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Test captain happy with Australia’s consistency and ruthlessness, but wants to keep trying to improve

Andrew McGlashan in Sydney06-Jan-2020Tim Paine admitted it was hard not to think about the mouth-watering prospect of the Test series against India later this year, after a dominant home season that saw them trample all over Pakistan and New Zealand with five vast victories.The 279-run victory at the SCG, wrapped up deep into the fourth day to mean none of the five matches needed a fifth day, capped a perfect Test summer for the home side and meant a full house of World Test Championship points to put them second behind runaway leaders India, who will arrive in November for four Tests.Before then, Australia’s Test side have a tricky assignment in Bangladesh for two Tests in June and a one-off match against Afghanistan early next summer, but facing off against India over four matches – two seasons after India’s famous win in Australia – is a massive target.ALSO READ: Stats – One win in 26 years, New Zealand’s woes in AustraliaWhile playing down any element of revenge for what happened last season, when Virat Kohli led a 2-1 success, Paine is looking forward to facing India will a full complement of first-choice batsmen and with the benefit of the experience the side has had over the last 12 months.”We are certainly a different side from what they played against last year and there’s more at stake with Test Championship points,” Paine said. “If we can continue our upward trend from the last 12 months, then you are looking at two of the best sides, so it will be an awesome series. They showed last year they have a pace battery that can be every bit as threatening as ours so it will be one to watch.”If we go to Bangladesh and play well and get some wins over there, then you come back to Australia to play India, which is quite a mouth-watering series for players and the fans. It’s hard not to be looking at that. We’ve got some people who’re employed in Cricket Australia who are already looking ahead at that series.”But for the main playing group, your goal is Bangladesh and you certainly can’t take it lightly. We went there before and won a Test and lost a Test. And all the reports from the guys who went there is that it’s a really, really challenging place to play particularly the time of the year we’re going to be there.”Paine had started this summer “expecting” to win all five Tests but said that the margins of victory did not reflect how hard his team were pushed. One of the most pleasing aspects for him was learning from the previous series against India and especially the Ashes in England, where they could not always hold their nerve at vital moments.”Think at times in England when the big moments came up we tried too hard and let the emotion of the game take over us executing our skills,” he said. “It’s about doing your role, and the teams that can do that win the big moments. There were periods of the Test series against India and England that we should have capitalised on, but through wanting it too much or putting too much pressure on ourselves we let opportunities slip.”So confidence, learning and having some experienced Test players back as certainly helped.”While the India challenge looms large, there will be some interesting selection decisions to be made for the tour of Bangladesh including how many of the quick bowlers they take, the extra spin options and the potential need for an allrounder. Paine, who will move into some commentary of the Big Bash before resuming the back-end of the Sheffield Shield season with Tasmania in February, wants his team to keep striving for improvement.”The moment we don’t think we can improve, we are going to be in trouble,” he said. “We certainly all as individual players can get better. If we can all do that, two, three, five per cent, then we’ve going to be a better cricket team again. We’ve got lots of upside as a team. In terms of what we can add to it, we’ve got a lot of options we’ve picked during the summer. We think we’ve got a lot of bases covered and a lot of flexibility. I think, at the moment, we’re in a really good place. But we’ve got a lot of improvement in it.”We’re becoming a more consistent team. We’ve probably been a little more ruthless. It’s a really good sign, after we let some opportunities slip in England. And we’ve got some real match-winners and great quality throughout our side. It’s an exciting team to be a part of.”

Ishan Kishan is named captain of the 15-man squad, which includes Abhimanyu Easwaran, Akash Deep, Riyan Parag and Mukesh Kumar

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2025Mohammed Shami has been named in the East Zone squad for the 2025-26 Duleep Trophy.Ishan Kishan, who scored two half-centuries in two innings for Nottinghamshire in the ongoing County Championship Division One, was named captain of the 15-member squad, which also included Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar and Riyan Parag. Abhimanyu Easwaran, part of India’s Test squad in England, was named vice-captain.Fourteen-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who struck the fastest century in youth ODIs on India Under-19’s tour of England last month, was among the six standbys.Related

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Shami, 34, was last in action in IPL 2025, where he picked up six wickets in nine matches for his new team Sunrisers Hyderabad. His last first-class game was for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy in November 2024. That was his only red-ball outing since his last Test match for India – the World Test Championship final in June 2023.There was no place in the East Zone squad for Sudip Chatterjee, Bengal’s leading run-getter in last season’s Ranji Trophy, while Sudip Kumar Gharami, their second highest run-getter, was part of the standbys.Virat Singh and Sharandeep Singh, Jharkhand’s top-two run-scorers in the previous Ranji Trophy, were part of the squad, as well as left-arm spinner Manishi, who took 22 wickets in seven matches.The six-team Duleep Trophy is returning to the zonal format, with squads picked by the zonal selectors, and the tournament will kickstart the 2025-26 domestic season. Last season, the tournament had four teams – India A, B, C and D – that were picked by the national selectors. East Zone will play the domestic season’s opening game against North Zone from August 28 at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

East Zone squad

Ishan Kishan (capt), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vc), Sandeep Patnaik, Virat Singh, Denish Das, Sridam Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Riyan Parag, Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Shami

Captain points to pivotal evening session when five wickets fell as West Indies’ quicks seized the moment

Matt Roller12-Jul-2020Jason Holder has described the fourth day of the Ageas Bowl Test as “by far the best effort” he had seen from a West Indies team during his time as captain and “one of the best” in his tenure.West Indies took five wickets at a cost of just 30 runs at the end of a long day in the field, with Holder making the vital breakthrough in dismissing his opposite number Ben Stokes for the second time in the Test before Alzarri Joseph and Man of the Match Shannon Gabriel shared four more.”It was a long hard toil and a hard-fought day for West Indies, and a day that definitely went in our favour at the back end,” Holder said. “The reason I say that it was the best day for me is down to the fact that every single time I asked for effort from those bowlers, no one said: no, I can’t, I’m too tired. They just all kept running in.ALSO READ: Blackwood writes history in his own way“At that stage when Stokesy and Zak [Crawley] were batting, the game started to look a little bit less likely for us to win. We knew we couldn’t lose – we backed ourselves not to lose – but we wanted to win the game, and we knew how important it was for us to win.”Yesterday’s effort was by far the best effort I’ve seen from this group. And not only the bowlers – the fielders kept running round, getting through the overs, and we all kept our energy up right throughout the day.”Holder said that once Stokes and Crawley had fallen within an over of each other, he sensed that “something special” was around the corner at a crucial moment in the Test.”We’ve had so many dark days in the past that we understand moments in the game that we need to seize,” he said. “If we wanted to win the game, we had to break the partnership. I was fortunate to come on and to get Stokesy out, then Alzarri got Zak caught-and-bowled and that was a very sharp chance.”When those two wickets fell, I knew we were in for something special, but it was just a case of us executing again. Then we got Jos [Buttler] and at the very end we were able to get Dom Bess who was a little bit annoying in the first innings.”West Indies have a wretched recent record in the first match of series away to major opposition, with their last win in such a fixture coming in Port Elizabeth some 13 years ago. Holder said that record, combined with the absence of England captain Joe Root, meant that he had considered a good start to the series to be “really important”.Jason Holder and John Campbell celebrate victory•AFP via Getty Images

“In the past we haven’t started series well and we’ve always had to play catch-up. England missing Root was a big miss [because] he’s a high-quality player. We thought it was an opportunity to really get into their inexperienced batting line-up.”It’s a massive, massive win. To beat England in England is no easy feat. We were able to do it last time we were here in 2017 so we all know what the feeling is like but things have changed drastically since then. They’re a massive unit in their backyard so to start the series this well is very promising for us and we feel proud about the way we performed.”This morning I woke up and I just wanted to fast-forward to the end of the day with us winning. At the start there were a few nerves… but we knew once we got a partnership the English bowlers would go flat. Credit to England, they threw a lot at us.”Holder also praised the 10 reserves on this tour, and suggested that a nets session at the Ageas Bowl before the first Test had been vital preparation. The majority of the reserves impressed in the intra-squad warm-up matches – in particular Joshua Da Silva, who made an unbeaten hundred in the second game – and Holder said they had been crucial to West Indies’ ability to hit the ground running.”I could have seen it [coming], the way we prepared. Our preparation was spot-on. Before this game we had one of the best nets session I’ve ever had, and it was led by those reserves who ran in and challenged our batters – they got them out quite a few times.”That sparked something within the group. I can’t ever forget the reserves who have come on this tour. I think a lot of credit has to be given to them for this victory, too.”

Senior internationals make the difference as Trent Rockets are undone after flying start

Andrew Miller24-Jul-2021Southern Brave 133 for 5 (Taylor 45*, Shrubsole 40*) beat Trent Rockets 110 for 7 (Sciver 44, Shrubsole 4-13) by 23 runsAnya Shrubsole and Stafanie Taylor produced crucial roles with bat and then ball, as Southern Brave recovered from a catastrophic opening gambit to ease to a 23-run victory over Trent Rockets in their opening match of the women’s Hundred at Trent Bridge.The two experienced campaigners shared in an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 76, making 40 not out from 30 and 45 not out from 31 respectively, before chipping in with five wickets between them in their defence of 134, Shrubsole topping and tailing the innings superbly for the game-sealing figures of 4 for 13 in 20 balls.Rockets’ own England stars did their utmost to keep their side competitive, with Nat Sciver top-scoring in the chase with 44 from 29, including a third-wicket stand of 66 with her partner, and fiancée, Katherine Brunt. But when both were extracted in the space of three balls, their challenge fell away.Power goes to Brave’s headsSmriti Mandhana, Danni Wyatt and Sophia Dunkley made for an imposing top three in Southern Brave’s ranks, and on a venue with Trent Bridge’s run-laden reputation, the expectation was for fireworks in the Powerplay … until it all went “splut”.Three dot balls from Brunt to Wyatt set the early tone – and the fourth would have been a run-out had Sammy-Jo Johnson’s throw found the stumps with Wyatt scuttling through for a reckless opening single. But two balls later, and with the first of her own set, Johnson made amends in priceless style. Mandhana lined up a swipe over the short leg-side boundary, but top-edged a steepler for Michaela Kirk to cling on well in the deep.Dunkley, England’s breakthrough star of the India series, drilled Brave’s opening boundary back down the ground, but perished on the drive five balls later, the victim of an exceptional first-time pick-up from Sarah Glenn at mid-off, and a sharp gather from Kathryn Bryce by the non-striker’s stumps.And Brave’s formless Powerplay was capped in Sciver’s first set, when Wyatt followed up a pull for four through square leg with a cramped top-edge to mid-on. The first 25 balls came and went with a scoreline of 17 for 3, and Rockets had grabbed an early stranglehold.Anya Shrubsole struck early in the chase•Getty Images

Taylor, Shrubsole pick up the pieces
Fortunately for Brave, the power in their line-up wasn’t limited to the top three. In Taylor, West Indies’ T20 World Cup-winning captain, and Shrubsole – England’s 2017 World Cup hero, albeit with the ball – there was oodles of seen-it-all experience lurking down their order.And they need all of it, as the wickets kept slipping away – Maia Bouchier threatened for a time with three forceful boundaries before a leading edge to cover off Sarah Glenn, and Amanda-Jade Wellington never got going in her 5 from nine balls. But from 57 for 5 after 55 balls, Taylor and Shrubsole racked up 76 unbeaten runs from the final 45, to set up an eminently defendable total.After staying watchful in the Powerplay, Taylor raised her tempo mid-innings, including a vast, swept six over midwicket off Glenn. But she was starved of the strike thereafter, facing just five deliveries between balls 43 and 71, and it was Shrubsole who signalled Brave’s late charge, taking ten off Bryce’s third set of five including a brace of cover drives, before a slap over wide long-on for six after picking Sciver’s slower ball.She continued her assault on Glenn with two more fours in her final five, before Taylor showcased her sense of timing at the death, denting Brunt’s exceptional figures with two thumps through backward square to finish unbeaten on 45 from 31.Rockets explode in Powerplay

Four, out, four, out, four. With a single in between whiles, Rockets launched their chase with an unsubtle opening gambit. Rachel Priest fell to a fourth-ball slog as Anya Shrubsole gained revenge for her earlier clout through square leg, while Lauren Bell dispatched Sammy-Jo Johnson with her own third delivery, having just been slammed over the covers.But Brunt arrived with a dismissive slap for four through point, and when Sciver followed a snick past the keeper for four with three more conventional boundaries in a row off Tara Norris, it seemed the tone of the chase had been established. But Shrubsole closed out the Powerplay by conceding just two more runs, and when Bell returned with three from five of her own, the tempo suddenly changed …Wellington’s five-ball maiden

Flight, loop, guile and turn… it was all on display as Amanda-Jade Wellington entered the fray with her legbreaks, and had Brunt in knots as she struggled and failed to counter her overspin. Wellington duly became the first bowler in Hundred history to serve up a “maiden” (the Sky commentators seem to think that terminology still exists even if “over” has been outlawed) and was instantly handed a second set to keep up the pressure. Brunt and Sciver scuffed a succession of singles to break the immediate stranglehold but only five runs from ten balls was an outstanding handbrake to Rockets’ mid-innings momentum.Pace off the ball was clearly the way to go, especially against the hard-heaving Brunt, who had struggled to 16 from 24 balls at the halfway mark of the chase, at which point the requirement was a stiff but obtainable 83 from 50. Sciver threatened to make it look insubstantial when she climbed into Stafanie Taylor with three fours in five, including a powerful reverse-sweep to disrupt her ploy of bowling wide outside off.But back came Bell to deceive Sciver with an outstanding back-of-the-hand slower ball, and when Taylor returned to end Brunt’s struggle with a top-edged slog to square leg, Rockets had slumped to 76 for 4 with two new batters at the crease. Despite the best efforts of Heather Graham at the death, the requirement was already out of reach by the time Shrubsole popped up with three in four balls to put the seal on a comprehensive win.

“I want to prepare myself physically and mentally for the event,” the Afghanistan quick said in a statement

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jan-2022Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq has decided to take a break from ODIs until the T20 World Cup in Australia, scheduled to be held in October-November this year. In a statement sent to the Afghanistan Cricket Board on January 2, Naveen said that he wanted the time to prepare to try and be at his best at the global tournament.”I have made a decision to take a leave from ODI cricket with immediate effect,” he said in the note. “My decision is based on considering the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia coming later this year, and I want to prepare myself physically and mentally for the event.”Related

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Naveen added that he would remain “fully available for national duty for all T20 games”.The 22-year-old has played seven ODIs so far since his debut in the format in 2016, the last of which came against Ireland in January 2021. That was also Afghanistan’s last match in the format. Afghanistan have not played too much cricket since then anyway, just a Test and T20I series against Zimbabwe in March and then the T20 World Cup in October-November, all in the UAE.Afghanistan’s next scheduled ODI assignment is one against Netherlands later this month, with the matches set to take place in Qatar. The three ODIs in the series are part of the ODI World Cup Super League.Apart from ODIs, Naveen has represented Afghanistan in 13 T20Is, and has also been a fixture in some T20 leagues around the world, most recently the Lanka Premier League, where he played for Colombo Stars and bagged ten wickets in nine matches at an average of 21.

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.

‘We’re a young team. We haven’t won much recently, and we’re trying to do our best to play together for our country’

Andrew Fidel Fernando21-Jul-2021After a stretch of losses, Sri Lanka had an ODI victory in their grasp, but let it slip. For a team low on confidence, it had to have been devastating. Batter Charith Asalanka, who had top-scored for Sri Lanka with 65, described what it was like to see the opposition’s eighth-wicket partnership take the game away.”We’re all emotional – the team and coaches are all emotional,” he said. “We’re a young team. We haven’t won much recently, and we’re trying to do our best to play together for our country. Everyone tried hard and took it to the final over, but unfortunately we couldn’t win.”This ended up being Sri Lanka’s ninth loss in 10 completed matches in 2021, but at the 40th over Sri Lanka seemed certain to win it. India still needed 67 runs off 60 balls at that stage, with two batters who have not had a lot of time at the crease recently. Sri Lanka had also saved two overs from Wanindu Hasaranga, and three from Dushmantha Chameera – their two best bowlers – for the last 10 overs. And yet were unable to break the stand between Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who took India to the target.”What we talked about in the 40th over was to push the game deep,” Asalanka said. “We wanted to increase their required rate. But they were successful because they didn’t lose any wickets. They had a plan to play Wanindu out defensively and get runs off everyone else, and it worked. If they’d tried to get runs off Wanindu, then maybe they would have lost. I guess the other bowlers have to talk and figure out how to get a wicket in that situation.”Sri Lanka were also sloppy with their ground fielding, conceding at least five boundaries that could have been stopped by outfielders. Asalanka noted this as an area to work on.”We did make some mistakes in the field, and we gave away more than 10 runs in the field. We need to fix that. Nos. 8 and 9 also scored runs, so we have to figure out how to stop that as well.”

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.”

The Australia batsman sustained a meniscus tear during the tour of the UAE but says the recovery is progressing fractionally ahead of schedule

Daniel Brettig08-Nov-2018Save for those belonging to Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja’s knee is arguably the most important in Australian cricket right now. So far, its recovery from a meniscus tear suffered during the tour of the UAE is progressing fractionally ahead of schedule, brightening Khawaja’s chances of returning to fitness in time for a Sheffield Shield match prior to the first Test against India.As the outstanding batsman of Australia’s remarkable draw against Pakistan in Dubai, Khawaja underlined why, in the absence of the banned Steven Smith and David Warner, he is the standout batsman in the country. His knee injury in warm-ups on day two of the second Test in Abu Dhabi left a gulf that has been made plain since, in the remainder of that match and also the first ODI against South Africa in Perth.While Khawaja’s status in the limited-overs plans of the coach Justin Langer was unclear ahead of the South Africa series, his chances of returning to the national team in white-ball formats will only grow with further underwhelming displays by others. For now, however, the No. 1 priority for him is to get fit in time for Queensland’s Sheffield Shield match with Victoria in Brisbane from November 27. It will allow him to spend time in the middle ahead of the first Test against India in Adelaide in early December.”Ideally, I’m going well towards then [the first Test] and, in an ideal world, I’d like to play a Shield game before then,” Khawaja said in Brisbane. “That’s the target, that’s the goal, but just have to see. Still three weeks until then, so if everything keeps going the same way it should be good.”It’s going pretty well so far, just over two weeks, ran at 100% yesterday on the treadmill, hopefully run outside tomorrow, so progressing well so far. The docs and everyone have been really happy with the progress, there’s a long way to go, just taking it day by day at the moment but hoping to be right sooner rather than later.”Khawaja’s loss of weight and significantly improved fitness since last summer was cited by Langer when summing up his Dubai innings – “look at him”, he beamed – and is now aiding his recovery from knee surgery. “I’m 10 kilograms lighter than I was in South Africa, maybe seven months ago. I’m sure that helps the knees in some respects,” Khawaja said.”My recovery is going really well so far, I’m trying to keep it cool, but it’s actually going really well. I feel like I’m a little bit ahead of where I should be and, at the moment, things are progressing well but it’s a long way still to go. If I keep doing the little things right, looking after my body and being disciplined, hopefully that’ll transition to me coming back in time.”In addition to taking him out of the Abu Dhabi Test match, Khawaja’s knee tear ruled him out of any ODI calculations, and he was blunt about stating that next year’s World Cup in England is high on his list of goals for the next 12 months. His initial sense of lost opportunity was balanced by his wife Rachel, who rightly pointed out that beyond the South Africa series there will be numerous other 50-over assignments between now and the naming of the Cup squad.Usman Khawaja’s 141 in 524 minutes is the second-longest fourth innings stint in Tests•Getty Images

“The team hadn’t been picked when I got injured, but I felt like I was putting my hand up and I really wanted to get amongst it and if selected play some one-day cricket,” Khawaja said. “Targeting that World Cup is a big thing, one of my major goals, I want to at least be a part of that squad. But there’s plenty more opportunities still coming. I was pretty down, that was one of the reasons, but Rachel my wife put it in perspective, she said there’s plenty more opportunities coming, so hopefully I’ll get my body right and go from there.”It’s one of my major goals to get back into the one-day side, I’ve had chats to Justin about it, he knows where I’m at too, but at the end of the day, we play a game, it’s all about performances. Hopefully when I’m right and things are going well, I’ll put my hand up through performances. But the guys playing in the one day side are very good players. I have no doubt they’ll come back strong. It’s been a tough time for Australian cricket in more respects than just on-field, so it’d be nice as a fan and a mate to a lot of those guys to see them do well.”Speaking at a time of enormous change at the top levels of Cricket Australia, while the national team struggles for results, Khawaja called for calm heads and counselled against a rush to judge the limited-overs team after only one home match this summer – even if it was a comprehensive hiding at the hands of the Proteas.”There is a lot of change in Australian cricket at the moment,” he said. “As players we stay out of it a little bit, but there is a lot of change going on at the moment and, to be honest, all I really care about at the moment is the team. You watch the guys play on screen for Australia, you watch the Queensland boys play. I’m not part of all the other stuff so it’s hard to comment on exactly what’s going on.”I know we’ve lost a whole bunch of one-dayers over the past year, but this series isn’t lost yet, we’re probably better off seeing what happens over the next two games then reassess as well. I don’t think it’s time for panic stations, sometimes you just need to sit back and see what happens.”

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