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Young batsman Hasitha Boyagoda also had a narrow escape – he was at the Colombo hotel with his family where one of the blasts took place

Madushka Balasuriya in Colombo22-Apr-2019Sri Lankan cricketer Dasun Shanaka was among the many who narrowly survived the serial blasts that rocked the island on Easter Sunday morning, leaving almost 300 dead and more than 500 injured.It might have unravelled very differently for Shanaka, the 27-year-old international allrounder, had he attended Sunday morning mass at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, his hometown, that day with his mother and grandmother. He chose not to, being tired after a 170-kilometre trip home from Anuradhapura the previous evening.”Normally I would have gone to church but the day before I had gone to Anuradhapura, so I was tired,” Shanaka recounted to ESPNcricinfo, his voice cracking. “That morning, when I was at my house, I heard a sound, and then people were saying a bomb had gone off at the church. I rushed there, and I’ll never forget the scene.”The entire church was destroyed, absolutely shattered, and people were dragging lifeless bodies outside.”He first looked for, and found, his mother, and took her to hospital, while his friends stayed behind to help others.”My first instinct was to look for my mother. Once I spotted her, I took her away from the area. Then I began looking for my grandmother, but when I heard that she had been sitting inside, my heart sank,” he recalled. “If you saw the scene, you would know there was no way anyone inside could have survived, because simply the debris from the blast had injured everyone even in the vicinity.”She (his mother) was near the window, but had been protected from the brunt of the blast by a nearby partition, and she suffered only minor injuries. Many of those around her had died.”When he returned a short while later, he found his grandmother inside the church and, almost miraculously, alive.”When I went looking for my grandmother, I wasn’t expecting to find her alive. But, as it turned out, the blast had hit and killed those around her, but she had been protected from severe damage by the bodies of the others,” Shanaka said. “In the end, she was hurt badly having been hit in the head with shrapnel, but we were able to take her to hospital for surgery.”Dasun Shanaka pulls through the leg side•Getty Images

As for Shanaka, he’s obviously distressed by the experience and his confidence has been dented: “I’m scared to go on to the streets, or to go to the hospital.”But his faith in the strength of the Sri Lankan people is not shaken.”There has never been a problem in Negombo in terms of inter-racial relations,” he said. “It’s always been a safe haven of sorts. There’s never been a problem with any community. The people here are very good and kind-hearted, and they don’t gossip or look into other people matters. I have no words to express how innocent and peaceful the people here are.”*5.35am GMT This piece previously carried some wrong information about Hasitha Boyagoda and his family

Injured knee responding well to treatment as she seeks to resume true allrounder role

Valkerie Baynes07-Jul-2023This Women’s Ashes series has been an emotional one for Nat Sciver-Brunt but, like the rest of her England team, she is hoping to ride a wave of positivity into another must-win game, at Lord’s on Saturday night.England have to prevail in the third and final T20I and the three ODIs which follow if they are to win back the Ashes, while Australia need to win just one of those four matches to ensure the series ends at least in a draw so that they can retain them.England triumphed by three runs in a thrilling match at The Oval on Wednesday to level the T20I leg at 1-1 and keep the multi-format series alive with Australia holding a 6-2 points lead with eight more points on offer. It was England’s first win against Australia in 11 completed matches across all formats dating back to February 2020 when they won their T20I in a Super Over in Canberra.”It just helps with the belief in our group,” Sciver-Brunt said. “The gap wasn’t that big. It was probably just a mental gap that we had before. Skill-wise I’d say we’re probably pretty evenly matched but you don’t become a world-class team for nothing. You have to know how to win from all places and all positions in the game. That’s something Australia have done really well for the last five or ten years.Related

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“The biggest shift has been in our mentality and how we go about it, especially in the big moments in the game. In T20 there’s so many little things that can happen to change the course of the match. So to have that belief and that resilience in ourselves throughout the match is really important… After the game it felt like, ‘oh, this is what we should be doing the whole time.'”There was a lot of emotion in the change room and, if anything, it will spur us on really to keep playing in the way that we have been playing. I guess it sort of validates that a little bit as well. We know Australia will be coming hard at us and hopefully we can combat that.”Sarah Glenn, the England leg-spinner who took two wickets as England defended a total of 186 for 9 built on an excellent innings of 76 by opener Danni Wyatt, also described an emotional atmosphere in the changing-room immediately after the win and, for Sciver-Brunt, it was a high that made up for some lows during the 89-run Test defeat at Trent Bridge, where she managed to bowl just 14 overs all up due to a knee injury.Sciver-Brunt didn’t bowl in the first T20I then went wicketless and conceded 18 runs from two overs in the second, although she said she was fit to bowl a full four overs if required at Lord’s. With the bat, she scored 78 and 0 in the Test followed by 7 and 23 in the T20Is.”I’m feeling good,” she said. “My knee’s recovered pretty well from a little injection after the Test match, so I’m really happy with how it’s going and much happier to being able to contribute to both sides of the game.”I had some inflammation in my knee which happened in my first over bowling in the Test match, and made it really painful to run and walk so the Test match week was a weird, emotional week for me.”I’ve played pretty much all my career as an allrounder and I thrive off being able to contribute to everything in the game – batting, bowling and fielding – so it was a bit emotional really that I couldn’t do that and felt like I was letting people down and things like that. I’m glad to be able to be in a good place to do that now.”Each contest in this series has been close, England pushing Australia at various stages in the Test and Australia only scraping a four-wicket win with a ball to spare in the first T20I at Edgbaston.Alyssa Healy, Australia’s captain, and England vice-captain Sciver-Brunt have both said their sides are yet to produce their best cricket in the T20Is, which augurs well for another bumper crowd expected at Lord’s. By Friday afternoon, nearly 20,000 tickets had sold for the match, after 20,328 attended The Oval and 19,527 turned out in Birmingham.The fixtures in Bristol, Southampton and Taunton are also all sold out, making the 50-over leg the first bilateral ODI series in women’s cricket to be a sell-out, according to the ECB.”Playing in front of that many people and riding that energy that you get from the crowd is something really, really special. Hopefully we can replicate that tomorrow night,” Sciver-Brunt said.Making the occasion even more special from Sciver-Brunt’s perspective is the fact that her wife, Katherine, the England seamer who recently retired after a 19-year career, will ring the five-minute bell at Lord’s where she was Player of the Match in the 2009 T20 World Cup final and won the 2017 50-over World Cup. That’s sure to be emotional too.

T20I selection criteria: “Who is hot at the moment, who is consistent, who has got the runs and where he has got the runs”

ESPNcricinfo staff15-May-202310:18

Runorder: What should India’s top six at the 2024 T20 World Cup look like?

Ravi Shastri wants India to move on from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for T20Is, and bring in high-performing, younger players the next time they play in the format.”First T20 series that comes up, play these guys [the youngsters], expose these guys. They [the selectors] should start blooding them right now,” Shastri said on ESPNcricinfo’s Runorder show, when asked about how soon players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jitesh Sharma and Tilak Varma should get a promotion.”Players like Rohit, Virat Kohli, they are proven, you know what they are all about. I would go in that [good performers in the IPL] direction so that they get the opportunities, they get the exposure, whilst you keep the Virats and the Rohits fresh for one-day cricket and Test cricket.Related

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“Your focus there with that kind of experience should move to Test cricket, red-ball cricket for the future World Test Championship, and they stay fresh [so that] there is not too much of cricket where there is an overkill.”But what if Rohit and Kohli, KL Rahul too, want to play T20 cricket?With the 2024 T20 World Cup still more than a year away, the criteria for selection should solely be “current form”, Shastri argued.”One year is a long time. Players can be in form, the form can disappear,” he said. “You will pick the best guys at the time, and then, of course, the experience will count, fitness will count. Who is hot at the moment, who is consistent, who has got the runs and where he has got the runs.”Shastri was also of the opinion that there should be a specialist for each position in the batting line-up and players shouldn’t be force-fitted in unfamiliar roles, and there should be a good mix of left-hand-right-hand batters in the mix.”It should be the right man for the right job,” Shastri said. “It shouldn’t be a guy who bats at three or four for his franchise, and suddenly you make him bat at six or open the innings when it comes to picking a team for India.”I would like the mix of left-hand-right-hand batting combination. Just like you look for a left-armer with the ball, I would like to see left-handers there. You see this IPL, teams that have done well, look at the mix that they have.”Shastri had earlier advocated for Hardik Pandya to become the full-time India T20I captain and believes that Hardik, based on the evidence with Gujarat Titans in the IPL, will get the right people in the right positions.”Oh, you will get that right with Hardik. He’ll get that right where he will want his six bowlers including himself and players for the right numbers,” Shastri said. “Just seeing the way he has captained Gujarat Titans, you can see there is a player for a number and there is a role which he will take forward to the Indian team.”With an impressive IPL 2023 so far (265 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 158.68), Jitesh has thrown his hat in the ring as a wicketkeeper-batter who can finish the innings strongly. But India already have Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson, who have been in and around the T20I side, and are possibly ahead of Jitesh in the pecking order. Not to forget Rishabh Pant, but he is expected to be out of action at least till the end of the year. The difference, though, is that Jitesh is a finisher.”If there are other good openers, you might want a wicketkeeper who bats at six or seven. Yet, if your opening is a bit weak, you might want to look for a keeper who might open the batting,” Shastri said. “That number becomes very important and what are your reserves, what are your strengths… Therein you fit in the bloke. It applies everywhere in that team.”

The head coach said he couldn’t quite “put a finger” on what was troubling his team

Shashank Kishore08-Apr-20232:41

Is David Warner fading as a batter?

The Delhi Capitals are “a long way off right now” but Ricky Ponting can’t fathom the reasons behind their collective failure just yet.On Saturday, they went down for a third straight time in IPL 2023 after falling 57 short of Rajasthan Royals’ 200-run target.”I can’t put my finger on why because I watch these boys train and prepare,” Ponting said. Their work has been really good, their training has been great, but it hasn’t come across in terms of results yet on the field.”If I could put my finger on it, I’d do something to change it. We need to do some more soul-searching as a group and talk about it. Maybe not tonight. I’ll just let the guys have a think of it. We may address it the next day, but we need to turn it around pretty quickly. Three games in and no wins…you can’t get afford to get off to bad starts in the IPL.”Related

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• Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler and Trent Boult help Royals thump Capitals

Ponting was also point-blank in his assessment that the Capitals found themselves chasing the game after just one over of each innings. Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed five boundaries off the first over, bowled by Khaleel Ahmed, and Jos Buttler soon joined in the fun, the pair adding 98 off just 8.3 overs to set the tone for the Royals.With the ball, the losses of Prithvi Shaw and Manish Pandey for ducks in the very first over to Trent Boult left the Capitals with a steep ask, not least because the batting line-up has had to be shuffled every game.Mitchell Marsh, who batted at No. 3 in the first two games, missed this game to attend his wedding in Perth, while their No. 4 Sarfaraz Khan was dropped. In came Rovman Powell, who had missed the second game, and Lalit Yadav for his first outing of the season.Delhi Capitals have lost their first three games of IPL 2023•BCCI

Then there was also the issue of David Warner working his way back into batting rhythm.”In the first two games, we sort of got to none for 40 early on and then lost wickets in the back part of the powerplay. Today was completely different,” Ponting said. “We were two down in the first over and you let your back to the wall from there.”You look at that aspect of our game, you look at our first two overs with the ball, they were none for 32 with eight fours and nothing else, it says our execution with the ball was way below what it needs to be. So, if you look at the first two overs of our bowling innings and first two overs of our batting innings, you put those together and it’s very hard to win games of cricket.”Ponting was then quizzed about Shaw specifically. After being done in by Mark Wood’s pace and Mohammed Shami’s bounce in the first two games, he was out to Boult’s late swing as he nicked a full delivery in trying to play an expansive on-drive. Shaw now has scores of 12, 7 and 0 in his three innings this season.There’s been a pattern to his struggles against pace. Six of his eight dismissals since IPL 2022 have been to short of back-of-a-length deliveries, but Ponting insisted it was swing and not pace or bounce that was playing on his mind against the Royals.”Probably it was the moving ball that worried him today,” Ponting said. “If any of you guys were at training yesterday and watched him bat, he looked like a million dollars. So, his preparation was great. It’s probably something we need to think about.”He’s now got a poor record against left-armers, it’s something every opposition would know, it’s something that we need to work on with him. But as I said we’re not going to point fingers at one person, we don’t do that at Delhi Capitals. We’re all in this together and have to play better as a group of 11-12 to get the results we’re after.”

Yasir Shah led the way once again, but the captain’s 89 and Watling’s resilient 42* have kept New Zealand fighting in the third Test

The Report by Danyal Rasool03-Dec-2018Day 1 Stumps This was a day of – pardon the cliché – proper Test cricket. It was a day that Yasir Shah threatened to hijack once more after an extraordinary pre-lunch burst that reduced New Zealand to 72 for 4, with three wickets lost for two runs. Equally, it was a day that Kane Williamson looked to have salvaged for his side with a phenomenally gritty partnership alongside BJ Watling, who finished unbeaten on 42 off 180 balls, having come in to bat all the way back in the first session. In the end, it was perhaps a day that concluded with as little to separate the sides as there had been at the toss, where a delighted Williamson had decided to bat first, as you do in Abu Dhabi.New Zealand went to stumps with three wickets still in hand, having accumulated 229 attritional runs across 90 overs. Watling kept the innings together after Pakistan looked like they would blow away the tail when Williamson fell, and on a track that is already taking in ludicrous turn for Day 1, every run he and the remainder of New Zealand’s batsman can put together could be priceless by the end of the week.Bilal Asif was just as impressive as Yasir throughout the day, though it wasn’t until the final session that he had something to show for it. That was when the pitch started misbehaving altogether more noticeably; the players might gave gone in for tea, but the pitch seemed to be on something stronger than that. The only problem the spinners had was the ball was turning too much, an unusual situation for the opening day of a match. Bilal accounted for Colin de Grandhomme this way, with a sharply turning ball flicked to leg slip, where Asad Shafiq completed a smart catch. Tim Southee, too, fell to the off spinner, and it was around then New Zealand were in danger of being bowled out on Monday before the late resistance of debutant Will Somerville in Watling’s company.But the day was arguably defined by the second session partnership of Williamson and Watling, which accounted for 104 runs in 249 balls. After Yasir’s salvo in the opening session, New Zealand were left to pick up the pieces, and the pair foraged and gathered rather well. New Zealand abandoned all other concerns but the defence of their wickets, not worried that the run-rate dropped like a stone. The pair scrapped their way through the 32 overs in the middle session, adding 72 runs along the way, but most gratifyingly, they had the asterisk next to their name that denotes their continued presence at the crease after tea.Even scoring at more than 2 per over in the session was a climb from where the run-rate was at one point: from overs 20-44, New Zealand added 45 runs to their total, going at under 1.50. In the second half of the post-lunch session though, Williamson began to capitalise as the bowlers’ lengths drifted more regularly, and brought up another plucky half-century. He was unbeaten on 71 by tea, but it was altogether slower going for Watling.The wicketkeeper batsman has been around the New Zealand setup for almost a decade now, and you could see why. Often, he has played innings with complete disregard for his own reputation or instincts, with his reserves of concentration seemingly never running low. Monday was another such day, where for the best part he was simply hanging around for Williamson, an anchor around which his captain built his own innings. He struck only one four in over two sessions of play, but it is that store he sets by his wicket that makes him such a valuable cricketer for the Black Caps. It is not the first time he has done so, and it’s unlikely to have been the last.Williamson, for his part, was desperately unlucky to miss out on what would have been a well-made hundred, chiefly responsible for ticking the scorecard along when Pakistan were at their most menacing. He was the one who declawed Yasir after lunch. He also seemed to take the fangs out of the pitch, which began to look treacherous after he had been dismissed. So supremely comfortable was he at the crease, that it was a shock to see him dismissed with such a well-rehearsed plan. Hasan Ali encouraged a drive on the up, where Asad Shafiq was perfectly positioned for a simple catch, sending the New Zealand captain back 11 runs away from a 19th Test hundred.In the morning, Yasir’s bruising body blows to New Zealand in the last 20 minutes before lunch undid much of the hard work of Jeet Raval and Williamson in the previous hour. It had all been going along steadily for the visitors before Yasir found prodigious turn to beat Raval’s inside edge, the ball clipping enough of leg stump to withstand a review from the batsman. That brought a very edgy-looking Ross Taylor to the crease, who went back to a ball so short it was almost a long-hop. It neither turned nor bounced, instead clattering into the batsman’s middle stump. Henry Nicholls’ dismissal was even softer, with the left-hander sweeping all around a Yasir googly, managing only to catch an edge that dragged it back into the stumps.The day had begun perfectly for New Zealand. The toss is more important here than just about anywhere in the world outside of Sri Lanka, with the side batting first only ever having lost once. But Pakistan, fielding 18-year old debutant Shaheen Afridi, found cheer in his first spell, trapping Tom Latham in front of the stumps. Fittingly enough for a young man with the future ahead of him, it was a review that got him the wicket, with the umpire originally having turned the appeal down.Having seen out a crucial passage of play late in the day, New Zealand will need to be up for another one early morning tomorrow. Instead of being skittled out under 225, the lower order has held its own against a surging Pakistan late in the day, even a new ball unable to dislodge the unflappable Watling, with Somerville playing an impressively composed innings on debut. So important is this first innings total any runs scored now already feel like a burden on a potential fourth innings chase, which, judging by the way today has gone, could come far sooner than the fifth day.

The offspinner believes starting games at 11.30am rather than 1.30pm would lead to fairer contests

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jan-2023Should day-night matches in India begin earlier to minimise the impact of the dew factor? R Ashwin certainly thinks so. The India offspinner wants matches at the upcoming ODI World Cup, which will be played in India in October-November 2023, to begin at 11.30am – a full two hours earlier than the usual start of day-night ODI games in India.In a video on his YouTube channel, Ashwin took the example of India’s first ODI against Sri Lanka in Guwahati to suggest that dew gives chasing teams an undue advantage. Sent in to bat, India batted with deliberate urgency keeping the dew factor in mind and posted a total of 373. They eventually won by 67 runs, but Ashwin felt the margin of victory did not reflect their dominance on the day.Related

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“India batted beautifully on a slow wicket and posted a score well above par. Still they ended up having to fight tooth and nail [to win],” he said. “The quality difference between the teams isn’t coming through – dew is narrowing that gap if you happen to lose the toss.”My suggestion – or rather my opinion – for the World Cup is to look at what venues we are playing in, and at what times. Why shouldn’t we start matches at 11.30am during the World Cup?”Day-night ODIs in India usually begin at 1.30pm, and extend well into the primetime television hours. While starting matches earlier may arguably lead to fairer contests, broadcasters may be against such a move given the potential risk of reduced viewership figures. Ashwin, though, suggested that fans would tune in to watch World Cup matches regardless of timing.”People will bring up television viewers and broadcasters, and say that people won’t latch on and watch at that time, but would they not latch on to World Cup matches?” he asked. “The recent T20 World Cup was also held in winter, prioritising the summer [for Australia’s home bilateral season]. It wasn’t the ideal scenario – T20 is a fast-paced game, how can you play it in winter? People will say that’s not the case in Australia, but still, we need to prioritise World Cups.”The ICC knows very well that there will be dew, so let’s advance the game, and if we start at 11.30am, the dew factor won’t come into the game, and why not? Won’t all cricket fans prioritise the World Cup and watch matches at 11.30?”As things stand, Ashwin suggested that teams around the world look at dew as one of the most significant factors in shaping day-night games in India.”ECB recently invited applications for the analyst’s position, and – I came to know this through some analysts I know – one of the important questions they asked was, ‘How big a factor is dew in Indian conditions in white-ball cricket?’ They’re looking to bring in the best analytical tools possible ahead of the 2023 World Cup, and they’ve asked all the pertinent questions, so you can see how crucial everyone in world cricket thinks the dew factor is in Indian conditions.”

Legspinner moves north after seven seasons with Middlesex

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Dec-2022Legspinner Nathan Sowter has agreed a one-year contract with Durham after being released by Middlesex.Sowter, who was born in Australia but qualifies as non-overseas due to a British passport, had a spell on loan at Durham during last summer’s Vitality Blast, taking eight wickets in seven matches.”It is great that we have been able to secure Nathan Sowter to Durham for next season,” Marcus North, Durham’s director of cricket, said. “Nathan impressed during his loan spell in the summer and will bring a wealth of experience and quality to complement our current spin options in the shorter format.”Sowter was Middlesex’s third-highest wicket-taker in T20 cricket, with 71 at 20.33 over the course of seven seasons at Lord’s. He is expected to play in the One-Day Cup for Durham, depending on his involvement in the Hundred, having been in Oval Invincibles’ squad in 2021 and 2022.Sowter said: “I am really excited for this opportunity to come back to Durham after a short loan spell last season. I am looking forward to making an impact and contributing to success on the pitch with Durham.”

Captaincy during low-key warm-up is another step in the development of England No.3

Vithushan Ehantharajah26-Nov-2022Ollie Pope only knew the day before that he would be captaining England in their warm-up match against the Lions in Abu Dhabi. While sitting at breakfast with Zak Crawley and Jack Leach at the team’s plush Ritz Carlton hotel, head coach Brendon McCullum casually sidled over and informed him he would be leading in Ben Stokes’ absence.”Classic Baz style,” Pope says. “He was like, ‘you’re gonna skipper this week – all good?’ And I was like, ‘absolutely, I’m looking forward to it’.”There are two things at play here. The first is that McCullum and Stokes want to challenge players to take on more responsibility and grow as voices in the dressing room. The second is Pope, beyond being an immensely talented batter, is identified as someone who can be coaxed a little more out of his shell for the benefit of himself and those around him.That Pope called up Stokes after his appointment as Test captain, and more or less demanded to bat at No.3, rather changed the perception of a boyish scamp who can’t help but have a go at anything outside off stump. And the management clearly believe there is more of this type of character within him. Putting him out of his comfort zone – he had only captained once before in professional cricket back in September 2021, for Surrey in a County Championship match against Glamorgan – was clearly their way of bringing it to the fore.Pope’s first day as deputy was spent largely at the crease, flaying the Lions for 146 as England posted 501 for 7 declared. Day two was one of chasing leather as the Lions kept their senior counterparts in the dirt with 411 for 9. Alas, there was no third day in the gig as England opted for a two-hour training session instead. So, how did he find it?”I enjoyed it actually,” Pope says. “I was curious as to what it would be like captaining someone like Jimmy [James Anderson] but I actually really enjoyed it. I wasn’t sure whether he’d want to set the field his own way but it was good and we bounced off ideas.”It was a pretty flat wicket so, on a pitch like that, it makes it a bit more difficult rather than Jimmy just getting four slips and he’s just going to nick everyone off. You had to find different ways to get batters out and it was good trying to be creative like that, but I enjoyed it and all the boys were top draw and brought into it.”Pope cedes he’d never really considered captaincy. Beyond doing the job for Cranleigh School and Surrey Under-17s, it was not something he coveted. The FEC (Future England Captain) tag was loosely affixed to him early in his career, simply because of his undoubted ability that saw him win the first of 30 caps against India in the 2018 summer, aged just 20.Four years on, and heading into a historic tour of Pakistan, he is a little bolder when addressing leadership – both in the long-term future for England, but also when it comes to tactical collaboration within the current team, on and off the field.Ollie Pope, standing in as captain, made an assured century in Abu Dhabi•ECB Images

“I don’t go ‘oh I’d love to be England captain’, but at the same time I believe I’ve got a good cricket brain. I think about cricket a lot and I think I see the game in a way where I don’t just think about my batting. Whether that be for Surrey or whoever, if an opportunity arose, it’s something I’d definitely be keen to do.”I mean, obviously, we’ve got the best captain in the world at the minute. Everyone’s loving playing under Stokesy but if it was something that happened in the near future, amazing. Something that I’d love but at the same time I realise I’ve got to score my runs. I don’t want to be looking too far ahead about that stuff. I want to keep concentrating on the No.3 spot. It’s also something that takes your mind off batting, so I enjoy thinking about the game like that. With Stokesy, there’s a lot of boys who bounce ideas while he’s skippering as well.”Pope is quick to point out he is not the vice-captain, officially or otherwise. Stokes has been reticent on the subject of his second-in-command, though Stuart Broad – not on this tour following the birth of his first child – was understood to be primed for the role over the summer.”No, I’m sure there’ll be a time if they ever want to announce someone, then they will, but it’s nothing like that,” Pope says. “I think everyone at the minute has as much say and, if there’s a conversation to be had and you want to give your ideas, then great, but there’s no tag on it. The natural leaders and the guys in the team who have got something to say will usually say something but, at the minute, it’s pretty much a level playing field on that front.”Shedding the “wunderkind” tag is still a work in progress for Pope. Beyond adopting a “grown-up” position at first drop, the raw numbers still need to develop. His career average is 31, and there are just two centuries to his name, the second coming this summer as his first in home conditions. He does, however, feel that little bit more mature, and that little bit more self-assured, thanks to a close-knit England environment that encourages individual growth.Related

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• Mark Wood in doubt for first Test after World Cup hip injury

• Ben Stokes puts prep over precedent as England ease towards Pakistan challenge

“I felt it a little bit in the summer,” he says of being regarded as a senior member of the group. “Playing at three for England in Test cricket is a big role to have and it’s an important role for the team. As soon as I was given that role, I saw myself as a bit more of a leader than when I was batting at six, which I really enjoyed.”It’s nothing that’s necessarily changed. I think it’s the way everyone’s feeling in the team at the moment. We’re feeling like it’s our team in a way, rather than boys feeling like they’re playing for their places. It’s more like ‘this is us, this our team, we can own it, we can dictate how we want to play’ and I think everyone’s probably feeling an aspect of that as well, which is great for the whole squad and the management as well.”Pope’s record last summer was solid: 456 runs at 38, with four fifty-plus scores. Perhaps most encouraging was the manner in which he overcame a poor start – 7 and 10 in the first Test against New Zealand – to make 145 in the next innings against the same opponents at Trent Bridge. His credentials at No.3 were questioned but he approached the issue with far more positivity than he usually would, seemingly deciding on a whim to worry less about a couple of low scores and more expressive. With distance, now, he reflects on the season with more clarity.”I was very happy with how the summer went, [but] it wasn’t necessarily the numbers,’ he says. “I averaged 38. That’s not amazing but at the same time I was happy with my contributions and on tougher wickets, finding different ways to negotiate bowler friendly conditions, which is what I was happy with.”Rather than scoring runs when everyone else is scoring runs, score runs when you can stand up and lead the innings,” he adds. “It might not be a 100, but even if it’s a 70 or an 80 or an 60, that’s probably what I was most pleased with from the summer. Hopefully the hundreds will come on better wickets, where I can maybe play a bit more conventionally, but I’m happy with how I went about this summer and I learnt some good lessons as well.”I learnt that you don’t need to hit a million balls a day in practice, and you don’t need to overtrain to find success. It’s about being full of energy and being confident on the day and almost trying to enjoy the week a bit more, rather than thinking ‘oh I need a score’. But there’s always room for improvement. If you turn those 5s into 30s and those 70s into 100s, then that’s the way you’re having an amazing summer, rather than a good summer.”Maturity will come in handy over the next month. Not just because of the challenges that Pakistan offer on the field, but with a return to constricted living day-to-day because of the level of security in place. Pope was open about the challenges of similar restrictions during the 2020 summer, with bio-secure bubbles during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and how the lack of escape meant “you think about your failures a little more than normal”.”I was pretty new to international cricket at that point and my mood pretty much was dependant on how many runs I scored that day, rather than being at peace,” he says. “Not just watching a screen and playing Call of Duty but finding other ways to take your mind away from cricket and just enjoying each other’s company more.”More time together as a group, looking out for each other and focussing on three back-to-back Tests will ease that strain, somewhat. Pope, by all accounts, is wiser and more at ease about what is to come.”The boys are buzzing for it and I can’t wait to see the crowds out there,” he says. “Even with the levels of security, it’s going to be fingers crossed, a smooth operation. It’ll be great to be a part of and great to experience as a player, being the first English Test team to tour there in a long time. So we’re buzzing for that but it’s going to provide its challenges and we probably won’t be allowed out of our hotel much. We’ll find ways, whether that’s card games … I think Keats has got his coffee machine, so just doing small things like that.”The fact that we’ve had a bit of time in Abu Dhabi, we’ve been able to get out on the golf course and do a lot of training and have our warm-up game has been good, and once we’re out there, we’re pretty much straight into it. There’s not going to be too much downtime anyway.”

Wicketkeeper-batsman has been confirmed as overseas signing for four County Championship matches

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Jun-2018Quinton de Kock, South Africa’s wicketkeeper-batsman, has been confirmed as Nottinghamshire’s overseas signing for four Specsavers County Championship matches towards the end of the season.De Kock, who is expected to be in Sri Lanka with the South Africa squad next month, will be available for the trips to Hampshire and Surrey in August, as well as two home matches against Yorkshire and Essex in September.He has been signed as a specialist batsman, with Tom Moores now established as the county’s first-choice wicketkeeper since the retirement of Chris Read last season.De Kock, 25, made his Test debut in 2014 against Australia and has since gone on to amass nearly 2,000 runs at an average of 38.20, including a career-best of 129 not out against England.”I’m very excited about joining Nottinghamshire and playing at one of the best grounds in the world at Trent Bridge,” said de Kock.”I enjoyed playing in England during the 2017 tour with South Africa and I am looking forward to coming back over and putting in some good performances for Nottinghamshire.”The team has made a brilliant start to the season in the Championship and hopefully when I come over we can be challenging for the title in the final rounds.”De Kock endured a tricky time with the bat in the 3-1 Test series defeat against England last summer, averaging 23.12 in four matches with a top score of 68. However, his pedigree is not in question as he approaches his prime as an international cricketer.”Quinton is a fantastic player and we can’t wait to welcome him into our squad for the Championship run-in,” said Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell.
“He’s one of the best batsmen in the world across all formats and he will add some further firepower to our Championship batting order.”Knowing that we only had Ross Taylor for the first three months of the season we have been working hard to secure world class replacement for the back end and Quinton certainly fits that bill.”He’s in the same mould as Ross in the fact that he likes to score quickly and play in an attacking style and I am sure he will enjoy the late summer pitches in England.”Overall in his first class career, de Kock has scored over 4,000 runs, with nine centuries and 27 fifties, and he is hoping to translate those numbers into further scores during his first county stint.

Michael Vaughan has suggested Stuart Broad feels he is beyond criticism after his comments at the end of the first day’s play in Leeds

George Dobell02-Jun-2018Michael Vaughan has suggested Stuart Broad feels he is beyond criticism after his comments at the end of the first day’s play in Leeds.Vaughan, the former England captain who has moved into the media, suggested in the run-up to the Test that England should consider dropping Broad (or, to a lesser extent, James Anderson) in order to “ruffle some feathers”.But Broad hit back after his good performance on the first day of the Leeds Test, saying that Vaughan “doesn’t know what the changing room is like” and didn’t have much insight.”I think it was a bit of a wild guess,” Broad said, before suggesting Vaughan was motivated by self-publicity. “It’s [about] personal columns and radio shows that need ‘likes’ and airtime, isn’t it?”Broad also confirmed that he had phoned Vaughan to register his “disappointment” at the comments. But Vaughan, responding on BBC’s Test Match Special programme, defended his views and suggested Broad had spoken prematurely.”You have to be careful when you choose a time to come out and attack like Stuart did last night,” Vaughan said. “England are still 72 runs behind Pakistan. They haven’t won this Test match yet.”The comments last night were geared as though they had won the game. He’s a senior member of the team and I don’t think it was the right time to plan that attack.”With the way the England team have played for a long period of time, they have had a great first day. To come out speaking like that after one good day after having only four or five good days in their past eight or nine Tests.”You have to be careful in sport that comments can come back to bite you but, on the other hand, it is entertaining. And that is what we want in sport. My only concern is that they are speaking like that after one good day.”I got the sense last night it was ‘you can’t criticise me. I’m Stuart Broad and I’ve been in the team for a long time.'”Nick Compton, who came in for a lot of criticism from Vaughan during his spell as an England player, also spoke out on Twitter saying: “About time someone shut that t&@t up.” He later removed the Tweet.”The reasons why I said they should consider [dropping Broad] is that I felt the England Test team needed to ruffle a feather or two,” Vaughan continued. “It has been very comfortable for a long period of time and one of the options might have been to break up the senior bowling pair.”If the criticism over the last few days has geed them up to go out there and prove us wrong, great.”I think the Test team for too long has been a lovely place. Lovely and comfortable. They win games and series when the ball swings around, but they don’t do it on a consistent basis.”So, you have to look at every aspect of the team to think about how you can trigger them into a more consistent performance.”