After a frustrating summer with injury the legspinner will be a key weapon for Lancashire at Edgbaston

Matt Roller02-Oct-2020Over the last four seasons, Lancashire are the only team in the T20 Blast to have bowled more overs of spin than seam, and have won more games in the competition than anyone other than their semi-final opponents on Saturday, Nottinghamshire.Their spin-heavy strategy is born of their home conditions: on slow, dry Emirates Old Trafford pitches with vast square boundaries, batsmen generally have to settle for taking ones and twos to fielders in the deep, or end up holing out if they dare to take on Lancashire’s spinners.Not that they are home-track bullies. “We tend to go away and just back our spinners to be good enough to perform on any pitch,” explained Matt Parkinson, who is the Blast’s leading wicket-taker since 2017 and has been Lancashire’s main spin threat. “We’re probably known for the spinners coming in the middle – the club have done that for a long time, going way back.”Parkinson has been one of nine spinners used by Lancashire in the Blast in the last four seasons. Stephen Parry is still at the club but has been used only once since 2018, while Zahir Khan, Mark Watt and Glenn Maxwell have all come in for a single season. Arron Lilley, primarily a batsman in T20, has moved to Leicestershire, but Steven Croft, Liam Livingstone and young left-arm spinner Tom Hartley now form the core group supporting Parkinson.ESPNcricinfo LtdTwice in three years they have rocked up at away quarter-finals expecting flat pitches on small grounds to negate their spin threat, only for the surface to play into their hands: at Canterbury in 2018, Sam Billings bemoaned a “slow snot-heap” and at Hove on Thursday, Parkinson admitted that the side had no real idea what a good score would be on an uncharacteristically sluggish hybrid.”I didn’t think it would break up the way it did,” he said. “We probably underestimated [our score of 140] thinking we were meant to get 170-180, which is what the stats say is a good total here. The past two away quarter-finals, we’ve gone down there with some nerves about whether it would suit our spinners, but both times we’ve done well.”In fact, “done well” is an understatement: Hartley, Livingstone and Parkinson took 8 for 50 in 9.2 overs between them to roll Sussex for 95, and secure a Finals Day berth.Strategically, a crucial factor was that Sussex fielded only one left-hander in their top six, the explosive Delray Rawlins. For all three spinners, their stock ball turns in against left-handers, which has meant that their economy rates have been significantly better against right-handers over their Blast careers – though Livingstone would likely have used his offbreaks against Rawlins.Datawrapper/ESPNcricinfo LtdBut Luke Wood pegged back Rawlins’ off stump inside the Powerplay and ensured a right-handers’ bloodbath in the middle overs, with all three spinners turning the ball away from the bat and foxing the Sussex middle order with subtle changes of length and pace.Things could be tougher against Nottinghamshire in the semi-finals: they have two left-handers in their middle order in Ben Duckett and Tom Moores, both of whom possess excellent T20 records against spin. Parkinson tends to be expensive against lefties, but also takes a wicket every 10.65 balls against them; captain Dane Vilas will have to decide whether he should stick or twist.For Parkinson, this has been a frustrating summer, and one he is desperate to end on a high note. His economy rate (7.84) and average (22.92) are still good, but higher than he is used to, and after making his ODI and T20I debuts over the winter he missed the Ireland series with an ankle injury and was not involved in the Pakistan and Australia squads.

A good night for @mattyparky96

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“It has [been frustrating],” he said. “I was fit all of lockdown and then got in the bubble – the closest you’ll get to an England squad – and had an absolute nightmare.” He hurt his ankle during a fielding session, and has had it strapped throughout the Blast.”I had a couple of setbacks: I was meant to play a red-ball game and then slipped in the warm-up, so it hadn’t been a great three or four weeks. I can’t tell you [what I did] other than that it was really sore for six weeks. I had a big boot on for a while. I did some ligaments and all sorts really – it was a bit of a mess.”As for whether he was considered for selection for the Pakistan and Australia series? “You’d have to ask them,” he said. “I haven’t heard from them in a long time. But to perform [on Thursday] was obviously awesome: I was keen to get to Finals Day just to play two more games of cricket, and try to go on a little roll to finish with some stats that people are used to.”And will he be practising bowling at the stumps with Saturday’s forecast diabolical and the prospect of bowl-outs if things don’t clear up on Sunday? “I don’t think I’ll be working on that too much. It’s just a lottery, isn’t it?”

The inconsistency of England’s top three batsmen may tip the scales slightly in India’s favour

Ian Chappell31-Jan-2021No sooner is one serious challenge accepted and robustly brushed aside than another is on the doorstep.The upcoming India versus England Test series has the potential to be an enticing contest similar in intensity to the one recently completed in Australia.India will start as favourites after an exhilarating victory over Australia, overcoming all obstacles. When you add the name Virat Kohli to the batting order, the team suddenly assumes a bulletproof cloak. In also adding the names R Ashwin, Hardik Pandya and Ishant Sharma to the list of available players, India take on an unbeatable appearance.Likewise, England can point to improvements they can make to the side that won convincingly in Sri Lanka. The availability of a premium player in Ben Stokes who, like Pandya, provides all-round ability and selection flexibility, albeit at a higher level than the Indian, is a big plus. And Jofra Archer adds substantially to the quality of an already strong pace attack.However it’s the top of the England order, where another returning player, Rory Burns, will reside, that the scales tip in India’s favour.India’s top three feature an impressive Shubman Gill, a talented but flawed Rohit Sharma and the indomitable Cheteshwar Pujara, which places them well ahead of England’s top order.Dom Sibley possesses the grit and determination required for success at the highest level but there are questions about his technique against the best international bowlers. In India and Australia he will face two of the best in fairly quick succession so that question will be answered in the next 12 months.Burns is another in the same category as Sibley, and if both players fail the challenges England will be in trouble unless Joe Root continues to score at his current freakish level.Related

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Zak Crawley, like his Indian counterpart Gill, is talented and has great potential. Nevertheless his failure to contribute in Sri Lanka raises concerns that need to be put to rest quickly and there’s no better place or time to do that than in India.Unfortunately, any advantage England might gain from Root’s incredible form at No. 4 is immediately negated by India’s best batsman also holding down a similar position. Rarely does a series feature two such well-credentialed No. 4 batsmen.The middle order of both teams are a mixture of explosive stroke play with a touch of steadiness for good measure. Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant and the possible addition of Pandya have India well placed to take full advantage of any good start. The ability to swiftly accelerate the scoring is nearly as important to winning Test matches as the capability of taking 20 wickets.England are similarly placed with Stokes and Jos Buttler as their lethal weapons. The possible return of Ollie Pope would add some dependability to the threatening nature of that section of the batting order. However Buttler’s departure after just one Test and the possible return of Ravindra Jadeja to the Indian line-up would swing the scales further in favour of the home team.The presence of Archer, along with the skill and experience of stalwarts Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, would normally provide England with an advantage in the pace department. However India’s improvement in that category is amply illustrated by their performance in matching Australia’s much-vaunted pace attack in two successive away series.Not only does India now have quality pace bowling but they also have it in comforting quantities following the depth displayed in Australia.For years now the rest of the cricketing world has rested uneasily in the fear that India would finally utilise its population advantage by nurturing and selecting its best talent. That day has finally arrived.These mouth-watering Test series are to be savoured. With all the challenges Test cricket faces – Covid-19 just being the latest – the future of the format is not guaranteed to be as generously giving as it has been in the last few months.

There is plenty of fast bowling talent in the country, but is sustained growth possible?

Mohammad Isam13-Jan-2021The darkest period of Bangladesh’s pace bowling has finally broken to a bit of a dawn. While the inevitable fading away of Mashrafe Mortaza added to the gloom, the pace surge in the two domestic tournaments of the 2020-21 season has been encouraging. The senior pacers have turned a corner with their fitness and form while a group of youngsters have emerged with a bit of verve.In the season-opening BCB President’s Cup, eight of the top ten wicket-takers were all pace bowlers. It was one better in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup when nine out of the top ten wicket-takers were also pacers. It is hard to remember the last time so many pace bowlers were among the wickets in any domestic competition, let alone two on the trot.This surprise stems from the atmosphere in which Bangladesh’s pace bowlers have generally operated in the last four years. The senior team’s management is very spin-oriented at home. They didn’t bother to pick even a token pacer in home Tests against West Indies, Afghanistan, England and Australia, since 2016. This spin-only strategy has given them home wins against three of those four teams, but it also resulted in a humiliating loss to Afghanistan.That last defeat, and a generally ineffective pace attack in overseas conditions, has instigated scrutiny on this lop-sided strategy. Russell Domingo, the current coach, has vowed to move away from this mentality and while his intentions are appreciable, changing the country’s pitches and its long-standing outlook will take a very long time.The pacers’ surge even amid thinning interest from the powers-that-be and the absence of Mortaza has put special interest ahead of the West Indies series that starts next week.”Mashrafe has been an outstanding player for the country for a long time but it [his absence] gives the likes of Rubel Hossain, and Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin [Hossain] and Mustafizur [Rahman] the opportunity to step up and take the lead,” Bangladesh bowling coach Ottis Gibson told ESPNcricinfo. “I am sure the experience that Mashrafe has, cannot be replaced, but I am sure these guys will see it as an opportunity to step up over the course of the three years leading up to the 2023 World Cup.”Bangladesh is generally a place you hear a lot about spinners, but then I have seen the likes of Rubel and Taskin doing well, Al-Amin improving and Mustafizur working hard on swinging the ball back into the right-hander. Ebadot [Hossain] and [Abu Jayed] Rahi have done well in Tests. Khaled [Ahmed] is perhaps one of the quickest bowlers in the country. Somebody like [Mohammad] Saifuddin has been really good for the country, too.”Gibson said that the second wave of pace bowlers who have emerged in the last couple of seasons has been a much-needed boost to Bangladesh’s barren fast bowling coffers.”I expect great things of Hasan Mahmud who has emerged as an outstanding young prospect. Shoriful [Islam] is a tall left-armer, and someone who has made a name for himself in the President’s Cup after a very good Under-19 tournament. He has been drawn into the senior side now. Sumon Khan and Mukidul Islam have had good outings in the [recent] domestic competitions,” he said.According to bowling coach Ottis Gibson, Mustafizur Rahman is working on perfecting his inswinger to the right-hander•BCBMohammad Salahuddin, the two-time BPL winning coach who was recently Gazi Group Chattogram’s head coach during the Bangabandhu T20 Cup, had a few words of caution though.”There is a visible improvement in pace bowling,” he said. “Maybe in the first two tournaments of the season, the pitches helped them and the batsmen haven’t been really in good rhythm. So they did get to dominate the cricket. Winter is also a factor in our conditions, which helps the pace bowlers.”Taskin did well in the President’s Cup, but couldn’t quite replicate it in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup. They will understand the challenge better when the batsmen slowly get back into the groove. There’s a definite improvement but we will get a better picture when they start playing more regularly in February.”So far though, the pacers’ surge has been fairly impressive. The lockdown in Bangladesh since last March became a great opportunity for many cricketers to bring back focus on fitness. Taskin and Rubel were at the forefront of this drive.”Players have become more aware and professional,” Mizanur Rahman Babul, the Gemcon Khulna coach who has worked with many of these young pace bowlers over the years, said. “They have also understood the necessity of being professional in their overall approach. Those in the national team have personal trainers but the importance of fitness has also grown among those outside the national team.”They now take the initiative to raise fitness levels, even if there’s no cricket around. I think it has become a general trend across all cricketers in Bangladesh.”Taskin’s improvement in pace and fitness has been the most eye-catching. He has turned to working with Mahbub Ali Zaki, the BCB pace bowling coach who helped him when he had to correct his action in 2016. Zaki said that Taskin had to change his fitness routine to get leaner as well as maintain his action’s “balance while being explosive”.”I tried to replace Taskin’s skin fold by developing muscle mass,” he said. “He has been given a target to reduce his skin fold, to get to at least close to what Mushfiq has, while keeping his current weight.”We are trying to get him to be balanced while being explosive in his bowling. This is to ensure that he doesn’t just bowl line and length, but also at a high pace. He is doing a lot of these bowling drills, sometimes even at his garage at home.”The improved fitness levels among these pace bowlers first came into light during the BCB President’s Cup in October. Taskin returned as one of the fastest bowlers, but even more refreshing to see, even for seasoned coaches like Salahuddin was the accuracy among some of the younger lot.”Among the new lot of tall, well-built fast bowlers, the likes of Hasan Mahmud, [Mukidul Islam] Mugdho and Shoriful [Islam] are quite accurate,” he said. “They know where to bowl. They can swing the ball and also produce extra bounce. Such bowlers usually can take benefit from all types of wickets.”The Bangladesh senior team training for the West Indies series in Dhaka•LightRocket via Getty ImagesBut Salahuddin said that Bangladesh still require a fast bowler who can sustain his pace for longer periods, especially in Test matches. “These young bowlers will need a bit more pace. They have to bowl intelligently. But we don’t have an out and out express fast bowler, who are required in Test cricket where they can force out a wicket.”Gibson, who is about to complete one year in the Bangladesh role, explained how the lack of overs in domestic competitions has a direct connection to how fast bowlers can regress even in helpful conditions.”We have had a one-day and a T20 tournament, but to get them ready for Test cricket, we have to get time on their feet and miles in their legs, bowling and standing out in the field all day, and then being physically able to manage that workload and come back on the next day to replicate what they did on that first day,” he said.”Our fast bowling programme is a work-in-progress, but the selectors and board have had a message from me: if you want fast bowlers ready for Test cricket, especially in overseas conditions, they need to be bowling more in first-class cricket.”I have spoken to the selectors that if you want to develop a core group of fast bowlers, they need to be able to bowl more overs, 15-20 overs a day, in domestic cricket. At the moment, they average about 10-12 overs but to be better and more consistent bowlers they have to bowl more in domestic cricket.”Zaki meanwhile said that the current lot of pace bowlers is relatively young, which puts the onus on them to remain fit for a longer stretch, so that they can serve the senior side in the long run.”It is important that our experienced bowlers maintain a high level of fitness to keep them at the international level for the next five to ten years. We should definitely expect to see improvement in our more experienced players. They are not too old. These bowlers can give another five years of service to Bangladesh cricket.”A captain has to rely on them to either get him wickets or stop the run-flow, every time he gives any of them the ball in hand. They would be expected to be accurate in whatever skill they execute,” he said.It is crucial that this pacers’ surge isn’t a false dawn, as has been the case so many times in the past two decades. It is hard to forget how Mashrafe himself forged an impressive pace attack, albeit in the limited-overs format, that got Bangladesh important success in the 2015 World Cup and the landmark ODI series wins later that year. But all that work collapsed in the face of a team management bent on home dominance that they preferred playing Test matches on slow and dry pitches that turned from day one.But having a working pace attack even in home Tests has always meant that the bowlers will have enough confidence to do the same job in overseas conditions where Bangladesh can slowly build a reputation as an all-round side.

Before Adelaide, India had been dismissed for 100 or fewer four times since 2000

Dustin Silgardo19-Dec-2020100 all out vs England, 2nd inns, Mumbai, 2006
Shaun Udal never played a Test after this, but in Mumbai in 2006, he produced an iconic moment with his offspin when he dismissed Sachin Tendulkar to leave India 76 for 5 in chase of 313. Udal ended with four wickets, including that of a young MS Dhoni, and England secured a 1-1 draw in the three-match series. It was always going to be a tough chase for India on a fifth-day Wankhede pitch, but their star-studded batting line-up did not even put up a fight. England’s quicks accounted for Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, and Udal did the rest. This was England’s first Test win in India since 1985.99 all out vs New Zealand, 1st inns, Hamilton, 2002
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India’s batsmen could not handle the extreme swinging conditions in New Zealand on their 2002-03 tour. In the first Test, in Wellington, they had been bowled out for 161 and 121, and in Hamilton, they failed to reach three figures in the first innings. Daryl Tuffey ripped through the top order, dismissing Sanjay Bangar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar for single-digit scores. India actually managed to claw their way back into the Test, dismissing New Zealand for 94 in their first innings, but a second collapse meant New Zealand won by four wickets.Virat Kohli’s disastrous 2014 tour of England came to an end when he nicked off yet again•Getty Images94 all out vs England, 2nd inns, The Oval, 2014
India were bruised and battered by the second innings of the fifth Test of their 2014 tour of England. After going 1-0 up in the second Test, they had been beaten soundly in Southampton and Manchester and were dismissed for 148 in the first innings at The Oval. England had responded with 486, batting India out of the Test for all practical purposes. There was little fight in the second Indian innings: Jimmy Anderson removed M Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara early, Virat Kohli’s poor tour came to an end when he nicked behind yet again, and Dhoni was sent back for a duck as India were bowled out in less than 30 overs and lost by an innings and 224 runs, their third biggest defeat in Tests.76 all out vs South Africa, 1st inns, Ahmedabad, 2008
On a first-day pitch in Ahmedabad, South Africa’s quicks put in one of the finest displays of fast bowling on Indian soil as they ran through India in 20 overs. Makhaya Ntini started the collapse, dismissing Wasim Jaffer in the fourth over. Dale Steyn then got Virender Sehwag to chop on before Ntini got two more, Laxman leaving one that was angled in and Ganguly playing on. Then Steyn produced one of his best Test deliveries, getting one to seam past Dravid’s edge and hit the top of off stump. Morne Morkel got in on the act with two quick strikes before Steyn wiped up the tail to finish with 5 for 23. A double-century by AB de Villiers in South Africa’s first innings put the game beyond India.

The club has endured a tough run since the 2015 fixture, but things are looking up

Matt Roller14-Apr-2021Six years have passed since Leicestershire’s last fixture at The Oval, but the game is not easily forgotten by anyone associated with the club. Winless in the Championship for two-and-a-half years at the time, Leicestershire were at the receiving end of one of the most extraordinary county innings in recent memory, as Kevin Pietersen struck 355 not out and asked the ECB: “What more can I do?”The innings itself was only part of the story. Sixteen months after his last game for England, Pietersen sensed a way back after a change of the guard at the ECB, with Colin Graves, the new chairman, encouraging him to play for a county if he had genuine ambitions to return to international cricket. At the end of the second day’s play, when he had reached 326 not out overnight, Pietersen met with Andrew Strauss, the incoming director of cricket. Strauss confirmed that the door would remain closed.”There was so much press around The Oval going into it, but we went into it as a normal day,” recalls Rob Taylor, the former Scotland allrounder who went wicketless in the first innings. “[Kumar] Sangakkara and Pietersen were both 35 not out at the end of day one and we thought it could be a fairly long day, but Clint McKay got Sangakkara pretty early on and we thought ‘now let’s get KP’.”Ben Raine said something to him at one point, and he came back with a pretty good response. I think he questioned what Ben had ever done for English cricket and Rainey just said: ‘yeah, fair enough mate’. It was one of those moments where you try to take yourself out of the game and realise that it’s pretty special. We went through stages when if we’d had 15 fielders, it still wouldn’t have been enough.”County team news

Surrey have named a 14-man squad for Thursday’s fixture at The Oval, with Liam Plunkett and Kemar Roach coming in for the rested Gus Atkinson and Reece Topley.

Alzarri Joseph, Will Young, Wayne Parnell and Kraigg Brathwaite will make their debuts for Worcestershire, Durham, Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire respectively after completing quarantine periods, while Hanuma Vihari is expected to be available for Warwickshire.

Stuart Broad and Olly Stone will make their first appearances of the season, facing one another at Trent Bridge. James Anderson and Mark Wood are both rested again.

Leicestershire had started the season under a new captain and coach in Mark Cosgrove and Andrew McDonald, and had no answers to the questions Pietersen posed. He added 101 for the ninth wicket with Chris Tremlett, who made 30, and 139 for the tenth alongside Matt Dunn, who made 5. All told, he racked up 36 fours and 15 sixes to give Surrey a 265-run lead.Perhaps the most chastening aspect was what came next. In their second innings, Leicestershire racked up 480 in 161.1 overs, leaving Surrey a seemingly impossible target of 216 in 24 overs on the final evening; Pietersen, who had suffered a calf strain, was not required, as Steven Davies’ unbeaten hundred saw Surrey home with 14 balls to spare.”The club had a few issues at the time,” Taylor says. “Winning the T20 in 2011 was a highlight but it was pretty slim pickings after that, with a phase of a number of different coaches coming in. Macca [McDonald] set his stall out to change thing and we did start winning a few games, and things started looking up.”It was only a month later that Leicestershire finally broke their 992-day duck by beating Essex in Chelmsford, and the following season, they managed to avoid the wooden spoon for the first time since 2012. They were back at the bottom of the pile in 2017 under Pierre de Bruyn, and while they were not far off promotion in Paul Nixon’s first season as coach, in 2018, the following year again proved to be a struggle.Leicestershire started the season with an innings defeat at home to Hampshire, James Vince making 231•Getty ImagesThere were glimmers of optimism in 2020, with a win against Lancashire the highlight of the club’s Bob Willis Trophy campaign, and a tied quarter-final against eventual T20 Blast champions Nottinghamshire that saw them eliminated on wickets lost. And despite a chastening start to this season, with an innings loss against Hampshire, the club is positive that it is on the right track.There has been a change in personnel, too. Lewis Hill, who made his maiden first-class ton in the 2015 fixture at The Oval, is the only member of that squad still on the staff, and while some players continue to leave for pastures new – Zak Chappell and Tom Taylor are notable recent departures – there is now a core to build around in the Championship, featuring Colin Ackermann, Hassan Azad, Callum Parkinson and Gavin Griffiths.”We were the second-youngest team in the opening round of games,” Sean Jarvis, the club’s chief executive since last March, says. “You’ll have the highs and the lows with inexperience. Our players have been hurting and were disappointed with the manner of the defeat but they have been training hard and will try to bounce back this week.”The group we’ve been placed in is with a lot of first-division teams but our lads want to pit their wits against those players. Each game we go into, we want to progress. It’s a baptism of fire for us to take on teams like Hampshire, Surrey and Somerset, but that’s what we want.”Off the field, the club appear to have navigated its way through a tough financial period, and while money remains tight, there are positive signs. Three promising young players in Rishi Patel, Ed Barnes and Scott Steel were brought in from Essex, Yorkshire and Durham respectively over the winter, while Marcus Harris is in line to play his first game of the season next week. Then Josh Inglis and Naveen-ul-Haq will arrive for the T20 Blast. Sponsorship deals have been signed following a “charm offensive” with local businesses, and the return of crowds from May 17 – and maximum capacity from June 21 – will be an important landmark.Related

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“We can’t get crowds in soon enough,” Jarvis says. “The impact of the pandemic is still hurting us. We’re up to about £1.5million of missing revenue and that will carry on. We’ve sold out hospitality for the Yorkshire fixture on June 25 already and are trying to get additional hospitality in just for that game to generate income. Previously the club would have accepted 70% capacity for that game but not anymore – we want sell-outs for all of our T20 fixtures.”More immediately, the focus is on turning things around after the defeat against Hampshire, against a Surrey side which will feature Kemar Roach for the first time this season. The clubs have not met at all since 2015, following Surrey’s promotion to Division One and with the regional split of the domestic white-ball competitions keeping them apart, and both teams come into the game on the back of opening-round defeats.”It seems like an exciting place to be with Nico in charge,” Taylor says. “Things are starting to happen and you’re seeing that on the field. Leicestershire have always given young players an opportunity to come through – I don’t think it’s ever going to be one of those big-hitting clubs but it’s certainly one that can punch above its weight.””Leicestershire’s recent history in Championship cricket has not been the best and we want to start the process of changing that, which isn’t going to happen overnight,” Jarvis adds. “We’ve drawn a line under it and this is the start of our new journey. What went on all those years ago with KP is an old book. This is a new one.”