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Mohammad Yousuf, meanwhile, has been roped in as batting coach for the home series against Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Feb-2022Saqlain Mushtaq is set to continue as Pakistan’s head coach on an interim basis for another 12 months, while the PCB has also named former Australia quick Shaun Tait as fast-bowling coach for 12 months. Former Pakistan batter Mohammad Yousuf, meanwhile, has been roped in as batting coach for the Australia series which is scheduled to begin on March 4 in Rawalpindi.Saqlain, along with Abdul Razzaq, was appointed as interim coach following Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis’ exit in September last year.The PCB had given an advertisement for five coaching positions – national high performance, batting, bowling, power-hitting and fielding – in December last year and had set a deadline for application as late January.Tait is the only one to have taken up the position via this process for now; the other appointments were made on the basis of internal arrangements – instead of hiring new coaches based on the advertisement, the PCB promoted coaches from the high performance centre to the national set-up on an interim basis. ESPNcricinfo understands there were at least 12 applications for the various coaching roles overall but only the individuals who had applied for the role of bowling coach were shortlisted and interviewed, out of which Tait was finalised.Since Ramiz Raja’s appointment as the chairman of PCB, there have been many changes in the set-up starting with Misbah and Waqar leaving their roles ahead of home series against New Zealand. Saqlain, who was the head of international players’ development at the high performance centre in Lahore at that time, was promoted as head coach but his initial tenure ended with the Bangladesh tour in December.ESPNcricinfo understands that Saqlain had submitted his resignation following the tour but Ramiz persuaded him to continue in the role for another year, with at least eight assignments including the T20 World Cup and Asia Cup coming up. While Yousuf and Abdul Majeed (fielding coach) have been appointed just for the upcoming series, it is understood the PCB will make assessments during the Australia series before appointing anyone on a full-time basis.The position of power-hitting coach is yet to be filled.Pakistan’s support personnel: Mansoor Rana (manager), Saqlain Mushtaq (head coach), Shahid Aslam (assistant to head coach), Mohammad Yousuf (batting coach), Shaun Tait (bowling coach), Cliffe Deacon (physiotherapist), Drikus Saaiman (trainer/strength and conditioning coach), Abdul Majeed (fielding coach)

LSG have been over-reliant on their top three, but have found a way out of most holes because of their exceptional bowling line-up

Alagappan Muthu24-May-20222:26

Will Virat Kohli’s form be key for RCB to progress?

Big picture

“We needed another team. Now it’s all on us,” Glenn Maxwell said as Royal Challengers Bangalore celebrated making it to the playoffs. It is a sentiment that would have really resonated with his team-mates. Everybody appreciates a second chance but players of the quality of Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Josh Hazlewood tend to know exactly what to do to make the most of it. Kohli, in particular, will be thrilled that he has something tangible to play for especially now that he’s finally hit form.

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If you’re in the USA, you can watch the match live on ESPN+

By building a team of allrounders, Lucknow Super Giants have been able to find a way out of a lot of tough spots, but the one thing they haven’t been able to shake is an extreme reliance on their top order. KL Rahul (537 runs at 48.8), Quinton de Kock (502 runs at 38.6), and Deepak Hooda (406 runs at 31.2) have carried a line-up where the others have collectively contributed only 789 runs at 17.2.A weakness that glaring would have pulled a lot of teams out of playoff contention, but Super Giants are here because their bowling has been exceptional. They took 96 wickets in the league stage at an average of 23.8 and strike rate of 17.1. They’re No. 1 in each of those metrics.

In the news

Krunal Pandya missed Super Giants’ last league game with a niggle. He’s had almost a week’s worth of recovery time. If it isn’t a serious injury, he should be back in the playing XI.Harshal Patel split the webbing on his bowling hand and his stitches came off on Tuesday. He should be fit for the game, he said on the team’s YouTube channel. In case he doesn’t make it, Akash Deep could take his place.

Likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rajat Patidar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Mahipal Lomror, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Shahbaz Ahmed, 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Harshal Patel/Akash Deep, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Mohammed SirajLucknow Super Giants: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 KL Rahul (capt), 3 Deepak Hooda, 4 Krunal Pandya, 5 Ayush Badoni, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Jason Holder, 8 Avesh Khan, 9 Dushmantha Chameera, 10 Mohsin Khan, 11 Ravi BishnoiIn Royal Challengers Bangalore’s last game, Virat Kohli looked as fluent as he ever has this season•PTI

Strategy punt

Maxwell has had a fairly fun time bowling to Rahul in T20 cricket: 23 balls, 23 runs and two wickets. Royal Challengers will be hoping the trend continues on Wednesday.Fingerspin can be used as a weapon against Maxwell too, with Krunal getting rid of him four times in 13 meetings. Krunal has very good numbers against Dinesh Karthik as well: 28 balls, 24 runs and two wickets.

Stats that matter

• Eden Gardens has hosted 16 IPL matches over the last four years and in each and every one of them the captain winning the toss has opted to bowl. Nine of those games have resulted in victories. The average first innings score here, since IPL 2018, is 183.
• Super Giants are yet to win a single match against the teams that have qualified for the playoffs in this year. So perhaps they’ll take heart that they are facing the bowling attack that has conceded the most sixes in IPL 2022 – RCB with 123 – on a ground that has the highest sixes per match ratio (17) since IPL 2018.
• Following up on a breakthrough 2021 season, Avesh Khan has yet again picked up at least five wickets in every phase of a T20 game. He’s the only player in IPL history to do it twice.
• This has been the year of Dinesh Karthik. He has the best death-overs strike rate (226.37) in the IPL (min 50 balls faced). It’s helped him find his way back into the Indian team. And now he has the trophy in his sights. Given all that you wouldn’t put it past him to correct his playoffs record which currently reads: 246 runs in 15 innings at an average of 16.4 and strike rate of 107.
• There has been a distinct difference in Rahul this season when he has batted first (425 runs at an average of 85 and strike rate of 149) and when he has batted second (112 runs at an average of 18.7 and strike rate of 101). His whole team has been having the same hang-up. Super Giants have lost four of the six games they’ve had to chase in this campaign.

The charity Chance to Shine has said it will have to cut its secondary school projects – which would severely impact girls’ cricket – unless they can secure another half a million pounds

George Dobell08-Feb-20181:17

Cricket becoming more open and accessible

Chance to Shine could be unable to sustain its work in secondary schools unless it is able to raise half a million pounds urgently.The charity announced a GBP3million grant from the National Lottery through Sport England on Wednesday which will help it expand its Street cricket programme. But concerns have grown that it will be forced to discontinue other parts of its agenda unless more funding is found.Those cuts are set to hit girls’ cricket, in particular, and leave the charity unable to build on the success of the England women’s team at the 2017 World Cup. ESPNcricinfo understands the most vulnerable schemes include the secondary school girls-only after-school sessions and the Chance to Compete scheme which provides state school children an opportunity to play competitive cricket – with hard and soft balls – on a level playing field, rather than seeing them eclipsed by children from independent schools.While the ECB provides the bulk of the funding for Chance to Shine’s work in primary school and Sport England provides the bulk of the funding for the Street programme, there is currently no funding for the secondary school work.”The real loss will be girls’ cricket in secondary schools as we’ve had a major impact in this area over the last four years,” Chance to Shine head of communications Fabian Devlin told ESPNcricinfo. “We know there’s a real appetite for cricket among girls in secondary schools and we also know that cricket can develop them socially, emotionally as well as physically. We need to raise at least £500,000 this year to continue running girls’ only school cricket clubs and our Chance to Compete scheme – without this we simply can’t run any cricket in secondary schools.”There was some encouragement for the charity on Wednesday, however. Asked by ESPNcricinfo whether the government could do more to support cricket, the new secretary for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Matt Hancock MP – himself a keen cricketer – replied: “Yes. Chance to Shine have done a brilliant job, which is one of the reasons we, through Sport England, are funding them with £3m today to expand the amount of community cricket.”They’ve done a great job in primary schools, but there’s more to do in secondary schools, especially now cricket is a sport played by girls and boys. The England women’s World Cup win was testament to how it has fully matured as a sport for both men and women. So, I absolutely think there’s more to do and I look forward to working with Sport England, the ECB and people who love cricket right across the country.”Hancock, Heather Knight and Lord Patel, an independent director at the ECB, were among the participants in a ‘Street cricket’ competition in Lambeth on Wednesday that marked the announcement of the £3m grant.Chance to Shine Street used the tape-ball cricket format to engage young people who have proved hard to reach through the traditional format of the game. Eight out of 10 participants are not members of cricket clubs, nearly a third live in the 10% most deprived areas of England and two-thirds of participants are from South Asian backgrounds. Street projects run somewhere in the country on 353 days of the year.

England’s players must retain the freedom to make their own choices on and off the field during the Ashes, says Kevin Pietersen

Andrew Miller27-Oct-20171:45

‘Getting drunk as a team is the best form of team bonding’ – KP

If England are to defy the odds and retain the Ashes in Australia this winter, then their players must retain the freedom to make their own choices on and off the field, says Kevin Pietersen, even in the wake of the incident in Bristol last month that led to the arrest and suspension of star allrounder Ben Stokes.Pietersen, who experienced the highs and lows of Ashes cricket in the course of his six campaigns at home and away, was famously sacked by the ECB in the wake of the 5-0 defeat on England’s last tour of Australia in 2013-14, despite having been their top-scorer in the course of a sorry campaign.

Pietersen on…

England’s squad ethos: “When I saw [Stuart] Broad during the Big Bash last year, he said ‘you really would love this environment’, but I don’t look back at things and want things that aren’t going to be there. I live a very happy life now, much better than anything I could be doing.”
England’s spin issues: “[Graeme] Swann got hit regularly on the last trip and I know that [Darren] Lehmann will probably tell them to do the same to Moeen Ali, and Moeen Ali is half the bowler of Swann.”
England’s batting after KP and Bell: “It’s probably not for us to say, to go chumping around, making statements about who’s replaced who. Other people can talk about those. I just know there are some very, very big frailties in that batting order.”
Stokes’ treatment by ECB: “The media in Australia are talking about the hypocritical side of my sacking compared to what they’re doing at the moment. I think the most pressure in the situation is on [Andrew] Strauss, if I’m honest. The players are what the players are. He’s made some big statements and some big decisions in his brief career, so the big pressure is on Strauss.”
Joe Root’s character: “I don’t know how Root captains, but he’s a free wheeler – he laughs, he jokes, I’ve always liked the way that he’s come across. I was out there batting when he walked out on Test debut, just really relaxed. He was like ‘hey buddy what’s up, how you doing?’ I was like ‘pfff geez, first Test match, pretty big Test match this … we have to draw to win in India’, but he was calm, and got 70 odd.”

And while he fears that Stokes’ potential absence is likely to be a fatal blow to England’s hopes of emulating the last successful Ashes tourists in 2010-11, he is adamant that the team will be beaten before a ball is bowled if they fail to embrace the full experience of a tour of Australia.”When we had the great tour Down Under in 2010-11, we had the most incredible couple of nights out at the start of that tour, which brought the team so close together,” Pietersen told ESPNcricinfo in an exclusive interview. “Before the 2013 trip, we were talking about having similar nights out to get the team bonded, but obviously it was too intense going into the 2013 series and those sort of opportunities didn’t present themselves – or weren’t allow them to present themselves – which caused issues.”I know that it sounds so stupid, but if you go and get hammered as a team on a night out – as senior and junior players – so long as you don’t do something ridiculously stupid, the bonds you can create there are better than any ridiculous sessions you can do in the forest in Germany. Those are the little bits and pieces of cricketing nous and sense of understanding a team that were good on that tour but horrendous in 2013-14.”This time around, England’s management has opted against any overt exercises in team bonding, such as the aforementioned trip to Bavaria in 2010-11 or a much-lampooned SAS training weekend in Stoke that preceded their departure four years ago. However, the issue has rarely been more in the spotlight than in the wake of the events outside Mbargo nightclub on September 25, when Stokes was allegedly caught on video throwing punches at two men in a street brawl.Regardless of the ramifications for Stokes, on this tour or beyond, Pietersen believes that the incident underlines the importance of personal responsibility for sportsmen who find themselves caught in the public eye, especially in the age of social media when camera-phones are ubiquitous.”Personal responsibility has grown men in any industry, I think,” he said. “It is key to your success and your development, because I think you can develop more as a person if you do things yourself.”I wanted to make mistakes to learn, but people always knew I was fully committed and that I trained my absolute backside off at the ground, and also away from the ground, and that’s how I would definitely like a team that I was involved in to behave.”It’s your job and your career, and if you mess it up, there will be another one on the conveyor belt that’s going to come in and take your place. So, if I was the leader of a group of players, I’d give them that rope and say if you’re going to go hang yourself, you’ll hang yourself.”You can go out as long as you’re sensible, it doesn’t matter. You have to enjoy your career, you’re away from home so much, you’re not in your own bed. You cannot just be ‘hotel, team coach, dressing room, practice, play, journalism, hotel, food’ … you just can’t do it, it’s just not in you. You’ve got to go out there and you’ve got to pick your moments, and when you pick them, you take that pink ticket and you have a good go.”Do whatever you want, but don’t get caught drinking at 2 o’clock on the morning before a game, don’t get caught fighting in the streets, don’t get caught doing things you shouldn’t be doing before the games and, in particular, before training days, because those always stood me in good stead for when I went into battle.”If you lost form and didn’t play well then I would support you because none of us are going to get things right all the time. But if you go and damage the reputation of my side, then I’d have issues.”Kevin Pietersen was England’s leading run-scorer during their 5-0 defeat in 2013-14•Getty Images

The need for England to intensify the bonds in this year’s squad is heightened by the imbalance of experience in their ranks, particularly in the batting. Their line-up for the first Test at Brisbane on November 23 could feature as many as three Ashes debutants in the top five, with Mark Stoneman likely to open alongside Alastair Cook, James Vince earmarked to bat at No. 3, and Dawid Malan incumbent in the middle order following a pair of half-centuries in the series win against West Indies in the summer.”I think without [Joe] Root or Cook, that batting order is incredibly weak, incredibly inexperienced, and with Stokes maybe not going, I mean, it’s even worse,” Pietersen said. “People say that ‘one bloke doesn’t make a team’, well, I mean one bloke who bowls 140kph, get important wickets, can hit 100 off 70 balls, can hit 200 off 100 balls in a Test match, and also, more importantly, catches everything at slip off the spinner, is a massive player. A massive, massive player.””The opening batting with Cook, that worries me,” he added. “No. 3 worries me, I think Root should bat at three, five worries me, six will worry me too if Stokes doesn’t go. I mean there’s a lot of numbers in that batting order. I’ve been in Australia this week, and they are very confident of their chances and they talk of some very big gaps in the English team.”Asked if Stokes’ absence would be a fatal blow to England’s chances, Pietersen responded: “Yep. A massive, massive blow. A huge, huge blow. A lot of TV channels and all the news channels [in Australia] are running stories about how England are going to miss Stokes.”But we never know. I mean I’m sitting here now, it’s an autumnal day here in London and we’re talking about England getting whacked. I’ve said that before and they’ve won. So I don’t know, but hopefully the cricket is good. I’m going to be commentating on the series and I just don’t want to see a one-sided affair like our last trip.”

New Zealand chased down Australia’s target of 276 with five balls to spare to go 1-0 up in the three-match Rose Bowl series

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-2017
ScorecardFile Photo – Amy Satterthwaite equalled Kumar Sangakkara’s record of four consecutive ODI centuries•IDI/Getty Images

Amy Satterthwaite’s unbeaten knock of 102 helped New Zealand women achieve their target of 276 with five balls to spare against Australia women in Auckland to go 1-0 up in the three-ODI series. Tight bowling from Lea Tahuhu, Holly Huddleston and Suzie Bates bowled Australia out in 48.4 overs after a flying start from opener Beth Mooney (100), and fifties from Rachael Haynes and Elyse Villani, had led them to 237 for 3. Satterthwaite, whose past three ODI scores were 137*, 115* and 123, compiled a record fourth consecutive ODI ton and sixth century overall.Satterthwaite came to the middle after the dismissal of opener Rachel Priest, who had added a solid partnership of 58 with Bates. Satterthwaite and Bates then added 41 runs for the second wicket before Bates fell for 55 in the 21st over, after completing her 22nd ODI half-century. The left-handed Satterthwaite then partnered Katey Martin (43) and Katie Perkins (29) in stands of 74 for the third wicket and 77 for the fifth wicket respectively to take New Zealand past the finishing line off the first ball of the final over. Satterthwaite, who reached her hundred with a four in the 49th over, was declared Player of the Match.File photo – Lea Tahuhu’s four wickets ensured Australia could not build on Beth Mooney’s century•Getty Images

Late wickets from New Zealand’s bowlers meant the last six Australia batsmen tallied only 28 runs among them. Mooney struck her maiden ODI century, while identical scores of 50 from Haynes and Villani – the latter’s first ODI half-century – gave Australia a platform to aim for a large total. But it wasn’t to be as Tahuhu finished with figures of 4 for 59, while Huddleston took three wickets.Satterthwaite said she was pleased beating a “classy” Australian side but remained wary of the opposition, to whom they lost the series last year after taking a similar one-nil lead.”Australia are a classy unit and they don’t roll over easily,” Satterthwaite said. “We were in this position [1-0 up] last year and Australia came back and ended up winning the series so we have a lot of hard work to do. We need to step up a notch because Australia will be coming back hard.”The win was New Zealand’s third straight limited-overs victory over Australia, after they clinched the three-match T20I series 2-1 in Australia last week.

India have finished at the top of the ICC Test rankings for the second successive year after beating Australia 2-1 in the four-Test series

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Mar-2017India have finished at the top of the ICC Test rankings for the second successive year after beating Australia 2-1 in the four-Test series. As a result of being No. 1 by the cut-off date of April 1, India will be presented with a cash award of $1 million by the ICC.India had gone into the home series against Australia needing to win one Test to guarantee their No. 1 ranking. The series victory also meant that India currently hold Test titles against all other teams, a feat previously matched only by Australia (twice) and South Africa.
Virat Kohli received the Test mace and cheque at the post-match presentation ceremony in Dharamsala. “The longest format of the game really tests a team’s character and I’m proud that we have proved ourselves to be the best,” he said.The race to No. 2 is still on. It will be decided on the fifth day in Hamilton, where South Africa need to come away with at least a draw against New Zealand to hold on to the No. 2 ranking and claim the prize money of $500,000. If they lose, Australia will pip them to second place.The ICC also announced that India offspinner R Ashwin will be awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for being the ICC Cricketer of the Year for 2016. Ashwin, who was also named ICC Test Cricketer of the Year for 2016, took 48 wickets and scored 336 runs in the eight Tests he played during the period under consideration – September 14, 2015 to September 20, 2016.

The chairman of selectors admitted MS Dhoni was not an automatic selection anymore, and made it clear that the next few months will see a lot of rotation in the ODI squad

Sidharth Monga in Pallekele14-Aug-20172:26

Rotation policy, fitness parameters in place for 2019 World Cup – MSK Prasad

MS Dhoni is not an automatic selection in ODIs anymore. A day after India announced the squad for Sri Lanka, leaving out Yuvraj Singh, chairman of selectors MSK Prasad was asked if Dhoni was a natural pick, if the name rolled off naturally as it used to: “Virat, MSD…””Whenever a player keeps ageing,” Prasad’s reply began. “I was just reading [Andre] Agassi’s book, Open, his life actually started after 30 years. Till then he won two or three. His actual life started after that. He lived with media pressure, ‘When are you going to retire?’ But he played till 36 and he won so many Grand Slams. So you never know. We don’t say it is an automatic this thing… but we will see. We are all stakeholders. We all want the Indian team to do well. If he is delivering, why not? If he is not, we will have to look at alternatives.”Asked if there had been a discussion around Dhoni, Prasad said: “Discussions happen about everybody. It is not just MS. When we pick, when we talk about combinations, we talk about everybody. You will also see in time to come.” Asked how confident Prasad was of seeing Dhoni in the 2019 World Cup and whether he was going to be rotated like other players too, he said: “We will see, we will see. The legend that he is, we don’t want to make it… but yes we have a plan.”This makes you wonder what the look of the team would have been if Rishabh Pant had enjoyed a good A tour of South Africa. “As far as Rishabh is concerned, he is one talent to watch out for the future,” Prasad said. “We have been grooming him for A tours. He went to South Africa on the A tour but he had a pretty ordinary tour but that doesn’t mean he is not on our radar. There is one more A tour coming up. We all know Rishabh Pant more as a Twenty20 player, so we will look at him in that format also.”Draw what you will from Prasad’s quotes about Dhoni and Pant, but he did make it clear that the next few months will see a lot of rotation in the ODI squad so that they can trim down from a base of about 26 cricketers they have shortlisted with the 2019 World Cup in mind. Some of the players rotated out – R Ashwin, for example – are going to play county cricket.The loss in the Champions Trophy final has prompted a rethink among India’s team management and selectors•Getty Images

Prasad clarified that their exclusion was part of the selectors’ plans. “It was hearsay [that counties had been in touch with players] Neither the players nor anybody else had intimated officially that they are going for county. Otherwise it is a clear case of resting them. Irrespective of whether they are playing county or not, we are resting them.” Prasad later corrected himself, saying rotating them was the more accurate term.When asked what necessitated the need for rotation, Prasad said: “If I put my hand on my heart and say after the Champions Trophy, we felt that we need to be a fitter and a stronger side. We felt that we need to raise our fitness levels and we needed to raise our fielding standards. We are trying to fix some fitness parameters and everyone has to strictly adhere to those parameters. We have two to three phases in those parameters leading up to the 2019 World Cup, and if someone fails to match those parameters, he will not be considered irrespective of whoever it is.”After the Champions Trophy, personally, the committee and I felt that we need to be much stronger. Skill-level, there are no two ways. Skill-level, we are number one in the world; when it comes to fitness, we need to raise our standards. The Indian team management along with the players and selectors sat and fixed certain parameters. This is the fitness parameters, this is the body texture. They have to match them. Today the entire world has got those standards. Including Pakistan [each team] has got certain parameters. Though we are slow, I am sure we will definitely catch up.”Prasad gave wholesome credit to the A team coach Rahul Dravid for giving the senior selectors ready-made choices. “We pick the best possible team but it is being nurtured very well by Rahul,” he said. “I think India is very blessed to have Rahul Dravid at A level. He is giving finished products to the senior team. Any player who is coming here is straightaway getting into the mould and is able to adjust. Whole credit goes to BCCI for having appointed Rahul Dravid, and him for having accepted it. It is always lucrative and glamorous to be a senior India coach, but accepting the A team we have to…”Such a legendary cricketer working with junior cricketers, our players are blessed to have such a wonderful… I was fortunate to be with Rahul last year. The amount of time he spends on each player is not like any other net session. Matches will be going on here, he will give a scenario, this is what it has to be, writes on a table, and takes each boy to the nets. Round the day he will be throwing down. I am surprised. And he carried everything by himself. He is a wonderful person to have at A level.”