Category: Sports

Across the two Test matches in West Indies, Jasprit Bumrah showed his class, he showed his skills and he showed why he is India’s X-factor across all the three formats. To sum it all up – he picked up 13 wickets in 2 Tests at an average of 9.23 and strike rate of 22.6. This includes two five-wicket hauls as well as a hat-trick. His Test career has spanned 21 months and in this duration, he has broken into the top 3 Test bowlers in the ICC rankings. There is more to Bumrah than just the jittery run up, the unorthodox action and the extremely stable temperament – it is the skills and it is the hours spent trying to hone his craft.

While we should not jump the gun and refrain from pitting him against the all-time greats, the prospect is extremely tantalising. His average of 19.24 is the 14th-best in the history of Test cricket for bowlers who have picked up a minimum of 50 wickets and when we filter it down to the fast bowlers. he stands at the eighth position.

After the first 12 Test matches, Bumrah averages 19.24 which is amazing. Yet, even as we blink, we compare him to the averages of Waqar Younis (19.33), Allan Donald (23.21), Dennis Lillee (24.18) and Jeff Thompson (27.26). Now, after these stunning numbers, we might just forget to blink again.

Despite this stupendous start, the fast bowler wants to stay grounded, ask questions, improve and learn. He keeps adding new tricks to his repertoire and this is where he could just be India’s best ever fast bowler.

Former Australian captain Steve Smith has reclaimed the number 1 spot in the latest ICC Test rankings. He has toppled Indian captain Virat Kohli from the perch after Kohli was dismissed for a first-ball duck in the second innings of the Jamaica Test match. However, Kohli’s India are top of the ICC Test Championship with two wins in as many games, and the captain himself overtook MS Dhoni to be India’s most successful Test skipper. However, having made 76 in the first innings against West Indies, he was dismissed by Kemar Roach in the second-innings of the Jamaica Test match.

Smith was on the top spot his since December 2015. It was only in August 2018, when Smith was serving a ban for his role in the Newlands ball-tampering scandal, that Kohli overtook him on the charts, after reaching career-high rating points in the series against England.

The Australian No.4 has fought his way back up the charts in his first series back from the ban, making twin centuries in the first Test against England and 92 in the second. He now averages 63.2 in Test cricket.

Kohli’s next chance to challenge Smith will be in the home Test series against South Africa, starting on 2 October.

Elsewhere on the batting charts, India’s Ajinkya Rahane returned to the top 10, rising four places to No.7, after following up his half-century and hundred in Antigua with another useful half-century in Jamaica. Hanuma Vihari, described by Kohli as “the find of the series”, shot up 40 places to No.30 after just six Tests.

Despite being a prolific batsman in limited overs cricket, Rohit Sharma has not managed to nail down his spot in India’s Test side despite getting a number of chances. After a stellar World Cup campaign, Rohit was once again included in India’s Test squad for the West Indies series, but Hanuma Vihari was preferred over him in the first Test at Antigua and the young man vindicated this decision with typically gritty Test knocks.

Former Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir believes that Rohit will now have to wait for his chance to stake a claim in the Indian middle-order as both Hanuma Vihari and Ajinkya Rahane showed their pedigree in the first Test match at Antigua.

“He (Rohit) has got to wait for his opportunity. There is Rahane, who has done well now and Vihari too. So he has to wait and when gets that opportunity, he needs to perform,” Gambhir told PTI.

An under pressure Rahane scored a timely 81 and 102, his first hundred in two years while Vihari made 32 and 93 as India romped to a 318-run victory.

“I am not at all surprised (with Rahane’s performance) but it was a much needed performance, both from individual and team’s point of view. And when it comes in a winning cause, it doesn’t get better than that,” said Gambhir, who played 58 Tests and 147 ODIs for India.

MS Dhoni’s international return seemed highly unlikely after he was left out of the 15-member India T20 squad for the upcoming three-match series against South Africa. The MSK Prasad-led selection committee announced the squad on Thursday, with Rishabh Pant as the sole specialist ‘keeper in the side. According to a BCCI insider, the present selection committee has decided to look beyond the former India captain.

Dhoni decided to take a two-month sabbatical after the World Cup and although the three T20 internationals in September fell into his recluse period, The Indian Express has learnt that the veteran ‘keeper-batsman wasn’t even considered.

“Ahead of the West Indies tour, the selection committee decided give proper opportunities to Pant. Actually, the present selection committee is only looking at Pant, as he is being groomed,” sources told this paper.

Before the West Indies tour, Dhoni had an informal discussion with chief selector Prasad during which the former had left his cricket future at the hands of the selection committee. Prasad, on the other hand, had laid out Indian cricket’s future roadmap. As the Indian team went to West Indies, Dhoni, an honorary Lt Col of the Territorial Army, patrolled the Kashmir valley as part of his training with the with the 106 TA Battalion (Para).

South Africa were given an early dose of the spin test that lies ahead of them over the next couple of months as Yuzvendra Chahal claimed a fifer to fast-track India A’s victory over the visitors’ A side in the first one-dayer in Trivandrum. Chahal’s effort came on the back of a powerful batting display headlined by an unbeaten 121-run stand for the seventh wicket between Shivam Dube and Axar Patel, which powered the hosts to 327.

Temba Bavuma’s decision to field early in the morning was not entirely unfounded. With the prevailing monsoon in the south-west of the country, interruptions of any kind would naturally favour the fielding team. As it happened, the match itself was reduced to 47-overs-a-side because of a wet outfield. But none of it had any impact on India A’s batsmen as Shubman Gill led an early blitz to stitch a half-century stand with fellow opener Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Gaikwad contributed only 10 to the opening stand before falling to Beuran Hendricks. Gill, who slammed seven boundaries in his 47-ball 46, was prized out by the visitors’ best bowler of the day – Bjorn Fortuin. The 24-year-old left-arm spinner also accounted for Manish Pandey but not before the India A skipper had scored a breezy 39.

When Indian captain Virat Kohli announced his side at the toss, there were a few skewed eyebrows over the exclusion of Rohit Sharma from the side. Rohit has been in superb form in white-ball cricket and hence, had a great chance of establishing his name even in Test cricket. However, India decided to go ahead with Hanuma Vihari as the middle-order batsman and the young man vindicated the decision by playing an assured innings in the first dig and then following it up with a confident knock of 93 in the second innings.

Speaking at the end of the match, Kohli said that he was aware of the discussions which keep happening around India’s playing XI, but the decisions to include or exclude players from the side were always cumulative keeping in mind the best interests of the side.

“Vihari got a nod because the combination is important. He’s an effective part-time bowler and helps us when we need to catch up with the over-rate. We have a group discussion and then we decide what’s best for the team. There will always be opinions about the XI, but people will know that it’s in the interest of the team.,” Kohli said after the match.

The Indian bowling attack led by Jasprit Bumrah has had world cricket sit up and take note and another example was dished out by the pacer and gang at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Sunday when they decimated West Indies for 100 in their second innings after plundering 343/7 declared, to set the hosts a target of 419. It was once again the clinical show of the bowlers that stood out on a wicket that didnt really have any demons in it.

Speaking to IANS, former India opener Virender Sehwag said that it is the consistent show of the bowlers in recent times that has made the Indian outfit world beaters and the No.1 ranked Test team.

“It is not that we didn’t have quality bowlers before. In my time we had the likes of Javagal Srinath, Ashish (Nehra) and Zaheer Khan and its great to see the way Jasprit Bhumrah, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the likes of Umesh (Yadav) — he has been around for a long time — have performed. It is good to see the way these bowlers are bowling — and ensures we are a formidable line-up,” he said.

Interestingly, while India decimated West Indies in Antigua on Sunday, Ben Stokes played a blinder in Leeds to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the Ashes for England. While he was one of the most destructive openers of his time, Sehwag has always had a special place in his heart for Test cricket and he believes that such performances are definitely brilliant advertisements for Test cricket and the World Test Championship that started with the 2019 Ashes.

mbati Rayudu has hinted at a sensational return to white-ball cricket months after announcing retirement from international cricket due to World Cup snub.

Rayudu has confirmed that he would play in the Indian Premier League. Rayudu said he was looking forward to being part of the IPL with Chennai Super Kings.

“I haven’t thought much but I would prepare well to come back to white-ball cricket as soon as possible. I love the game, obviously. See ambition and targets are one thing but it still is the game I love. It is about playing cricket,” he said.

“Of course, who will say no to India?” Rayudu said when asked if he was open to selection to the national side.

“So, I thought why not take it forward? Nothing like a target or anything. But my first priority would be to get fully fit. I have not played cricket for a while now and it would take me maybe a month and a half to get fully fit,” he added.

Rayudu was not included in India’s original 15-member squad for the World Cup 2019 and all-rounder Vijay Shankar was preferred over him. Chief selector MSK Prasad had stated that Shankar’s 3-dimensional qualities made them pick him over Rayudu, who wasn’t too happy with the decision.

But then the injuries to opener Shikhar Dhawan and Shankar left the door open for the selectors to pick Rayudu as a possible replacement. Rayudu was even in the standbys list along with Rishabh Pant for the World Cup.

It’s been two years since he last got a Test hundred but Ajinkya Rahane didn’t want to be “selfish” thinking about his own milestone when the priority was to get his team out of the woods. Coming in at a precarious 25 for 3 on the opening day of the first Test against West Indies, Rahane scored 81, an innings he values more than a hundred. In fact, he knew a question would pop about missing out on a hundred, having last scored one against Sri Lanka back in 2017.

“I knew this question was coming and I was ready,” he smiled when asked at the day end media conference. “As long as I am at the crease, I am thinking about my team, I am not a selfish guy. So yes, I am not too concerned about the hundred as I thought 81 on that wicket was really crucial as we are now in a decent position,” said Rahane after India finished the day at 203 for 6.

A century would have been nice but what mattered more was playing according to the demands of the situation. “See, as long as I am contributing for my team is what matters. Yes, I was thinking about my hundred but the situation we are in — 25 for 3 was tricky. As I have said, I just thought if I could contribute for my team. I am not too concerned about my hundred as that will come automatically,” the 31-year-old said. He spent a couple of months with Hampshire in English county, playing seven games in which he scored a hundred and a fifty.

The Mumbaikar feels that it’s too premature to say whether the stint proved beneficial or not but it certainly helped him get him some quality batting practice.

Virender Sehwag is known for his straight talk and the former India opener was in his elements during a recent event in the capital. The explosive opening batsman, who could well be called India’s biggest match-winner in Test cricket in the first decade of 2000s, spoke about a range of cricketing issues during the event. Talking about his one time idol and then teammate Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag revealed that there is one record of the Little Master’s that no one can come close to breaking. Current India captain Virat Kohli has taken over from Tendulkar as the batting talisman of the team and has been piling runs like a machine across all formats.

While Kohli looks poised to break Tendulkar’s ODI record of most centuries pretty soon, if he keeps going at the rate in Test matches and ODIs, he could end his career with the records of most runs and centuries in both these formats. But Sehwag thinks there is one record that not even Kohli can break.