West Indies’ pace attack destroyed them at home and though conditions in the subcontinent will be different, Bangladesh need to sort out this weakness to have any chance of winning

Mohammad Isam21-Nov-2018Driving, poking and nibbling at deliveries pitched outside off stump cost Bangladesh a wicket every 18 balls against West Indies’ fast bowlers in the two-Test series in July this year. It was a new low, resulting in the worst Test series for batting any side in more than 63 years. Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel, two-thirds of the West Indies attack that tormented Bangladesh during that series, will lead the attack again when the return series starts in Chittagong on Thursday.

Pace bowlers’ deliveries pitched outside offstump

v Zimbabwe, Nov 2018 – 471 balls, 8 dismissals, 2 while defending
v West Indies, July 2018 – 539 balls, 30 dismissals, 15 while defending
v South Africa, Sep-Oct 2017 – 342 balls, 9 dismissals, 3 while defending
v Australia, Aug-Sep 2017 – 216 balls, 5 dismissals, 3 while defending
v India, Feb 2017 – 249 balls, 5 dismissals, 4 while defending
v New Zealand, Jan 2017 – 805 balls, 13 dismissals, 3 while defending
v England, Oct 2016 – 308 balls, 9 dismissals, 7 while defending

Bangladesh’s only respite is the absence of captain Jason Holder, who has had a stellar 2018. It is likely that despite the subcontinent conditions, West Indies will still fancy a three-man pace attack with either of Keemo Paul, Shermon Lewis or Raymon Reifer likely to partner Roach and Gabriel. So it is imperative that Bangladesh solve their problems outside the off stump.It troubled them even during the Zimbabwe series earlier this month. Kyle Jarvis and Tendai Chatara opened up the top order in the first innings in Sylhet before the spinners took advantage in the second to set up a famous win. They had success in Dhaka too before big partnerships in the middle-order got the hosts out of danger.But nothing compared to that West Indies tour four months ago. And while on many occasions Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes had described the Antigua Test – where they were bowled out for 43 – as an exception, its roots are in Bangladesh’s rise as a one-day force.For a long time, fast bowlers employed short balls to attack Bangladesh batsmen in all conditions. While their technique on the back foot has improved by leaps and bounds, their appetite for scoring runs quickly has made them vulnerable, tempting them to drive away from the body and eventually nicking off.

Batsmen against pace bowling pitched outside offstump in 2018

Liton Das: 29 runs in 81 balls, 4 dismissals
Mushfiqur Rahim: 96 runs in 187 balls, 8 dismissals
Tamim Iqbal: 41 runs 81 balls, 4 dismissals
Imrul Kayes: 33 runs in 75 balls, 0 dismissals
Mahmudullah 66 runs in 130 balls, 4 dismissals
Mominul Haque 34 runs in 115 balls, 3 dismissals
Shakib Al Hasan 56 runs in 58 balls, 4 dismissals
Nurul Hasan: 35 runs in 57 balls, 4 dismissals
Ariful Haque 12 runs in 40 balls, 2 dismissals
Nazmul Hossain Shanto: 1 run in 3 balls, 1 dismissal
Mohammad Mithun: 14 runs in 38 balls, 0 dismissals

A deeper look reveals a pattern of indecision even when trying to defend deliveries pitched outside off stump. In the West Indies series, batsmen were dismissed 15 out of 30 times trying to defend such deliveries. Against India in February last year, out of the five batsmen dismissed by deliveries pitched outside the off stump, four got out trying to defend. It was three out of five against Australia at home last year, and seven out of nine against England in 2016.Perhaps they’re worried about those balls coming in to threaten their pads and their stumps. Perhaps that’s why they’re unwilling to leave as many deliveries as they should. But all they need to do is look at the way Mushfiqur Rahim batted when he made the Bangladesh’s highest score. He was past a hundred, but since it was the start of a new day, he knew there might be changes to the pitch and that Zimbabwe’s bowlers would be fresher. He understood he needed to start all over again and so, in the effort to get set again, he left as many balls as he could, even though it meant he’d be scoring very very slowly. That extra effort is vital for a top-order batsman to succeed at this level. And not putting it in is costing Bangladesh.After the Sylhet loss, coach Rhodes and later stand-in captain Mahmudullah acknowledged that discipline in batting was becoming a major issue.Even Mushfiqur, in the long run, has been susceptible to good length balls outside the off stump, losing his wicket eight times to this line of attack in 2018. Oppositions know he is Bangladesh’s best batsman and so they up their game every time they face him. Additionally, he’s had to shift his positions between No. 4 and No. 6, which means that he ends up batting with the lower order and would be forced to take a few risks to get important runs.Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah and Liton Das have all been out four times to balls in the off-stump corridor this year. Mominul Haque had it particularly rough in the West Indies, getting out thrice like that on that tour alone. However, against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe on either side of that tour, he has come away unscathed by deliveries along that line.Despite the lack of pace and bounce in Chittagong and Dhaka, West Indies’ fast bowlers are unlikely to give Bangladesh any respite. But with the confidence of their come-from-behind victory against Zimbabwe, they should have a little more confidence in their batting unit and that really can make all the difference.

The seamer looks back at his epic stand with Kusal Perera, his bowling, and his sudden call-up to Sri Lanka’s Test side

Interview by Andrew Fidel Fernando18-Feb-2019You were in Sri Lanka playing domestic cricket, and there were five seamers with the Sri Lanka squad. They suddenly started getting injured and you got a call-up to Australia. Was it unexpected?I didn’t think I’d have a comeback into the national team this quickly, to be honest. I had had a lot of injuries, and I was playing the domestic season. I was training hard. I only came for the second Test in Australia, and I wasn’t thinking of any further tours. I was able to get a few wickets there. So, I’m happy to even be here in South Africa.You’d been bowling an average of less than six overs an innings in domestic first-class this season. Were you worried you’d pick up an injury with the Test workload in Australia?I was a bit nervous before the game, just because I hadn’t bowled much. But then when the match started, that fear disappeared. All I was thinking was: how do I get the ball off the captain and into my hands? There are reasons why fast bowlers don’t get to bowl much in Sri Lankan first-class cricket, but on Australian pitches, I knew I’d have to bowl a lot.What did you learn from that Test that helped you in South Africa?Playing a Test for the first time in one-and-a-half years gave me a lot of confidence. I got a couple of wickets with the new ball as well. So, I was feeling good. But it was also important to realise how to bowl after 15-20 overs have gone. I didn’t do well with the older ball there, so that was the biggest lesson. Once the shine goes, you’ve got to bowl really tight to keep Test batsmen quiet. Our line and length wasn’t great in Australia.You got four wickets in the first innings at Kingsmead. What did you do right?I’d known that South Africa pitches helped quicks. I hadn’t come here even on a Sri Lanka A tour, but we did watch videos of previous Durban Tests. I had belief that I could do something with the new ball. In the first over itself, I knew that it was helping me out. They had some of the best batsmen in the world in their top order, so it’s a big thing that I was able to get them out. I got the wicket of Dean Elgar in the first over itself, and I think that confidence carried me right through the Test. Then Hashim Amla should have been out in the same over, but the umpires didn’t allow our review.Having been the most successful bowler in the first innings, you must have gone into the second innings with a lot of belief?I did. But because we were almost 50 runs behind after the first innings, we had to both take wickets, and cut down the runs. Thankfully we were able to do that.When South Africa were almost 300 runs ahead with five wickets in hand, it looked like they were well in control. But then you and Lasith Ambuldeniya managed to shake things up, and get Sri Lanka back in the game. What were you thinking when you came in for that spell?I’d leaked a few runs in the first couple of overs I’d bowled that day. There was a ball that went through the slips as well. When I came back in the afternoon, I thought that would be my final effort. If they were going to get 350 or 400 runs ahead, we knew we were dead. I didn’t know if it would be my last spell in the game. I was able to bowl really well there. I do come around the wicket to the right-hander with the old ball. I’d been practicing that in the nets, and it worked in the match.Vishwa Fernando traps Faf du Plessis lbw•AFPSo you’d taken eight wickets in the match, and once their innings was over. Did you think your job for the game was complete?I was pretty happy with my eight wickets, but there was also a feeling that I shouldn’t have given away so many runs (his match figures were 8 for 133), and should have done a little bit more. But in the end I’m happy with the performance because we did end up winning.You’re in the dressing room now, and you’re watching the tailenders get out quickly, one after another. What’s going through your mindI didn’t have my pads on when Dhananjaya [de Silva] and Kusal [Perera] were batting. When they were batting together, I had a lot of hope we could win. Their quicks had stopped bowling, and South Africa had gone to spin. But then Dhananjaya got out, and Suranga Lakmal went out and got out first ball, unfortunately, and I had to start putting my pads on. I was pretty sad, to be honest. I felt like we had too many runs to get, and too few wickets. They had a 75-80% chance to win. But then I got to the middle, I felt differently. I told Kusal straight away that I wasn’t going to give away my wicket.Kusal said you’d told him you’d hit the ball with your body if nothing else. Did you say that?(Laughs) Yes I did. My job was to protect my wicket, not to score runs. So I told Kusal you score the runs. Let’s get 10 runs closer, and another 10 runs closer, and take it from there.South Africa weren’t that interested in getting Kusal’s wicket, and they were really targeting you. Were you afraid?I wasn’t afraid. Well, I wasn’t afraid that I would get hit, at least. I was afraid that I would lose my wicket. Kusal can’t play the whole over. I had to bat one or two balls at least. There was a lot of pressure. The fast bowlers were having a go at me, and the close fielders were having a go at me. I did say a few things back.Sometimes when a bowler bowls, he’ll come and give you a stare. I’ve done that plenty of times to batsmen, and they’ve looked away. I didn’t want to give the South Africa bowlers that satisfaction. I stared at them back. I didn’t want to show that I was afraid. I wanted them to know I wouldn’t throw away my wicket.Do you usually have a good technique against fast bowling?(Laughs) I’m not going to even talk about technique! I can hang on to my wicket. I don’t have very good technique, but I can hit a ball with my bat.You ducked a lot of balls. Is that something you do well?I do it a lot at club level. But there were about two times in domestic cricket when I was in the same situation and had to play a lot of balls, but I wasn’t able to do it on those occasions. This is the first time I was able to do it. This was the fastest bowling unit that I’d faced. And they swung it a lot as well.Were they reversing the old ball?Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada were reversing the old ball a bit. Duanne Olivier was trying to bounce me out. I played a couple of overs of Keshav Maharaj as well, and that was a different challenge. He was the guy who’d just taken a lot of wickets.Early on in your innings, did you think there was a chance of victory?My first goal was to hang on until Kusal got his hundred, because he was on about 80 when I walked in. But even after he got there, we still had another 50-odd to get. So we just broke it down, and said let’s take it 10 runs at a time. We’ve got all the time in the world. I told him I’d somehow play the two or three balls an over I had to face.When did you feel you could actually win it?Kusal is someone who can hit 15-20 runs in one over if he has to, so we were trying to slowly get it down to roughly that amount. So when it got down that low, that’s when I really started thinking that we can’t get it to this stage and end up with a loss. But then it was around then that South Africa took the second new ball. Still, I thought: I’m not going to give away my wicket.Was there more pressure when a win actually became possible?There was crazy pressure. I can’t put that into words. I’m a bowler, not a batsman, so I was massively worried. But I was intent that I wasn’t going to throw it away. If I’d played a dumb shot, or backed away from the wicket and got out, then that would have been wrong. But if I got out defending, and they nicked me off or something, I could live with myself. Once they took the second new ball, Kusal and I didn’t even talk about it, because there’s nothing to do. Though I think that although he was earlier happy to let me bat two balls in an over, he tried to give me only one ball.Vishwa Fernando in action•AFPThere was one over when Rabada bowled two bouncers to Kusal to finish an over, and he ducked both balls. It seems like he did actually trust you a bit?Kusal did trust me from the start. Aftar that Rabada over, Steyn bowled a few balls at me and luckily I was able to get a run away in the middle of the over. I edged it and it fell short of the slips. I saw Kusal running at me, and I ran to the other end as well.You had to dive once to make your crease as well…Yeah, we had to get two runs off that shot for Kusal to keep the strike, but we decided late that we were going to run. So that’s why there was a run-out chance. I dived from very far away from the crease. (Laughs.)So they’ve got the second new ball now. Were they swinging it?They were. And there was definitely enough swing to get a batsman out. But I knew as a bowler, that after they take the second new ball, they’d be trying to get me out with the fuller ones – either bowled, lbw, or caught behind – rather than with a bouncer. So that’s what I was expecting.Around about then, Kusal hit two incredible sixes off Steyn. How did you feel at the other end?I’ve got no words to describe them. If you can hit those sixes off bowlers of that stature, then you’re a great batsman. Sanath Jayasuriya is the only other batsman I’ve seen who can hit those shots off those balls. That’s incredible talent. When I saw that, it helped me keep going. I thought as long as I stay here, he will win it.Describe what you felt when Kusal hit the winning run.It’s hard to describe. It’s one of the happiest days of my life. We had been wanting a win so badly, so it was big for us.A couple of days later, how do you reflect on it?I’m so happy to have been a part of a win like that. Hopefully, a lot of people in Sri Lanka enjoyed it as well. I hope that like they are with us after a win, that they will be with us if we lose as well. You do win and lose in cricket. There’s luck involved as well as talent.Any personal goals for the second match?I had a chance to get five wickets in both innings in Durban, but couldn’t get there. I don’t have a Test five-wicket haul yet. So That’s my big target, as long as the team wins.

He arrived in New Zealand 10 years ago with one suitcase, not knowing if he had a future in cricket. Now, he’s the fifth best Test bowler

Mohammad Isam in Christchurch14-Mar-2019It’s the third morning – the first of the Wellington Test after two washed out days – and New Zealand have opened up the game. The ball pops in the air. Neil Wagner runs towards the catcher. Other fielders converge too. New Zealand begin celebrating Tamim Iqbal’s wicket. Wagner’s short-ball trick has had a role to play; the form batsman is out for 74.Wagner’s clenched fists punch the air upwards and his face goes all red. The idea of forcing a batsman, literally willing him into a pull or a hook shot that doesn’t go well, or making him fend to a catcher nearby, looks thrilling from far away. It must be exciting from the inside too.Wagner finishes the Wellington Test with career-best match figures of 9 for 83 to help his side burst to a big win within two and a half days effectively. He stands on 16 wickets in the Test series, 15 of which have come courtesy the short ball. Wagner has pitched it short for 82.43 per cent of the times he has bowled in the series, which is a whopping 258 out of 313 balls.Wagner will tell you that there’s nothing better than seeing the stumps blown away, or hitting the batsman’s pad for a big appeal, but he enjoys how the whole team comes together to give him his wickets.”You are gonna laugh about this but there’s nothing better for me than bowling someone out, or even getting them lbw,” Wagner tells ESPNcricinfo. “If you can beat the bat and question it, then you have done something special. My way of getting my wickets is a lot different. One thing, I do like the way I get my wickets, it is very team related, and brings the team together. The guys have to take the catches, so I feel I am part of a unit, rather than just a bowler doing individual skill.”New Zealand moving to No. 2 in the ICC’s Test rankings is just reward for a side that has thrived in difficult circumstances. Wagner is one of their several match-winners who has given them that opening in Tests that shifts the game rapidly. Wagner is now ranked No. 5 among Test bowlers, the third-highest rating of all time among New Zealand bowlers.

“The first year I arrived in Dunedin, I was questioning and wondering if I will be able to do it. How I will be able to do it? It was very cold and I had one suitcase. I had to try to set up a living for myself.”

For Wagner this doesn’t matter, it is more about playing with friends. This has been the New Zealand cricket story in recent times – a group of cricketers pushing themselves for the team’s cause, and giving friendship far greater importance. Wagner says that while his teammates keep him in good spirits as he keeps pounding in bouncers over after over, the bowlers at the other end also do the tough work of bowling into the wind just to give him the relief.”It is an absolute pleasure to play with these guys,” he says. “The way I bowl, it takes a toll on your body. It does get sore. It can be quite tough but you are doing it for your mates, people that you are really good friends with. It makes you feel like pushing the barriers.”We are good mates on and off the field. I try to fit into what I can do the best. They have also done a lot for me. The number of overs they have had to bowl in the wind, for me to strike and for them to bowl without any luck, goes a long way. We enjoy each other’s success. It makes you feel part of something really special.”Getty ImagesWagner has certainly come a long way, since arriving in cold Dunedin with little means almost a decade ago. After getting positive feedback from some of the Canterbury players, Wagner decided that New Zealand was going to be where he tried his luck, after struggling through South Africa’s quota system. Wagner hasn’t forgotten those who helped him in those early days in the country.”I have never looked back ever since, to be honest,” he reflect. “It is probably the best move I have ever made. The first year I arrived in Dunedin, I was questioning and wondering if I will be able to do it. How I will be able to do it? It was very cold and I had one suitcase. I had to try to set up a living for myself.”It was tough going, but I was lucky to have a very good group of people in Otago cricket around me. They helped me a lot to become the player I am today. I am grateful to New Zealand cricket to give me the opportunity to live out my dream. As much as I have said that I want to play the World Cup, Test cricket has always been the pinnacle for me.”While he’s now an established member of the Test side, the ODI dream keeps asking him for more. He missed the 2015 bus, and is likely to miss the upcoming World Cup as well. Wagner doesn’t regret not playing the shorter format, and that is because he understands his bowling style is unique and requires him to condition himself differently. He isn’t giving up, however.”I haven’t given up on it but I also don’t want to make it a focus,” he says. “In the past I used to have goals to want to really play ODIs and T20s for New Zealand, hopefully be part of a World Cup squad. It was my biggest dream. I have never really got close to it. Once I set my heart on a thing, it become too much of a focus. It became about me, rather than what I can do for the team.”When I started to play, I tried to be a very good swing bowler if not the best, but there were people who were lot better than me doing this job, and way more consistent. So I tried to complement them, and tried to be as good as I could be, to make them successful.”I feel that one day one guy gets the reward, the next day the next guy gets it. As a team we fight as a pack, and although one guy might get the accolade, you still play your role, and play your part for that guy to be successful on the day.”He is the perfect foil for the subtle variations of Tim Southee and Trent Boult, and the three-man attack has been key to New Zealand’s success, particularly in the last three years. Wagner meanwhile wants to “keep doing his job”, which is actually a formal way of saying that he wants to make batsmen jump around to his tune, as he softens them to take their wickets. That’s his job, and whether anyone likes him for it or not, Wagner is certainly a spectacle. Cricket as it should be.

Also, who holds the record for the most 0 not-outs in Tests?

Steven Lynch18-Jun-2019Josh Hazlewood, missing from this year’s World Cup, played five matches in the last one without ever batting. Is this a record? asked Jenny McDonald from Australia
You’re right that the Australian seamer Josh Hazlewood played five matches in the 2015 World Cup – including the final – without being called on to bat. And it is indeed a bit of a surprise that he wasn’t selected for this one: as reported on ESPNcricinfo last week, he hasn’t been glued to the screen back home watching it, either.As it turns out, Hazlewood is second on this particular list, behind another tall Aussie seamer: the World Cup career of Nathan Bracken amounted to ten of his side’s 11 matches when Australia won the 2007 tournament in the West Indies, but he never batted. As I write, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has played four World Cup matches for India (one in 2015), and hasn’t batted yet.In the just-finished women’s one-day series, the England captain was Knight and their wicketkeeper was Taylor, while the West Indies captain was Taylor and their wicketkeeper was Knight. Can you think of anything similar? asked Paul Jacques from England
That’s a neat observation: England’s captain in that series against West Indies was Heather Knight, and their wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor, while West Indies were led by Stafanie Taylor, with Kycia Knight behind the stumps (and her twin, Kyshona, elsewhere in the field).I can’t instantly think of any parallels. I do remember a men’s Test, in Bulawayo in 2011-12, where both sides were captained by a Taylor – Brendan for Zimbabwe and Ross from New Zealand, but the wicketkeepers didn’t share a name. And for many years Warwickshire were captained by a Smith (M. J. K.) while their wicketkeeper was A. Smith (Alan). I’m not sure if that counts, though!Sri Lanka’s batting in the World Cup match against Afghanistan was opened by their captain and their wicketkeeper. How rare is this? asked Rajiv Radhakrishnan from England
Sri Lanka’s openers in that match in Cardiff were Dimuth Karunaratne, the captain, and wicketkeeper Kusal Perera, who had gone in at No. 3 in their first game. It worked: they put on 92 against Afghanistan. I thought this might have happened reasonably frequently, but actually the only other pair to do it in the World Cup were England’s Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior, in two matches in 2011. Alec Stewart captained, opened and kept wicket in seven World Cup games for England – two in 1992 and five in 1999 – while Andy Flower did it twice for Zimbabwe in 1996.Jimmy Anderson has 31 nought not-outs to his name, three more than the next player on the list, New Zealand’s Chris Martin•Getty ImagesI noticed that Jimmy Anderson has had 86 not-outs in Tests. Is this the record? Has he also had the most nought not-outs? asked Alastair Spiers from Scotland
Jimmy Anderson has held this particular record since 2017, when he chalked up his 62nd Test not-out, against South Africa, to pass the record previously held by Courtney Walsh (61 not-outs). Next come Muttiah Muralitharan (56), Bob Willis (55), Chris Martin (52, exactly half his innings), and Glenn McGrath (51), before the first two specialist batsmen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (40) and Steve Waugh (46).Anderson does also lead the way for Test innings of 0 not out – he’s had 31 so far, three ahead of Martin. Makhaya Ntini comes next with 18.Who is England’s oldest surviving Test player? asked Michael Robertson from England
I’m always slightly nervous about answering questions like these, but the man who holds this distinction as I write is the Sussex left-hander Don Smith, who played three Tests against West Indies in 1957. Smith has just celebrated his 96th birthday – on June 14, the same day the Australian allrounder Alan Davidson turned 90. There are currently 13 former Test player who are now in their nineties. The only other Englishman is Smith’s longtime Sussex team-mate Ian Thomson, who reached 90 in January.Don Smith was the subject of a recent booklet produced by the Sussex Cricket Museum. In it he remembers receiving his England colours: “Today it is carried out in front of the spectators. At Lord’s in the basement a minion handed over to me my England cap and two sweaters. I still thought it was great.”On the list of oldest surviving Test players, the only one older than Smith is the South African allrounder John Watkins, who was born two months earlier, in April 1923.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Just as the critics were raising questions about his place in Chennai Super Kings’ XI, the Australian silenced them with a menacing 96 against Sunrisers Hyderabad

Deivarayan Muthu in Chennai24-Apr-20196:45

I would’ve been dropped in my previous teams – Watson

“The intimidating factor. He is a big dude and knows how to get in people’s face. So, he will make the most of that skillset.” That’s what Shane Watson said of WWE superstar John Cena when the two had a hit at the Sydney Thunder nets in 2017. Watson might have well been describing himself.The Australian is strongly built and, back in the day, used to intimidate bowlers with his mere presence at the crease. He relishes being in the middle of a fierce battle and doesn’t shy away from firing some verbal volleys. Remember Watson v Wahab Riaz at the 2015 World Cup?Fast-forward to 2019. Watson intimidated attacks in the Big Bash League and then the Pakistan Super League earlier this year, but struggled to get the ball away on the slower tracks in the Indian Premier League. The critics were sharpening their knives and raising questions about Watson’s place in Chennai Super Kings’ XI. Watson’s horror run at the top – he had laboured to 147 runs in ten innings at a strike rate of 112.21 before Tuesday – created a domino effect, ramping up the pressure on MS Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu in the middle order.On Tuesday, Watson was the first to enter the field, by 6pm, and he inspected the pitch. It wouldn’t play too many tricks – like it had done in the previous four games this season – but Watson pulled off one trick after another. And he did so against Rashid Khan, perhaps the best T20 spinner in the world right now.Shane Watson smacks the ball•BCCISunrisers Hyderabad captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar teased Watson with swing and bounce in the early exchanges. Watson played and missed, and played out a maiden in the first over. Suresh Raina then found his groove with five boundaries in an over off Sandeep Sharma.Super Kings were 58 for 1 in seven overs in pursuit of 176. Enter Rashid. Watson quietly inside-edged that first ball that drifted into the leg side. He then exploded like a volcano blowing its lid. Rashid pushed one through full and outside off, and Watson deployed a signature giant stride and bludgeoned the ball straight back to the legspinner. Rashid got his fingertip to the ball, but the power of the shot was such that it still skedaddled away to the straight boundary, perfectly bisecting long-on and long-off.Rashid’s ego was hurt, and a little shoulder brush between him and Watson lit a fuse at Chepauk. Rashid threw a death stare at Watson. Watson returned the favour. Perhaps, for the first time this season, the Chennai crowd went “Watto! Watto! Watto!”Rashid drew another inside-edge with his third ball, but the fourth was deftly glided past slip for four. In the next over, Watson was dropped by Jonny Bairstow diving to his right. You need a slice of luck when you’re going through a prolonged lean patch.

For me to miss out on not scoring runs for long as I had throughout the tournament if I had been in a previous team I would have been dropped a long time agoSHANE WATSON

Rashid struck back by removing Raina in his second over for 38 off 24 balls. Sandeep then replaced Rashid, and was taken for three boundaries in the 12th over. Yet, 67 off 42 balls was still a fairly tough ask against a side that has Rashid and Bhuvneshwar in its ranks.Rashid returned and bowled a flat, skiddy wrong’un that fizzed off the Chepauk pitch. Watson seemingly picked the variation, went so very deep in the crease, opened up his hips, and swept it hard and flat with the turn to the square-leg boundary. Rashid lost his length and his head. The next ball was a full-toss on middle and leg, and this time Watson stretched out to muscle it away over midwicket for six.Whenever Rashid speared one and got it to skid off the pitch, Watson got right back and let his hips generate the power to drill the ball through the leg side. Whenever Rashid tossed it up, Watson was right forward to the pitch of the ball. All told, Watson shellacked 30 off 13 balls from Rashid and all but sealed Super Kings’ spot in the playoffs.Fun fact: Watson is the only batsman who has faced 40-plus balls from Rashid in T20 cricket without being dismissed.”He’s a very skillful bowler,” Watson said of Rashid afterwards. “And he’s very competitive, which is what I am. I really enjoy the contest – that’s part of the love of the game I have for cricket. It’s that contest. It’s that battle and he’s one of the world’s best spinners, especially in T20 cricket we play against each other. I was able to get on top of him tonight, but with the skill he has it’s not always going to be that way.”Shane Watson had lots of fun on bring your kids to work day•BCCIAfter smashing Rashid around, Watson had to deal with Bhuvneshwar. The Sunrisers captain nailed an inch-perfect yorker on off stump, but Watson collapsed his back leg and jabbed it away with an open face between backward point and short third man. Watson married brawn with brains during his 96 off 53 balls and swamped Sunrisers.Another team management might have dropped Watson after such meagre returns, but Stephen Fleming and Dhoni aren’t as successful as they are without reason. They back their players and don’t make them feel insecure about their places at all.”Just about every other team I’ve been in… for me to miss out on not scoring runs for long as I had throughout the tournament if I had been in a previous team I would have been dropped a long time ago,” Watson said with a laugh. “So, for Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni in particular to keep the faith in me and knowing that I had a really good innings in me it was great.”For me personally, knowing that I had come off from the PSL and coming into this I was flying high and then things didn’t go my way. I lost a bit of rhythm in my batting. So, for them to keep faith in me I really appreciate it.”And Watson repaid Super Kings’ faith with a typically intimidating innings. The big slog-sweep was back, as was big smile on Watson’s face. The night ended with Watson blowing kisses to his kids in the stands and making the Chepauk crowd go: awww.

Here’s how our ball-by-ball commentators saw it as Eoin Morgan cracked 17 sixes out of 25 overall

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jun-201913.5 – Rahmat Shah to Bairstow, SIX runs, pumped straight! Full and flat just outside off. Bairstow to the pitch quickly, helped by the flatter trajectory too, and a nice, sweet hit – about 85 metresWATCH on Hotstar (India only): Highlights of Eoin Morgan’s innings23.4 – Rashid Khan to Bairstow, SIX runs, full and swung away, sweetly lofted into the crowd at cow! YJB hitting his way out of trouble, clearing that front leg as soon as Rashid lobs it up26.4 – Mohammad Nabi to Bairstow, SIX runs, boshed! Smeared straight back down the ground, YJB making an early move and freeing the arms to bludgeoning effect!Eoin Morgan smashes another six as he takes the attack to Afghanistan•Getty Images31.2 – Gulbadin Naib to Morgan, SIX runs, ugh, that is a ball, Morgan waits for the long-hop to reach him and cracks it over deep midwicket! So short it had pretty much stopped by the time it got to him, loopy and spankable31.3 – Gulbadin Naib to Morgan, SIX runs, goes down the ground this time! Full and slotted high over long-on! Morgan goes BOOM-BOOM35.3 – Rashid Khan to Morgan, SIX runs, swung for six this time! No chance for Dawlat to make up for his error! Morgan nails it, going to the same part of the ground35.6 – Rashid Khan to Morgan, SIX runs, dragged down, belted into the crowd again! Second six of the over for Morgan, who isn’t going to miss out on those, short and leg side and panned!38.1 – Mohammad Nabi to Morgan, SIX runs, pummels his fifth six over midwicket to bring up his fifty! This is a woeful ball – dropped short and coming in at Morgan who quickly jumps into position and swings clean39.1 – Mujeeb Ur Rahman to Morgan, SIX runs, six number six! Just clears the midwicket fence this time. Length at middle and he gets low, right under it as he swipes across the line. ODI six number 200 as well, I’m informed40.2 – Mohammad Nabi to Morgan, SIX runs, straight over the bowler! Whew! 91 metres from Morgan. Fired in at a length from around the wicket and it’s as good as giving him throwdowns. So much width and he clubs through the line, on the rise40.3 – Mohammad Nabi to Morgan, SIX runs, and now it’s short. Morgan getting them to bowl where he wants them to bowl. Sits back for another mighty pull, a six over midwicket once againESPNcricinfo Ltd42.2 – Rashid Khan to Morgan, SIX runs, clears the front leg, clears the boundary! Once again, might as well be throwing them down in the nets now. Quick, straight, overpitched at leg stump. Makes room and drills it in long-on’s direction42.4 – Rashid Khan to Morgan, SIX runs, number 10! Short at middle stump, gets deep and pumps it over deep square with a pull!42.6 – Rashid Khan to Morgan, SIX runs, the fourth-fastest World Cup century! What a brute of an innings by Eoin Morgan. Unbelievable hitting. He’s taken on everyone, including a man considered the best legspinner when it comes to white-ball cricket. Sends him over long-on again, clearing the front leg44.1 – Rashid Khan to Root, SIX runs, I’ll have some of that says Root as he runs down the pitch, possibly premeditatedly. He’s not to the pitch but he goes through and slugs this length ball over long-on44.1 – Rashid Khan to Morgan, SIX runs, full on middle stump, gets the stride out and nails the slog sweep. Gets it over deep square. Rashid doesn’t know where to go now44.6 – Rashid Khan to Morgan, SIX runs, clears long-off. This is just…obscene. Googly, wide outside off. So much room. So much Morgan – drilled again45.3 – Dawlat Zadran to Morgan, SIX runs, looks like another! Length ball pushed across him. He makes room and checks his shot a touch after reaching out for it. Mid-off is in. This lands on the padding at the long-off boundary. He has 14 sixes46.1 – Gulbadin Naib to Morgan, SIX runs, straight. You know it! Eoin Morgan gets one more in his hitting zone. He clears the front leg and slams it flat to long-off’s leftEoin Morgan celebrates after reaching his century•Getty Images46.2 – Gulbadin Naib to Morgan, SIX runs, equals the most number of sixes hit in an ODI innings! No. 16 for Morgan. Slower ball at a length outside off. So much time as he waits on it to arrive. He’s set up for a slog and he sends it over wide long-on46.5 – Gulbadin Naib to Morgan, SIX runs, ODI world record for sixes! A century in sixes for Morgan! 17! 102 runs with 17 shots. Full and just outside off, clears the front leg and pumps it into the boundary padding behind the bowler48.1 – Rashid Khan to Ali, SIX runs, boom. Welcome back Rashid. Googly, tossed up outside off. Moeen gets the stride in and sends it flying over long-off48.6 – Rashid Khan to Ali, SIX runs, and Moeen slugs over wide long-on to tip Rashid well into the pit. The most runs EVER conceded in a World Cup match. Length at middle stump, clears the front leg and swings like there’s nothing to lose. Because there really isn’t49.4 – Dawlat Zadran to Ali, SIX runs, smoked over square leg! Gosh! Exactly the shots coaches train out of toddlers – front leg facing square leg, back leg rooted, head in the leg side, ball on the off. But those hands…phew. Clean swing as this slower ball rises up for him and he nails the connection49.5 – Dawlat Zadran to Ali, SIX runs, drilled over wide long-on! Oh boy. 25th six. Most in an innings, ever, beating England’s own record. Length ball on leg stump, gets the front leg out of the way and sends it sailing

ESPNcricinfo runs an analytical eye over the key moments of the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians

Karthik Krishnaswamy06-Apr-20192:05

Failed to capitalise on our good start – Bhuvneshwar Kumar

The Ishan Kishan run-out: explainedIn the 13th over of Mumbai Indians’ innings, Ishan Kishan set off for a non-existent single after pushing Rashid Khan into the off side, and seemed to have no chance of escaping being run out when Vijay Shankar, scrambling to his left from backward point, picked up the ball and flicked it towards the keeper’s end. Jonny Bairstow, however, seemed to give Kishan a lease of life when he accidentally bumped into the stumps while trying to get around them and collect the throw near the popping crease. Both bails fell off at that point, and Kishan threw himself towards the crease.Bairstow collected the ball and disturbed the wicket once more even as Kishan’s dive took him past the crease. Which happened earlier, and how exactly was the third umpire to adjudicate, given both bails had already fallen off?If the bails have come off the wicket, the fielder still has the option of uprooting a stump, “providing that the ball is held in the hand or hands so used, or in the hand of the arm so used,” according to Law 29.1, which concerns when exactly the wicket is “put down”.While collecting the ball and dragging his arm back to disturb the wicket, Bairstow ensured he did so with enough force to pull one of the stumps entirely out of the ground. At the point when this happened, Kishan was still a few inches short of making his crease, leaving the third umpire a fairly straightforward decision to make.3:01

Agarkar: Joseph produced a massive performance when Mumbai needed it

Did Mumbai adapt to Hyderabad’s big boundaries?The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium is one of the larger grounds in the IPL, and six-hitting, as a result, is a trickier prospect here than at most other grounds. Since the start of the 2017 season, a six has been hit once every 22.12 balls here, as against once every 17.35 across the other IPL grounds. Of the eight major IPL venues, Hyderabad has been the second-most difficult ground to hit sixes in, behind the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, where the balls-per-sixes ratio is 27.81.Teams that come to Jaipur or Hyderabad (or Mohali, another unusually large ground), therefore, have to change their game a little. Did Mumbai manage to adapt? On the face of it, no. Both their openers, Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock, fell to catches on the boundary, off shots that weren’t perfectly middled but might have cleared the rope elsewhere. Hardik Pandya also found deep midwicket with a flat slog-sweep. The ball came to Vijay Shankar at a comfortable catching height here, but at one of the smaller grounds he may have had to complete one of those difficult leaping catches on the edge of the boundary.Kieron Pollard hit four sixes in his unbeaten 46 off 26 balls, but one of those sixes was a catching chance that Mohammad Nabi, running to his right from deep square leg, parried over the boundary.Jonny Bairstow knocks the stump out of the ground to dismiss Ishan Kishan•BCCIBairstow vs legspin, chapter fivePiyush Chawla, Shreyas Gopal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Lamichhane, and now Rahul Chahar. In every innings he’s played in so far this season, Jonny Bairstow has been out to a legspinner. Mumbai must have known of this trend when they brought on their legspinner in the fourth over of Sunrisers’ chase, and Bairstow promptly fell to the first ball he faced from Chahar.Bairstow vs legspin hasn’t been a one-sided struggle, though. Aside from the dismissals, he’s not fared too badly this season, scoring 93 off 51 balls against that style of bowling, at a strike rate of 182.35.Even his dismissal today was a little unfortunate. Bairstow picked the googly out of Chahar’s hand, and went for the slog-sweep, but the ball didn’t turn. Instead, it went on straight with extra bounce, like a topspinner, and the outside edge ballooned to short third man.ESPNcricinfo LtdSunrisers’ perennial middle-order issues continue“Top-heavy” is a tag that’s followed Sunrisers Hyderabad around pretty much since the team’s inception, and little has changed this season. Warner and Bairstow are by far IPL 2019’s most productive opening pair, and until today that had masked the frailties that remain in the middle order.Today, however, neither opener got to 20, and when both were dismissed in the space of four balls, Sunrisers were 33 for 2, needing 104 off 91 balls. Fairly gettable, you’d think, even on a slightly tricky surface.But no one from Nos. 3 to 7 really got going, and between them they eventually only made 52 off 73 balls. The two middle-order batsmen who spent most time at the crease were Manish Pandey (16 off 21) and Deepak Hooda (20 off 21), and neither was able to get going, and between them they only managed to find the boundary once.The form of those two batsmen is a huge concern for Sunrisers at the moment. Pandey has faced 43 balls so far this season, and Hooda 35. Neither has hit a six yet. The next-worst batsman on that list is Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Prayas Ray Barman, who has faced 24 balls so far without hitting a six.

At the end of an epic Ashes tussle, ESPNcricinfo’s writers who covered the drama pick out their players and moments to remember

16-Sep-2019Player of the series who isn’t Steven SmithGeorge Dobell, senior correspondent: Rory Burns for England. To have scored (at the time of writing) more runs than all the other openers combined, in conditions in which batting against the new ball has been desperately tough has been a fantastic effort. Alastair Cook, for all his achievements, never made as many runs in a home Ashes series as Burns has this summer. And Cook never made a home Ashes century either.Pat Cummins for Australia. His incredible fitness allowed him to bowl sustained, hostile spells. His pace almost never dropped and he rarely bowled a poor ball. The delivery that bowled Joe Root in Manchester belongs in a museum.Daniel Brettig, assistant editor: Cummins. At least one outstanding spell in every Test, took the big wickets at the start of fourth innings at both Edgbaston and Old Trafford, and generally was the heart and soul of the bowling attack. Twenty-nine wickets without a five-for is not only a record for a Test series but also an accurate reflection of his sheer consistency and durability.Melinda Farrell, presenter: Ben Stokes, if only for the fact his performances have broken through to the general public in a way that hasn’t been achieved for years.Alan Gardner, associate editor: Stokes has moved mountains all summer from an England perspective, but without the vice-like grip applied by Cummins’ bowling, Australia would not have succeeded in their goal of retaining the urn.Andrew Miller, UK editor: You can make outstanding cases for Cummins (29 wickets at 19.62), Stokes (441 runs and Test) and Jofra Archer (22 wickets). But for his relentless leading of England’s line, particularly in the absence of James Anderson, and for the manner in which he’s had Australia’s most dangerous batsman, David Warner, in his pocket, Stuart Broad edges it for me.The Jack Leach lesson: if you have clear vision you can achieve anything•Getty ImagesMoment of the seriesDobell: The latter stages of Stokes’ innings at Headingley were incredible. For the most incredible moment, pick between the reverse-slog-sweep six off Lyon or the sweep off Josh Hazlewood. Both were ridiculously good.Brettig: Nathan Lyon’s final over to Stokes at Headingley – unforgettable.Farrell: Every ball, every second, every excruciating heartbeat of the final over at Headingley.Gardner: The Jack Leach tuck off the hips for his one run at Headingley. Now you knew it was happening.Miller: Stokes’ winning boundary at Headingley was unsurpassable as an individual moment of theatre. But Archer’s felling of Steve Smith at Lord’s actually had wider ramifications for the series. England dominated in Smith’s absence at Lord’s, won in his absence at Headingley, and, until The Oval, never looked like prising him out in any other way. That moment was surely the difference between 3-0 and 2-2.Would Ben Stokes’ Headingley performance be your innings of the decade?•Getty ImagesInnings of the seriesDobell: Stokes’ Headingley innings was incredible. But whether it was better than Smith’s masterclass at Edgbaston is impossible to say.Brettig: Stokes at Headingley was the most memorable, but Smith’s double-century at Old Trafford is the innings that decided the series.Farrell: You could so easily give it to Smith’s double at Old Trafford, where he seemed invincible but how can you pass Stokes’ audacious, thrilling performance at Headingley. Will be talked about for decades.Gardner: In isolation, this one ought to be Stokes, for the virtuosity of Headingley. But for series-shaping context, Smith’s 144 at Edgbaston takes the cake.Miller: Innings of the decade, more like (with apologies to Kusal Perera). It’s quite something for Smith to emulate Bradman (and even produce his own greatest knock, the first innings at Edgbaston) without actually producing the greatest batting of the summer. But nothing can rival Jack Leach’s 1 not out from 17 balls Stokes’ magnum opus at Headingley.Jofra Archer: brought spice and thrill to the series•Getty ImagesBowling performanceDobell: Take your pick: Stokes’ seemingly endless spell at Headingley. Yes, I know it was split by four balls from Archer and the close of play, but it kept England in the series. Hazlewood was brilliant at Headingley and didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. Archer’s fiery spell to Smith at Lord’s will linger long in the memory. But Cummins was relentlessly good.Brettig: Archer at Lord’s, blew life into the series like a fresh wind to the sails of a square rigger.Farrell: Really hard to choose from several contenders here. Hazlewood and Cummins have been consistently brilliant, Broad has been terrific with the new ball, and Stokes’ 25 overs at Headingley kept them in the game. But I’m giving it to Archer, for his burst at Lord’s, when he took Smith out of the game and lived up to the excitement that his Test debut had promised.Gardner: Before the Lord’s Test, Justin Langer openly wondered about how Archer would go when pushed into his “second, third and fourth spells”. He was actually into his fifth spell, with more than 20 overs under his belt, when he rattled Smith, first on the arm, then the neck, while pushing the speed gun up to 96mph. Spine-tingling in more than one sense, and unforgettable theatre.Miller: The entirety of Archer’s duel with Smith at Lord’s. The blow to the head was just the culmination of an incredible edge-of-the-seat fast-bowling display.Oh so he can be dismissed?•Getty ImagesLOL momentDobell: From the moment Tim Paine called for that silly review in the dying moments of the Leeds game, it seemed inevitable it would cost him.Brettig: Paine getting a fielding review right at his last available opportunity after 13 attempts.Farrell: Where was Stokes hit?Gardner: Smith’s fend to leg slip in his final innings of the series. Bowled for and got – at a mere cost of 774 runs.Miller: Anything to do with Paine’s use of DRS. By the end, he seemed almost as shot to bits in making a T-sign as poor old Kumar Dharmasena did in raising his finger.

From being taken apart by Sunil Narine to bowling alongside him, the mystery spinner’s career has come full circle

Deivarayan Muthu20-Dec-2019Who writes your scripts, Varun Chakravarthy? The 28-year old Tamil Nadu mystery spinner hit paydirt in the IPL auction for a second successive year, emerging as the highest-paid uncapped Indian, with Kolkata Knight Riders shelling out INR 4 crore (USD 563,000 approx.) for his seven variations. At last year’s auction, he was the joint-highest-paid player overall, earning INR 8.4 crore, 42 times his base price of INR 20 lakh.Varun played a solitary game for Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2019, before a finger fracture sidelined him for a lengthy period. Varun hasn’t played competitive cricket since; he had only resumed training “two-three months back.”It would not have been surprising if nobody wanted him for IPL 2020. However, Knight Riders outbid Royal Challengers Bangalore and got him on board. In fact, Varun himself didn’t see that coming, although he had bowled at the Knight Riders nets last year and had the franchise furiously bidding for him even in 2018.ALSO READ – Decoding the mystery: Who is Varun Chakravarthy”I didn’t expect to be picked at all this year,” Varun tells ESPNcricinfo a day after the auction. “I was just watching the auction alone yesterday in Chennai (in contrast to watching the madness unfold with his entire family in his hometown Thanjavur last year). My parents were in my hometown this time.”I was watching the auction with a little bit of hope that I’ll be picked and I’m thankful to DK [Dinesh Karthik] and Abhishek Nayar [Knight Riders mentor] for showing confidence in me. [I’m happy]. I’ve spoken to my parents and sister, and they’re pleased for me too.”Varun Chakravarthy was the highest-paid uncapped Indian at the IPL 2020 auction•ESPNcricinfo LtdThings weren’t as rosy for Varun during his IPL debut, against Knight Riders in Kolkata. He had a harsh initiation, leaking 25 runs in his first over, the worst start for an IPL debutant. Varun then hurt his finger and was ruled out of IPL 2019.In IPL 2020, he will return to Eden Gardens as a Knight Rider. He could potentially bowl in tandem with Sunil Narine, who had whacked Varun for three sixes and a four in that 25-run over. A few months before that match-up, Varun had been bowling with Narine at the Knight Riders nets and had even impressed Narine’s spin coach Carl Crowe, who is also part of the franchise’s support staff.Varun’s career has had more twists and turns than a whodunit. He was a wicketkeeper-batsman until 17. Then, after being rejected multiple times in age-group cricket, he took up an architecture degree and then worked as a freelancer. But he got bored of it and turned into a mystery spinner.More fun facts: before he burst into the 20-over Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), Varun had made a brief appearance in a Tamil movie called , starring actor Vishnu Vishal, who was R Ashwin’s first club captain.In his first IPL season, Varun got to play alongside Ashwin. Now he has a chance to exchange notes with mystery spinner, Narine. After Knight Riders scooped up Varun, their CEO Venky Mysore said he “kind of reminds” the franchise of a young Narine, when they’d first picked him for IPL 2012.”Personally, I’d learnt a lot from R Ashwin at Punjab,” Varun says. “Working with Narine, I just want to learn whatever I can from him. I’m just like a student in front of somebody like Narine.”Sunil Narine took 25 runs off Varun Chakravarthy’s first over in the IPL•BCCIVarun had attracted the attention of the IPL talents scouts during TNPL 2018, when Michael Hussey, one of the TV commentators, singled him out as an exciting talent. All told, Varun bowled 40 overs in TNPL 2018, of which 125 balls were dots. His economy rate of 4.7 was the best among bowlers who bowled at least 15 overs.Varun was slated to make his return from injury in TNPL 2019, but things didn’t go according to plan. He was merely part of the Madurai Panthers squad earlier this year, but didn’t get to play a game. Since then Varun has enrolled himself into Primal Patterns, where most of the top-tier Tamil Nadu cricketers work out under Shanker Basu, the former India trainer.”I’ve been working hard on my fitness with Basu sir,” Varun says. “For the past two-three months, I’ve had one session a day. We’ve been working on gymming and strengthening. I’ve also started playing a few low-key games and I’m confident of bowling the googlies and carrom balls again. I’m still training and preparing to come back.”Varun also reckons that he’s in a better space to deal with the immense pressure that the IPL brings, having had a brief crack at it before.”I’ve lost hope many times over the last few months, but I’ve managed to train and get better,” he says. “The previous experience [with Kings XI] has helped me grow as a player and person, but now I need to focus on what’s in hand. I’m preparing for the next IPL and I hope it’ll be a fresh start for me at KKR.”

When he was dismissed, the batsman stood motionless in shock and disappointment at giving up his innings

Daniel Brettig at the Gabba23-Nov-2019For decades, selectors not wishing to be made redundant by simply using numbers to determine who should play in the Australian Test team, have offered the consistent refrain that “you can’t just pick a team on stats”.After the events of 2019, culminating in a sparkling 185 at No. 3 against Pakistan at the Gabba, they can now add a new conclusion to the argument along the lines of “… look at Marnus Labuschagne”.This year dawned with Australia facing a vexing Test match assignment against India in Sydney, having just been beaten out of sight by Virat Kohli’s men at the MCG. In response to an underperforming top order, shorn of Steven Smith and David Warner but also featuring an out-of-place Aaron Finch, the call was made to bring in Labuschagne and to bat him at No. 3.It was a decision that, on a statistical basis, looked decidedly ropey. Labuschagne, given a start in Test cricket in the UAE as a wristspinning allrounder, had struggled for Queensland after his return home, and had never in five first-class seasons averaged better than 39 for his state. The selectors and Justin Langer may have loved his attitude, appetite for hard work, and willingness to learn, but there was only the flimsiest empirical evidence to back up these impressions.Marnus Labuschagne was into his stride early on the third day•Getty ImagesHanded such a steep assignment, Labuschagne did his best, carving out a fighting 38 that seemed, at the time, to be about the best anyone could have expected. He went away from the home summer with another couple of Tests against Sri Lanka under his belt, and took up a county contract with Glamorgan where, bolstered by the experience, he made the technical change that seemed to be the key to unlocking so much more of the potential that the selectors saw more keenly than others.There was an intriguing subplot here. Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard had previously coached at Somerset, and been far less a technocrat than his assistant Chris Rogers. But their mix of approaches seemed to give Maynard a greater wellspring of advice to pass down, and in straightening up Labuschagne’s back lift and alignment, gave him the ability to play down the line of balls that he had previously chopped across, making him a ready lbw candidate.His defence suitably strengthened, Labuschagne found himself able to not only survive but dominate attacks in challenging English conditions, resulting in a breakthrough run of scores that surpassed anything he had managed for Queensland at home. That was enough to put Labuschagne in Australia’s 25-man Ashes trial group in Southampton, where a battling 48 on a borderline dangerous pitch gave him enough credits to make the final squad.

This limpet-like desire to stay in the middle, searching every part of himself to do so, is something that was first glimpsed well away from the spotlight, and then seen when he was granted that oft-criticised chance to bat No. 3 against India in January

That innings was played out to a chorus that Labuschagne had become quite familiar with over his years in Australian domestic cricket, one that had only grown more fervent after his speculative elevation to the Test team the previous summer. Taunts of “you’re not good enough” and other fruitier variations rained down on him from fielders who would soon be Ashes team-mates, as Labuschagne was drafted in as Smith’s concussion substitute at Lord’s.What was immediately evident that tense final afternoon of the second Test and in virtually every innings after it was that Labuschagne had added the requisite technical tightness to the work ethic, eagerness and attitude of learning that had caused the selectors to smile upon him in the first place. At times in England, there was a tangible sense of disbelief among players and spectators on both sides that Labuschagne was now looking so at ease in Test match company, despite all earlier statistical evidence to the contrary.For the national selectors Langer, Trevor Hohns and Greg Chappell – who retired from his post at the end of the Ashes series – it was a vindication. As Hohns put it at the end of the series: “With regards to Marnus, all credit to him, he got thrown in the deep end when Steven Smith got ruled out and he’s made the most of that opportunity and that’s all we can ask of anybody. He’s another one of those players who just eats cricket balls. He works so hard, so it’s no coincidence that the hard workers reap the rewards and we’ve seen that with Marnus.”What all this meant in determinations for the first Test match batting lineup of the summer was that Labuschagne was one of the first names on the team sheet, not only to bat in the team but to be placed at No. 3. Granted the advantage of a staunch opening stand by David Warner and Joe Burns at the Gabba, Labuschagne unveiled further exponential growth since England in how he not only showed how much he belonged in international company but now how badly he wanted to bat all day when conditions gave him the chance to.Marnus Labuschagne walks off for 185•Getty ImagesThe biggest challenge of the Gabba innings was not so much technical as mental, being a test of Labuschagne’s desire to spend hours in the middle repeating all the disciplines he has learned ball after ball. And, across days two and three, he passed it comfortably, unleashing a more expansive array of shots in an innings that was assertive as well as attentive, finding the boundary 20 times amongst century stands with Warner and Matthew Wade.As an exemplar of how early exposure to Test cricket had helped Labuschagne, giving him a chance to think through the problems he had encountered and find solutions to them quickly, there could scarcely be a better symbol than the fact that he was able to turn his first Test hundred into the highest score of his first-class career. Following five years of Australian first-class cricket in which he had never managed to average 40, Labuschagne has totted up averages of 65.52 for Glamorgan, 50.42 in the Ashes, 43.33 for Queensland in the Shield this summer, and now 185 at the Gabba.The neatness underpinning Labuschagne’s every shot, the shrewdness of his shot choices and the discipline of his defence moved the YouTube cricket maestro Rob Moody to upload inverted footage of Michael Hussey as a right-hander, creating an eerily striking resemblance. Hussey, of course, had been another player to dominate at Test level when chosen after years of solid if not quite spectacular returns in first-class cricket, because his attitude of learning was given its very best outlet at the top.When, finally, Labuschagne succumbed to mental and physical fatigue to slice a catch to gully, he stood motionless at the crease for several seconds in a combination of shock and disappointment at giving up his innings. This limpet-like desire to stay in the middle, searching every part of himself to do so, is something that was first glimpsed well away from the spotlight, and then seen when he was granted that oft-criticised chance to bat No. 3 against India in January.So, while Labuschagne’s emergence as something close to the finished article will be widely lauded this year, it is worth remembering the circumstances in which those asked to make judgements on the merit of cricketers do so, and how every now and then they will find a diamond in the rough. Or, in Labuschagne’s case, some batting gold in the Klerksdorp dirt.