amongst Indians

Since the dawn of cricket in the 1870s, Australia has more or less been a force to be reckoned with, regardless of the format. From Don Bradman to Pat Cummins, the Australian state of New South Wales itself has provided cricket with some of its biggest and most celebrated names, only further adding to the list are the big names of Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland.

The reason for their success? A mantra of prioritising a mindset over any skillset and instilling a belief in their youngsters that they can get the job done for the team regardless of the circumstances, pitch conditions, or weather. Now this is not to say that Australian players are not supremely talented, something that goes without saying.

India, on the other hand, has been the land of traditional talent and application style of game, where experience and performance are the key. From the days of Lala Amarnath to the current day lads like Ruturaj Gaikwad, the Indian talent has always had the knack of following traditional methods while then evolving into the other more modern routes of play.

But the tradition has seen a sharp decline recently with names like Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav or Rishabh Pant, all of whom are non-traditional in so many ways, may it be the mindset (Kohli and Pant) or the style of their batting (Rishabh and SKY). The funny thing is, one name that often doesn’t come up in these conversations, possibly due to his subdued nature and plethora of injuries, is a certain Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Now obviously putting Bhuvneshwar’s name alongside the other names here might confuse or even infuriate a lot of people but it is via his performance and nothing but his performance that he has proven time and time again how his ability to swing the ball both ways might be great but his ability to change the course of the game, however he can is also equally unprecedented.

Let’s go back to February 2013, Australia vs India, 1st test at Chennai, Australia scored 380 in the first innings, Bhuvneshwar on his test debut, would walk in to bat at #10, with Dhoni at 121(144) on the other end and India being just 26 runs ahead on a deck where 7 Indian batters had been dismissed being bowled by then. 

Bhuvneshwar would go on to score 38(97), the highest by a #10 debutant for India, and add 140 runs for the 9th wicket with MS Dhoni to take the lead to 192, leading to India winning the game by 8 wickets. His bowling is a matter talked about way too often, may it be his 4/8 vs SL 2013 or his other 4/8 by SL 2017 (in the fading day 5 light might I add) or his 6fer at Lord’s 2014 to name a few but the 6fer at Lord’s wasn’t his only contribution in the Indian win.

With Rahane batting at 28, Bhuvneshwar stepped onto the field to bat when India found themselves at 145/7 while batting first. Bhuvneshwar would go on to get 36(84) in a 90-run stand for the 8th wicket with Rahane against the bowling attack of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Liam Plunkett and Ben Stokes. India would ultimately end with 295 and Bhuvneshwar would follow it up with the aforementioned 6fer to restrict England to 319.

In the 2nd innings, Bhuvneshwar would again walk into bat in a precarious situation, India was 220/7 with a lead of 196 on day 4 with Ravindra Jadeja on the other end. Bhuvneshwar and Jadeja would go on to add 99 runs off just 100 deliveries to take India’s lead past 300 with Bhuvneshwar getting to his third test 50 in the last 4 innings ending up with 52 off 74. India would win the game by 95 runs thanks to a 7fer from Ishant Sharma and the spotlight would move rather away from the Player of the Match worthy performance (88 runs and the 6 wickets) that Bhuvneshwar had put in while batting in tough situations multiple times.

Despite his battle with the injuries and early lack of pace, Bhuvneshwar has had the X-factor that makes him probably the most valued test asset India has had in a long time, as he again showed in South Africa in 2018. To state the obvious, Bhuvneshwar would dismiss Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram and Hashim Amla within his first 15 deliveries of the game, which is just another of his usual elite spells.

But South Africa still ended up with 286 in the first innings and had India at 93/7 when Bhuvneshwar walked into bat. Just like he did at Lord’s 2014, Bhuvneshwar would have his long vigil at the crease, this time alongside Hardik Pandya in a 99-run stand for the 8th wicket, actually playing almost 60% of the deliveries in the partnership against the scary quartet of Rabada, Morkel, Philander and Steyn, scoring 25 off 86 to take India to a respectable 209, even though India would go on to lose the game, Bhuvneshwar’s spirit in the batting was undying and appreciable to say the least.

He would prove his mettle in the 3rd test at Johannesburg, yet again walking into bat at a tricky 144/7 with no one but Shami, Ishant and Bumrah in tow. Bhuvneshwar would go on to add another 43 runs with the tail, contributing 30 off 49 to take India to a respectable 187. A day later he would bowl the now unforgettable delivery to AB de Villiers that would start outside the off stump only to smash the middle and leg stump, beating de Villiers on the drive.

In the 2nd innings when the pitch had turned treacherous with Vijay, Kohli and Rahane all getting hit on the body due to the uneven bounce of the deck. Bhuvneshwar would once again walk into bat in a tricky situation with India at 148/6 and the lead at just 141 but alongside Rahane, He would go on to add a priceless 55 runs for the 7th wicket and then another 35 with Mohammad Shami for the 8th wicket.

His 76-ball 33 would be the 3rd highest for the team behind Kohli and Rahane, and India would go on to set a target of 240, ultimately winning the game by 63 runs, the same number of runs that Bhuvneshwar had scored in this game along with his 4 wickets, that would win him the well-deserved player of the match award.

Ultimately, there are a lot of performances that would make Bhuvneshwar Kumar the talking point in several discussions and these are just a few. His 45-run stand with Jadeja in the 2018 Asia Cup final, or his 65-run stand with Virat Kohli in Cape Town in 2018, just to name a couple. 

But safe to say, when it comes to playing for India, it has rarely been all about skills or strengths for Bhuvneshwar, but more about staying your ground whether walking into bat at 400/8 or 100/7, whether it is the pace and bounce of the Rabada and Morkel or it is the swing and accuracy of the Anderson and Broad, Kumar has tackled them all in a career that tells the tale of fight, the fight that we often relate with the Aussies. 

Turning 34 today, we don’t know if we will ever see him back in the Indian colours but what one can attest to with certainty is the fact that a match-winner like Bhuvneshwar is very rare to be found and often goes under-appreciated going by the crowd opinion of him.

SA vs IND: Match Preview and Dream11 Team for 1st Test of IND Tour of SA 2023

Arjun
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SA vs IND: Match Preview and Dream11 Team for 1st Test of IND Tour of SA 2023

Test cricket is about 147 years old & Test cricket in South Africa is about 135 years old. In this large period of history, only 3 teams have ever defeated South Africa in South Africa. The first two were England and Australia, the founders of test cricket, while Sri Lanka miraculously became the only Asian side to ever do it.

Indian test team have come close to achieving this feat on 3 different occasions. First, in 2010/11, when the series was levelled at 1 each and India had South Africa crumbling at 130/6 in 2nd innings after taking a 2-run lead in first. The odds were in India’s favour before Jacques Kallis took things into his own hands and scored a match, saving 109* taking the total to 341, giving India a tough target of 340 to chase in less than a day.

Then Kohli’s side in 2018 showed some real courage when they lost the series 2-1 but were very close to winning in the first test. If not for De Villiers’ counter-attacking 65 and 102 runs added by South Africa’s bottom 5, India might have tasted success for the first time on African soil.

Then the third time in 2021/22, India was actually leading the series 1-0 before the trio of captain Elgar, Bavuma and player of the series Keegan Petersen performed a masterclass with bat to chase down critical totals in the last 2 tests denying India for 8th time.

It’s the 2023/24 summer and things are no different. Both India & South Africa possess a threatening pace attack, coupled with some fresh faces in the batting lineup. The Indian team will surely miss the services of in-form Mohammad Shami, but they still have the potential and hunger to finally end the streak and achieve a victory in the only country they’ve never won before.

South Africa

South Africa holds a very realistic chance of qualifying for the World Test Championship Final 2025.

They’re supposed to play India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka at home while they’ll be touring New Zealand, Bangladesh & West Indies for away tours. All these series comprise only 2 test matches each, which means in total South Africa will be playing 12 tests. Given the trends of the previous two WTCs, they’ll be required to win at least 8 or 9 of these test matches. South Africa will surely not like to lose any of the home fixtures to maintain their chances, hence this series against India which will mark the start of their campaign is very significant.

The good news for South Africa is that Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi have been declared fit to play for the Centurion test. South Africa can likely go for an out-and-out pace attack consisting of 4 fast bowlers and all-rounder Marco Jansen.

South African veteran Dean Elgar will be playing his last test series as he is set to retire from international cricket. The gritty left-handed opener who captained Proteas in 17 tests will want to end his career on a high.

Probable playing XI: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Keegan Petersen, Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham (wk), Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi.

India

Out of 23 tests India has played in this country, they’ve won only 4. Aiming for their first-ever test series win in South Africa, India will need to be picture-perfect. The bowling attack of Siraj, Krishna, and Bumrah looks promising, but they’ll surely miss Mohammad Shami, who picked up 14 Wickets in 6 innings with an average of 21, the last time they played in South Africa.

The concern for India lies in their batting, out of their likely top 6 only 3 have played in South Africa before. Gill, Jaiswal & Iyer will be playing their first test series in Africa. Even out of the other 3, only Virat Kohli holds a good record in South Africa with an average of 51, including 2 test 100s.

The previous 2 test series which India played here were primarily decided by the performance of batsmen of both teams. South African batters were at times able to outshine the Indians, but if this time the likes of Iyer, Jaiswal & Gill do their part, then India will surely taste victory on South African shores for the first time in their history.

Probable playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.

Venue & Expectations

The first test which is also the Boxing Day test for this year will be played in Centurion & is expected to be interrupted by rain on the first 2 days.

The previous two test matches held here saw spinners bowling a total of 23 & 40 overs in each test. The first innings are usually high-scoring, but bowlers become more dominant as the test moves on. With rain expected & overcast conditions, things might become difficult for batters from the first bowl itself. Still, winning the toss and batting first will be an obvious choice of both captains as it usually is for most test matches in today’s era.

Dream11 Team for SA vs IND 1st Test 2023

Note: This is not our final Dream11 Team as we are not aware of the Toss Result/Final Playing XI of both teams at this moment.

To remain updated and get our final Dream11 Team, Join our Telegram channel Clan For Gamers

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