Asad Shafiq’s prominence in Pakistan’s rise would have perhaps been a bigger deal, had he been a player from cricket’s Big Three

Osman Samiuddin in Melbourne22-Dec-20160:54

Shafiq’s record-breaking run at No. 6

The most Asad Shafiq thing that happened to Asad Shafiq on the day that the most heroic Asad Shafiq innings to date ended, just short of having led what would have been Test cricket’s most remarkable chase, was a triple century by an Indian batsman. For the briefest of news cycles, the world toasted Shafiq. A few hours later it moved, agape at the newest Indian batting wonder and Asad Shafiq went back to being Asad Shafiq.Permission for a little navel-gazing here, because why this should be the case is easily and comprehensively explained by this: the cricket media in Pakistan is not the cricket media of India, England and Australia. Not in size or noise, not in weight and not in rigour. With the career Shafiq has had to date, his prominence in the side and to the side’s rise, he would’ve been, it’s not ridiculous to imagine, a far bigger deal than he is currently, had he been a national of cricket’s Big Three.We would know every little grain of his cricketing life; the struggles, the hands and eyes that shaped him as he grew, the breaks of luck and heart, the streets and fields he hung out in. His technique would by now have been opened up and dissected by a bevy of current and former coaches, the little adjustments pored over in detail, the periods of self-doubt and reflection dutifully recounted.The roundedness of his close catching would have drawn greater appreciation, from leg-slip for spin, to gully and now, crucially, at first slip. There has been coverage, of course, but it is scant and usually – as is the case here – it is to point out how underappreciated and side kicky he is.That is nobody’s fault. It is just the way things are. But it means that even after more than 50 Tests he can arrive in a new country and do so as a bit of a curiosity: ‘Who is this new, neat young batsman, hmmm?’ Fifty-one Tests now – just two less than Joe Root and Virat Kohli and five less than Kane Williamson. Six years since his debut, which came a couple of weeks after Williamson’s, seven months before Kohli’s and two years before Root.This is not to crowbar him into conversation but to give a better sense of his non-newness. (Although it is not a nonsensical notion, in Tests at least, especially when you set this admittedly limited but still revelatory bar: none of Root, Kohli, Williamson and even Ajinkya Rahane have a Test hundred in England, South Africa and Australia. Shafiq does, even more laudatory given he is from the subcontinent). Before the end of January he will be 31 – he is, or should be, in his batting prime as we speak.For a guy who was at the centre of a lower-order chase of 490, he was pretty inconspicuous at the Gabba•Getty ImagesSo the Gabba on the last two evenings was, in many ways, the most appropriate setting for his best work. Less than 3000 people in the ground watching him on the final day, their cheers bouncing around like the desperate pleas of General Zod and his cronies when trapped in the Phantom Zone mirror in . On TV it could have been Dubai, though wherever, the unmistakable sense of his career – that it is going by unnoticed – remained.Such was the innings too, a little bit. For a guy who was at the centre of a lower-order chase of 490, he was pretty inconspicuous. He did not tear into the target like it was a personal affront to him, as a Kohli might have done, and indeed did in Adelaide. Occasionally we were alerted to his presence, usually when he went square on the off side, or through midwicket. Otherwise, Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz both faced more balls than he did during their partnerships, and Yasir Shah only faced three balls less.One hundred and thirty-seven was such a Shafiq score as well, not daddy enough to raise eyebrows when perusing a scorecard. It is his highest score, but it is more of a personal best, because it is not that high, not in this age and not when an exact but far less-gifted contemporary of yours has a triple. From where he bats, at six, it is plenty of course, though that is part of the problem.History is not littered with great batsmen who became great because of the position. Steve Waugh batted there a lot, though the bulk of it came early in his career when he was still an allrounder. VVS Laxman did more of his work there than any other position, but the innings that made him came from three; both batted there in well below half the Tests they played. Other than that, it is a position mostly of allrounders, or batsmen biding time before moving up.Shafiq is now just 412 runs away from becoming the most prolific number six in Test history, although the most prolific number six in history? That sounds like the most apologetic-sounding achievement ever.Likely that it is just a question of time. This is a batting order still ordered around Younis and Misbah. Once they go he will move up too, which is why the recent bungling of his promotion, though unfortunate, doesn’t feel fatal. Still, Babar Azam swanning in at three in just his second Test, at the expense of Shafiq was a bit cold of Pakistan.Shafiq was fine with it. He said so after the game – number three is where he wants to bat, but it’s fine, whatever the team needs. Grant Flower, Pakistan’s batting coach, made much the same assessment.”He’s a really strong character. He doesn’t seem like [the shuffling around] has bothered him too much. But obviously, most people would prefer to be in one slot. But he seems alright and he’s very mentally tough, so I think whatever people throw at him, he’s usually dealt with it quite well. He’ll be alright.”There’s no reason to doubt that. Of course he’ll be “alright”. He’s Asad Shafiq and he’s always “alright”. But a little strop would not have been the worst thing in the world, to show, if nothing else, that like the best batsmen there is a selfish streak in him. Even Azhar Ali, as placid and dutiful, has shown himself capable of the occasional hissy fit. Why should Shafiq not get to bat where he thinks is best for him? Because is not what is best for him also, by default, best for the side?

England have twice won from 1-0 down in India, first in 1984-85 and again in 2012-13. A member of that side four years ago talks about how they turned the series around

Nick Compton23-Nov-20161:22

Compton: We had the confidence in 2012-13 to compete in India

As in Vizag this week, England walked off the field in Ahmedabad in 2012 with a whopping defeat against their names – beaten by nine wickets – to go 1-0 down in the series. But there wasn’t any panic in the group. I remember we had a relaxing evening on the roof terrace after the match, it was a good night. It wasn’t a massive debrief or anything, there weren’t any Churchillan speeches, but we just chatted as a group.Despite the margin of defeat, we had actually finished the match not feeling too bad about life. After being asked to follow-on, we showed plenty of spirit – and skill – in the second innings and it made a huge difference, helping to instil the belief that we could play their bowling. It was nice to help set the tone with Alastair Cook, and as a team we grew from there.We knew if we could keep India out there, bowling for longer and longer, that would take them out of their comfort zone, and we felt they would crack before we did. I think we took them by surprise, they looked lacklustre at times. Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir were past their best. They had all the names, but I’m not sure it was their best side.It is difficult to draw direct parallels between that England side and this one. In 2012, it was very much a ready-made team. If you look at the ages, we were pretty experienced, even I, on debut, had been around first-class cricket for a while. But as we did in that second innings in Ahmedabad, this England side have shown over the first two Tests of this series that they can compete with India.You have to get the India players out of their comfort zone, which is what we managed to do four years ago after the opening defeat. The pressure can quickly turn in their backyard. Questions are now being asked of Ajinkya Rahane, despite what is a very impressive overall record. If England can keep forcing these questions to be asked, it can escalate.There is one glaring difference and that’s in the spin department, which has been well documented for a long time now. In Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar we had one of England’s great pairings. But Monty, who was magnificent in Kolkata and Mumbai, had not actually played the first Test, where we went with three quicks alongside Swann and Samit Patel. However, it soon became apparent that two quicks and two spinners was the way forward. I remember standing at extra cover to Monty and you always felt in the game; it never felt like India had a plan for either him or Swann.This time, England again have to decide who their best bowlers are. There is an argument to say they need to play to their strengths with an extra quick. They can still play two spinners, and Adil Rashid’s improvement on this tour – which has been one of the most impressive parts of the first two games – suggests he is now far less of a gamble to play as one of a pair. Zafar Ansari has found it tough, and what is really his role?I’ve always believed you play your best bowlers, whether they be spinners or seamers. Only people in the camp can judge how individuals are going. How is Steven Finn bowling? He was superb in the Kolkata Test in 2012 but he can struggle, like many bowlers, coming in from the cold. He has played once in Bangladesh but has had precious little cricket since the English season. Still, a fourth quick – be it Finn or Jake Ball – could bring more value than a third spinner. There is talk of Gareth Batty, but if he was so good, he’d have been playing already.Alastair Cook is very big on staying together, not becoming too individualistic•BCCIThere is one element out of England’s control that they really need some luck with: the toss. You can’t say it wasn’t important in Vizag. You also saw, when England had the chance to bat first in Rajkot, that they were able to put pressure on India.In 2012 we managed to win in Mumbai and Kolkata despite losing the toss and having to bowl first, bowling India out for 327 and 316 in the two first innings, but hand on heart, I’m not sure I can see that happening this time around. I’m naturally positive about this England team, I believe it’s a very good team with some match-changing players – it certainly isn’t beyond them to win a Test – but the toss is looking important. You could see the look in Cook’s eyes when he lost it in Vizag, because he knows the resources at his disposal.This is another big challenge for Cook the captain. I couldn’t understand his use of Moeen Ali, for example, in Vizag. On the 2012 tour he was a raw captain – it was his first series as full-time skipper – but in Swann and Panesar he had two spinners he could basically put on and they did their job. For periods there wasn’t a lot of captaining to do, and if needed, Swann would help him out. This time he doesn’t have that luxury.It was also very much Andy Flower’s team. He would do more of the talking and led the intensity. But now it’s very different. Trevor Bayliss believes it’s Alastair’s team and he runs things completely. The main thing that Trevor has brought to this England team – and you’ve seen it in the last two Tests – is the fight, attitude and commitment. Even when they’ve been down in this series, that hasn’t wavered. The second innings with the ball in Vizag typified that. I think India would have struggled in the final innings on that surface. You can pick holes in England, but it wasn’t easy.It’s important to hold your team spirit together when things get tough. It was something we were conscious of in 2012 and I really don’t think that will be an issue with this side. It’s a very good environment. Alastair is very big on staying together, not becoming too individualistic.England can turn this around. I do not think this is a superstar India team. They are very good at playing from the front in their home conditions, but get them on the back foot and there’s a vulnerability there to be exposed.

Stats highlights from Sri Lanka’s stunning last-ball win over Australia at Geelong’s Kardinia Park

Bharath Seervi19-Feb-201736 Runs Sri Lanka needed off the last two overs, which they chased down, the most by any team. Australia needed 34 off the last two overs against Pakistan in the 2010 World T20 and pulled off a similar heist.411.11 Asela Gunaratne’s strike rate of his last nine balls. He smashed 37 runs, including three fours and four sixes. He had scored 47 off his first 37 balls with three fours and a six.1 Number of higher scores than Gunaratne’s 84 not out by a batsman at No.5 or lower in a chase in T20Is. Joe Root had made an unbeaten 90 against Australia in Southampton in 2013, but it ended in a losing cause. Gunaratne’s score is the highest by a Sri Lanka player at No.5 or lower in T20Is and the sixth highest by any player.5-0 Sri Lanka’s win-loss record in T20Is in Australia. It is the second best record in a country without losing a game. Australia is the only country where Sri Lanka haven’t lost a T20I, and they are the only team unbeaten in Australia.5 Successive losses for Australia in T20Is at home – three against India last year and two against Sri Lanka this series. This is their longest losing streak at home, passing four consecutive defeats in 2012-13.4/31 Nuwan Kulasekara’s figures – his best in T20Is, bettering his 4 for 32 against England in the 2014 World T20. He picked up three wickets off the last four balls of Australia’s innings.

After Bangladesh had one of their greatest days in an away Test, we look at other times their batsmen shone overseas

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jan-2017

638 v Sri Lanka, Galle 2013

Top scores: Mushfiqur 200, Ashraful 190, Nasir 100
Result: DrawBangladesh lost their first 14 Tests against Sri Lanka. In Galle, when Sri Lanka posted 570 for 4, Bangladesh were looking at a familiar story. Instead of caving in though, their batsmen ran up the country’s highest total in Tests. Mushfiqur Rahim hit the team’s first ever Test double century after Mohammad Ashraful fell 10 short of the landmark. Mushfiqur was thrilled with the draw: “The team that often keeps you in the field for days that beat you regularly, we wanted to give it back to them. I think they are shocked, because they couldn’t imagine we would play well.”A dejected Khaled Mahmud following Bangladesh’s desperately narrow defeat•AFP

281 v Pakistan, Multan 2003

Top scores: Bashar 72
Result: Lost, by one wicketOne of Bangladesh’s early heartbreaks in Test cricket. For three of the game’s four days, they were the side on top. Habibul Bashar’s half-century was the bedrock of a respectable 281 on a testing Multan track: “It was indeed a green wicket there, and I rate my 72 in the first innings as one of my best knocks,” Bashar said. After that left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique and medium-pacer Khaled Mahmud grabbed nine wickets to earn a 106-run lead. Even a second-innings implosion didn’t deter them, as Bangladesh had Pakistan gasping at 132 for 6 chasing 261. They hadn’t counted on Inzamam-ul-Haq though, who did the bulk of the scoring on a nervy fourth day to take Pakistan to a one-wicket win. Mashrafe Mortaza summed up Bangladesh’s feelings: “I think almost everyone was crying. Ashraful cried in the bathroom. The environment suddenly turned sour. We knew we would win but we couldn’t finish it off. “Khaled Mashud defied West Indies on the final day•Getty Images

271 v West Indies, Gros Islet 2004

Top scores: Mashud 103*, Saleh 51
Result: DrawnCenturies from Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Rafique took Bangladesh to 416 in the first innings, but the side had an even more remarkable performance in the second innings. After taking a 64-run first-innings lead, Bangladesh subsided to 94 for 6 by stumps on the fourth day and a 27th Test defeat in 29 matches looked likely. Khaled Mashud made sure that wasn’t the case by making his maiden Test century, and defying West Indies for so long that Bangladesh could actually declare after tea. It was the first time they had declared in a Test, and though the game was drawn, it felt like a victory for the fledgling Bangladesh side.Tamim Iqbal motioned enthusiastically to his team-mates to get his name on the honours board•Getty Images

382 v England, Lord’s 2010

Top scores: Tamim 103, Kayes 75, Junaid 74
Result: LostAfter conceding a big first-innings lead at Lord’s, Bangladesh were staring at another Test defeat. Tamim Iqbal made sure it wasn’t all one-way traffic with a stirring 94-ball century that earned him a place on the famous honours board. Tamim had hit four fifties in five innings against England that year, but at Lord’s he galloped to triple figures with the fastest hundred by a Bangladesh batsman. Though England took out a victory on the fifth day, Tamim had at least given Bangladesh fans an innings to savour. Asking for patience, he said: “If you start a chocolate company, you can’t compete with Cadburys in the first ten years, because it’s a big company. It will take time to be like them.”Mahmudullah and Shakib Al Hasan contributed significantly in both innings•Getty Images

408 v New Zealand, Hamilton 2010

Top scores: Mahmudullah 115, Shakib 87
Result: LostThe follow-on loomed for Bangladesh in their only Test of the tour before a lively seven-wicket stand between Mahmudullah and Shakib Al Hasan forced New to bat again. Their record-breaking 145-run partnership pushed Bangladesh towards 400, a total they had passed only once previously in an away Test. It was Mahmudullah’s maiden Test century, coming less than a month after an unbeaten 96 against India. Shakib missed out on a hundred in the first innings, but he thumped a 129-ball 100 in the second after the top-order toppled over again.

MS Dhoni was far from his best leading into and in this game. But when the ball was put in his half, that hardly mattered – much to the delight of even staunch Mumbai Indians fans

Vishal Dikshit at the Wankhede17-May-2017Barely 15 minutes into the first qualifier on Tuesday night, Rising Pune Supergiant were 9 for 2. At this point, the announcer at Wankhede Stadium screamed “Ra-haa-neee”, probably expecting the crowd to cheer for the local boy even if he was playing for Mumbai Indians’ opponent. His attempt was met with total silence; you could hear sweethearts exchange sweet nothings on Marine Drive outside the ground.There was amiable applause when Ajinkya Rahane reached his half-century, but a louder cheer when he got out. It was hard to differentiate when the cheer for his dismissal transformed into one of welcome to MS Dhoni. And the cheer turned into a chant of “Dhooooni, Dhooooni” even before he had faced a ball. Pune were not on top here; they were on a shaky 89 for 3 in the 13th over. The blue flags of Mumbai were waving, but the chants were for Dhoni.In Ben Stokes’ absence from the lower order, the Pune top order was expected to step up. Instead, Rahul Tripathi got out for a duck and the run rate was under seven when Rahane departed for 56. Rohit Sharma brought on Jasprit Bumrah, who has a good T20 record against Dhoni, as soon as he came out to bat. Krunal Pandya and Mitchell McClenaghan came around the wicket to cramp Dhoni for room in the 16th and 17th overs to concede only four runs off six balls legitimate to him. Bumrah returned and Dhoni could barely connect, scoring only one run off the three balls he faced in the 18th over. Twelve balls to go, Pune 121 for 3.The Dhoni we saw after that was the Dhoni the fans have been waiting for. Not Dhoni at his best, but Dhoni good enough to smash some of the best bowlers of the tournament. Mumbai’s bowlers had done of the work to restrict Pune to a sub-par score. Most, not all. Then they started making mistakes and Manoj Tiwary and Dhoni cashed in. While Tiwary received some width, Dhoni had some length balls coming his way and he dispatched three of those over the fence in the last two overs. Such was his connection, unlike earlier in the tournament, that even a back-of-length ball from Bumrah in the last over went flat over sweeper cover for six.MS Dhoni made the difference between an inadequate total and a defendable one for Pune•BCCI”If you see the last couple of games or even last year, he [Bumrah] has been successful against Dhoni,” Mumbai’s wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel said after the match. “He got him out in the last game here, with the kind of length which he was bowling [today]. He [Dhoni] obviously is a good player, so you’ve got to sometimes give it to the calibre of the batsman as well. Not taking away from Bumrah, he has been bowling brilliantly throughout the tournament, but in a one-odd game like this you’ve got to give credit to someone who has played so many knocks like this.”The crowd left their seats each time a six reached them, they waved the Mumbai flag even to cheer for Dhoni’s sixes. Tiwary and Dhoni clubbed 41 runs in the last two overs to lift Pune to 162 for 4, what Parthiv called a par score. Leading up to the game, fans and experts had been rightly pointing out Dhoni’s low average and slow strike rate. Here, he battled that lack of form and, even though he didn’t clear the boundary as often as he used to, he did it often enough to post a defendable score.”These kind of things can happen in this format when a set batsman is batting, and someone like Dhoni is batting,” Parthiv said of the last two overs. “Obviously we were in control, but I wouldn’t say just because of those two overs we lost the game.”Tiwary, on the other hand, thought the direction of the match turned tangibly in Pune’s favour in the last two overs of their innings. “Definitely, the momentum shifted in the last two overs,” he said. “Initially, when I was batting with Ajinkya, there was a strategic time out where with the captain and coach, the four of us decided that we can take the total to 160. We felt that the wicket was pretty dry and it was holding for the spinners and pacers as well.”We were struggling to put away the slower ones and the variations until the 19th and 20th, where MS played outstanding shots and it was not easy against Bumrah. But he showed why he is such a highly talented player with so much of ability to hit bowlers in the IPL for two-three sixes in those crucial situations.”Pune were the undisputed underdog in this qualifier. They were playing their first playoff but they had Dhoni, who can write a book, and then another, on how to win knockout matches and lift trophies. It will be a pity, though, if Pune win one more match and lift the trophy, and Dhoni wins his third IPL, but we don’t have the defending champions present next year.

Australia have two points from two rained-off fixtures, exactly the tally they’d have had in dry conditions. But they were never stretched in this latest washout

Jarrod Kimber at Edgbaston05-Jun-20172:04

‘We respond well to must-win games’ – Starc

The 36th over was bowled by Glenn Maxwell. He hadn’t bowled an over in an ODI since June 2016 – in the last nine ODIs, not one over. Before that period, Maxwell had never even missed nine games of bowling in his entire career. And now here he was, in a must-win game, bowling for the first time in ten ODIs, bowling his first over of the year when the opposition were 141 for 5.The over before, Adam Zampa had taken a wicket maiden; it was also his first over. A full-time bowler, not being called upon to bowl until he couldn’t bowl out his overs, starting with a wicket maiden in the period of the game when the batting team had a guy approaching his hundred. Zampa didn’t get a bowl largely because Travis Head bowled his handy offspin for seven overs as Bangladesh’s batsmen, for the most part, just chipped him around for the odd single. The man whom Head usually combines with for his fifth-bowler overs is Moises Henriques, but they bowled more than their required ten overs. Because, why not.It was a must-win game, in an ICC tournament, and Australia was treating it like a practice match. They only played one warm-up, the second was washed out, as was their first game against New Zealand. They’ve seen more rain than cricket.Then they batted well, David Warner and Aaron Finch ran well from the first over, a three and an all-run four. Then Finch eased a couple of boundaries away. They were tested by the new ball as Mustafizur Rahman beat the bat a few times, then clouds came in and they were under lights. Finch was trapped lbw by one that slipped through him but, straight away, Smith came in and worried little about the bowling or the conditions.Steven Smith and his team spent a frustrating evening trying to finish off a match that they dominated throughout•Getty ImagesWith Warner and Smith clipping the ball around and strolling through for agreed-upon singles, there was such a lack of energy in the match that, at one point, the Oval groundsman came out to the middle and put up a net as he was so convinced this wasn’t a real match. That may not actually have happened, but had it done so, it would have been the most interesting thing to happen since the Australian quicks ended the game as a contest in the 13th over.They only had two wickets at that stage, but at 45 for 2, the game already felt over, so much so that Australia could bring Head on without fear. Cummins had four overs, 1 for 10; Hazlewood six overs, 1 for 21. Starc was 0 for 9 from his three. They were fast, accurate, and impossible to handle on a tired Oval pitch. The Bangladesh batsmen looked completely outgunned, except of course for Tamim Iqbal. It might as well have been dads against the kids.Australia’s quicks were more accurate than at Edgbaston. They were beginning to look like the attack that the other teams feared, and they barely had to get out of third gear. They took wickets, hit the batsmen and beat the bat regularly. Cummins was very quick, Starc came back later to destroy the tail, and Hazlewood bowled better than when he took six wickets in the New Zealand match.It was the perfect practice match, except this time it was for points, and they were going to collect them all after only a small chase against an underwhelmed Bangladesh who had already stopped using catching fielders and seemed to be hoping just to slow the runs until the rain came. And then it did.So, Australia have finished just one of their four matches since arriving in England. They have two points from two games in the Champions Trophy, the same number of points they would have had, had neither of their games had been rained off. The net result is that they’ve got rid of their rust, and they are fully warmed up for their one-off eliminator against England.Glenn Maxwell’s one over for nine runs. No one seemed to mind.

A series of three T20 games was successfully conducted without safety glitches, but what is next for cricket in Pakistan?

Osman Samiuddin16-Sep-2017It is a kilometer or so from Liberty Chowk to Gaddafi Stadium. In that distance, fans attending Pakistan’s three T20 games against the World XI would have gone through at least eight manual searches and four scanner searches.They could not walk the distance, which would have been significantly less cumbersome. One bus took them from the Chowk to the entrance of the premises within which the Gaddafi Stadium is located. There, security personnel would board the bus to check the spectators’ IDs and tickets. From there, the fans boarded another bus that dropped them to the actual entry gates into the stadium. This combination of searches and the bus service was replicated at the other main entry point to the stadium.That was just one part of a comprehensive security plan for a series widely seen as a litmus test for future tours to Pakistan. It was not too different to the security for the last high-profile game in Pakistan, the PSL final in Lahore in March. Turnout in the first two games was affected, but safety ensured, a trade-off Pakistan cricket will face for some time.Close to 20,000 security personnel were said to have been deployed on each of the match days, as part of the PCB and Punjab government’s plan, across the routes the teams took, at the stadium and at the team hotel. The majority of that was drawn from local police but the military and various intelligence forces were deeply involved.Keeping an eye on how the tour played out were the security consultants, Eastern Star International (ESI), who will be the PCB’s consultants for the next three years. Readers might be more familiar with the surname of the man who headed the operation in Pakistan: Dickason.It wasn’t the elder Dickason – Reg – who has been a security consultant to several cricket boards since the mid-1990s. Instead, overseeing this trip was his son Sam, ESI’s general manager who, as Pakistan attempt to attract more visitors, will likely become as familiar a presence.Already, this was his second trip to the country within months, having been to Islamabad recently to oversee a squash event in which players from around the world participated.For this series, there was an enhanced focus on the transit stage of the security plan – the movement of teams from the hotel to the ground. That, according to Sam Dickason, was the “high-risk” area of any plan because of the fluidity; it was during this movement that Sri Lanka’s team bus was attacked in 2009, at Liberty Chowk.

The trick, now that the series is over, will be to manage expectations. One successful tour does not ensure another, although it raises the probability

“Did we learn from that?” Dickason said. “Absolutely we learnt from that – you have to maintain positions of dominance in that area. We had to clear the roads because people took the opportunity, in a non-sterile environment, to launch an attack.”The Punjab government’s commitment to providing security was a major factor in the series going off without any serious glitches. PCB officials say the coordination between the local government, the cricket board and various security agencies was unprecedented, with intensive daily briefings at the board’s headquarters in Gaddafi Stadium.Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab chief minister – and brother of Nawaz Sharif, recently deposed as prime minister – is said to have taken a personal interest in affairs, sitting in on several conference calls. Underpinning it has been the new Punjab police command centre (PPIC3), part of the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) body created last year. The PSCA is actually the sell in all this: a radical upgrading of the way crime and terror is fought in the city, and eventually the province. Think of it as a move up from the Nokia 3310 to the iPhone X (jokes about the sturdiness of each aside).One particular scene you will often be drawn is of the PSCA’s main space, the office’s heartbeat peopled by fresh and bright young IT grads, monitoring wall-to-wall screens overseeing extensive CCTV surveillance all over the city. Members of the Pakistan cricket team paid a visit to the offices late last month and left in awe, amazed that from inside the centre surveillance cameras allowed them to zoom so close onto the pitch at Gaddafi Stadium, they could carry out a decent pitch inspection.If it sounds a little too much like some first-world scene from inside NASA, be reminded that Lahore has been hit by a spate of attacks this year, with significant casualties; which is to say that these things take time.But it also highlights that the security for this series has done its job, more so because a major by-election on Sunday in the city – with countrywide implications – would have complicated matters further.”What we have seen so far, in the PSL and now, has been very, very good,” Dickason said. “They have delivered a security footprint which they have maintained. They have not backed off on that. So far the team has been here for a few days now, we’ve not seen any backward steps in their planning and processes.”The trick, now that the series is over, will be to – as the suits love to say – manage expectations. One successful tour does not ensure another, although it raises the probability. To suggest otherwise, said Dickason, who has also been New Zealand Cricket’s security coordinator for the last four years, would be “irresponsible”.Spectators were forced to go through vigorous searches prior to their entry into the stadium•AFP”It’ll be irresponsible for me to say that yeah, the plan is completely robust and nothing more can happen,” he said. “What they have delivered has been impressive. The level of commitment throughout the entirety of this tour has not changed, it has not gone down and it has stayed at a high level. We have been impressed but we can’t rest on our laurels – the ESI, PCB, ICC.”Keep in mind also that none of this comes cheap.The PCB is not in as perilous a financial state as has often been advertised, but to deploy a security force of the size they have is a massive strain. That is beginning to tell, as revealed by the PCB chairman Najam Sethi earlier this week. “This tour is going to lose money because security considerations have been enormous,” he said. “Even as we speak, the Punjab government has been saying we owe them so much money and so on. We are saying law and order is your issue but costs are going up.”Adding to the costs is the precedent set by payments the board has made to players to convince them to tour. The PCB paid Zimbabwe players $12,500 each to tour in May 2015. In March this year, foreign players were paid up to $50,000 to play in the PSL final in Lahore. For this series, the World XI squad has been paid around $100,000 each. Foreign teams and players will continue to seek financial incentives to visit and at some point, financial reserves not being endless, the PCB will have to draw the line.The immediate challenge is to stage games outside of Lahore, where all internationals since March 2009 have been held. The PCB is especially keen on going to Karachi, partly because the National Stadium is one of the venues it actually owns, which would help with managing the entire operation and costs.But Karachi has its own, complex set of security issues. It is an unwieldy city too, where the PCB may not expect the degree of support from the Sindh government that it gets from the Punjab government. Still, the PCB intends to press ahead with plans to stage games there during the next PSL.”From our perspective, we get through this series and of course you hear talk of other places,” Dickason said. “There’s always talk. Cricket in Pakistan is huge, everyone wants it. All the major cities will want it but it has to be a slow, steady introduction. We have to do it right.”The importance in taking time to ensure that the roll-out of the security programme is done correctly cannot be overstated. The journey to get international cricket back in Pakistan has just begun and it’s very exciting.”Exciting maybe, uncertain definitely, as was driven home on Friday. According to the FTP, Australia are due to tour Pakistan next year in October for a limited-overs series. But as Pakistan and the World XI prepared for the decider in front of what would turn out to be the series’ most rousing crowd, Cricket Australia – who have not sent a team to Pakistan in nearly 20 years – reinforced the reality of the situation.”I don’t see in the short term that there are any plans for us to play in Pakistan,” said the chief executive James Sutherland.

Led by seniors like Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh are not shying away from responding to on-field sledging with some aggression of their own

Mohammad Isam06-Sep-2017One area in which Bangladesh’s growing confidence at home has manifest itself is in their on-field aggression, and in particular, their sledging. In the first Test against Australia in Mirpur, a few players regularly fired back at the opposition, who had usually done the talking in the contest. Things have been calmer in Chittagong so far, but the series has once again highlighted Bangladesh’s transformed body language on the field.Tamim Iqbal got a demerit point from the ICC for debating with umpires while Australia’s batsmen changed their gloves regularly, and later for his send-off of Matthew Wade in Mirpur. After the 20-run win, Shakib Al Hasan said Bangladesh were giving it back because they are more confident on the field now. Australia, said the captain Mushfiqur Rahim, had seen a new, aggressive side to Bangladesh.Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s ODI captain, is not surprised. The new attitude, he says, is to look an opponent in the eye, while being mindful to not overstep a line.”As a captain, I don’t encourage [them] to do anything that gets them into trouble, especially after the introduction of demerit points,” Mashrafe said. “We might end up losing a player ahead of an important match, which isn’t ideal. But I would always tell them to look into the opposition’s eye when they are looking at you.”Before 2015, we didn’t have a significant win under our belt. But in the last two years, I think we have played fearless cricket but that doesn’t mean we will abuse anyone.”Mashrafe feels the team’s outlook changed following the 2015 World Cup, with the ODI series wins over Pakistan, India and South Africa at home.In April 2015, after thumping Pakistan 3-0 in the home ODIs, Shakib got into a finger-wagging joust with Wahab Riaz in the first Test in Khulna. Lip-readers were taken aback by Shakib’s verbal attack.In the ODIs against India in June that year, there was noticeable chatter from some of the Bangladesh players when India’s wickets fell. Ravindra Jadeja was a target, having apparently given similar treatment to Bangladesh’s players previously.”I think it really started around 2015, after the World Cup,” Mashrafe said. “We were prepared to go toe to toe in every match. But one thing that we don’t do is start the conversation in the field. We celebrate a wicket usually and only reply to what they have to say.”Look, we don’t think that we can win a game through sledging. Most of our opposition have been doing it for years. What I believe is that when you are out there, you have to look them in the eye.”Mahmudullah is a good example of the transformation, of players becoming confronters. It is a change that has also come about as individual players have cemented their place in the team through performances.In 2009, Mahmudullah was barely audible when he told off Brendan Taylor in an ODI. In 2012, he reacted tamely when Aizaz Cheema blocked his attempt for a second run in the last over of the Asia Cup final.Last year, however, in the second ODI against England, Mahmudullah stood in front of a team huddle and gave Jos Buttler a proper send-off. A normally quiet Buttler fired back and argued with the Bangladesh players, before Mashrafe intervened.”I think the England incident went on to for too long and I had to step in,” Mashrafe said. “But it wasn’t all one-sided. Both sides had their say that day but it should have stopped earlier.”There was a lot of needle in that England game, and it ended with a confrontation between Jonny Bairstow and Tamim when the teams were shaking hands after the match. Ben Stokes was shown on TV to be apparently pushing Tamim, and an argument ensued.Tamim has always been in the thick of things, right from the time Daniel Vettori got under his skin in 2007. He spoke out against Zaheer Khan when the two collided during an ODI in Mirpur in 2010 and, at times when many Bangladesh players hardly responded to on-field comments, Tamim made it a point to respond to criticism, even when it came from a legendary player like Geoffrey Boycott.Shakib got in on the act. In the 2010 ODI series against New Zealand, he was told off by Nathan McCullum, who complained about the Bangladesh bowlers taking time to finish overs. Shakib, who was the stand-in captain at the time, dismissed McCullum and gave him a send-off.These signs of Bangladesh cricketers standing up for themselves were, however, limited. Instead Virat Kohli telling Rubel Hossain to “f*** off” became a symbol for Bangladesh’s timidity on the field. When Rubel got his own back at Kohli in the 2015 World Cup, it had more to do with the confidence of his match-winning performance against England a week before and less to do with aggression.Mahmudullah in a spat with Jos Buttler during an ODI in Bangladesh last year. The match ended with another argument between Tamim and Ben Stokes•Getty ImagesThese days, even a youngster like Sabbir Rahman has made his presence felt in the middle, getting into arguments with David Warner during this series and Suranga Lakmal in Sri Lanka earlier this year. If he goes on to score bigger runs, he could end up as another vocal presence for Bangladesh in the middle.Before the 2015 World Cup, Bangladesh’s players could say little given the regularity of their losses. Mashrafe recalls an incident at the team hotel during the 2008 Asia Cup. “Once during an Asia Cup in Pakistan, we were subjected to a lot of talk off the field. There was once an incident in the swimming pool at the team hotel. I won’t mention the team but we were waiting for them to leave the pool as it was our time. They made us wait and when getting off, one of them told me, ‘What are you doing in the swimming pool? You concentrate on playing cricket. What will you learn in the pool?'”In previous years, we were told a lot of things on the field but when this happened, we were taken aback. Now we are realising that it was not normal.”Shahriar Nafees, who played 24 Tests and 75 ODIs, recounts his experience in the second Test of Australia’s previous tour to Bangladesh, in 2006. In the first Test in Fatullah, Nafees had scored 138 and did not encounter a lot of sledging but that changed in Chittagong.”During my 138 [in Fatullah], they were in shock so they didn’t say anything. But when I was unable to score for the first 21 balls in the second Test in Chittagong, I heard a lot of things from Matthew Hayden,” Nafees said. “Even when they were chasing in the fourth innings in Fatullah, some of their batsmen were sledging our bowlers. I think they were trying to get themselves out of pressure. And that’s how it was for many teams when we were on top. They’d sledge us.”Nafees says he had heard stories of how Bangladesh were subjected to much more on the field during their early years as a Test side, particularly when they threatened to get on top of the opposition.”I played in one game in which the Sri Lankans questioned our batting and bowling skills,” Nafees said. “From players who played between 2001 and 2004, I heard that a lot of them heard the opposition questioning Bangladesh’s status as a Test-playing nation. I think anyone who has been in an elite club for a long time would take a bit of time to accept a newcomer, and that’s how it was back then.”During a ten-year career for Bangladesh, in which they sporadically played ODIs, Athar Ali Khan says he experienced very little sledging. Now a TV commentator, Athar is happy the current crop is standing up for itself.”The first time I experienced such a thing was when an England A bowler spoke to me. I was initially a bit surprised so I waited till the end of the over before replying to him,” Athar said. “I think afterwards someone said something to me when I was walking in to bat against Pakistan. But I didn’t pay much attention to him. I was taking guard.”Now it is obviously different. I think our team is standing their ground and saying that you can’t push us around anymore. I think they have managed to get out of the culture of backing off. I think that’s how it should be.”

Fitter, more tactical and confident in his bowling these days, Karn Sharma has had a cracking start to his first-class season

Shashank Kishore13-Oct-20171:40

Karn Sharma makes case for an international recall

Karn Sharma is enjoying what he calls an important phase in his career. It has been three years since his Test debut in Adelaide. Except for a limited-overs tour of Zimbabwe in 2015 where he was picked in a second-string squad, only to miss out due to injury, he hasn’t come close to adding to his four international appearances, all in 2014. So when he was picked in the Duleep Trophy squad after a modest 2016-17 season, where Railways scraped the bottom of their group, he was pleasantly surprised.He picked two five-fors in three innings and was set to drive from Meerut to Lucknow for the final, when he was asked to board the next flight out to join the India A squad in Vijayawada for the two unofficial Tests against New Zealand A. He finished the series with hauls of four, four, three and five to take his season’s first-class tally so far to 31 wickets in four matches at 15.29.He extended the good form into the shorter formats, picking a five-for in the second one-dayer, thereby giving the India selectors another wristspinning option outside of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, if they so wish, for the limited-overs series against New Zealand beginning October 22.The rewards are a result of focusing on cricket alone. It wasn’t the case over the last three-four seasons at Railways. Karn let the fear of losing a stable Railways job come in the way of his cricket ambitions. He was a regular in their senior side, but having to deal with plenty of “internal issues” left him drained. The team didn’t participate in preparatory tournaments outside of India’s domestic calendar and players were apparently called in for hastily-arranged camps where they often had to make do with substandard facilities and injury management systems. On the field, players were being shunted in and out.Karn describes how the collapse of a system that was functioning smoothly when senior players like Murali Kartik and Sanjay Bangar were around forced him to finally make a move. “Beyond a certain stage, you either make peace with how things are or look for something better,” Karn tells ESPNcricinfo of his decision to quit Railways. “I didn’t feel good. I should have moved a couple of years ago, but kept delaying it. I felt players weren’t being treated well.”His first day at Mumbai Indians’ training camp this year would convince him of the need to move out. Chats with Paras Mhambrey, the current India A coach who previously worked for two seasons with Vidarbha, helped him zero in on a new side. The Vidarbha Cricket Association’s search for a wristspinner to complement offspinner Akshay Wakhare led to Karn’s signing.The season with Mumbai Indians would prove to be memorable in more ways than one. He was not only the costliest Indian signing at INR 3.2 crore, he was also their go-to man in the crucial knockout phase, after warming the bench for five weeks. He picked up 4 for 16 in the eliminator against Kolkata Knight Riders, and delivered a spell of 0 for 18 in the final that helped Mumbai clinch their third IPL crown.”I was playing for four-five years, so I knew how an IPL environment is. It’s up to you, how receptive you are, because every second day you travel to a new venue and play matches. If you are sitting on the sidelines, it can be very difficult to push yourself, but you have to do it,” he says. “I set up sessions with trainers and physios wherever possible. I kept bowling a lot of overs. Since Mumbai has a wide network of support staff, there was never a time where someone couldn’t work with the players who couldn’t feature in the XI. That helped me prepare and be in tune so that I can do well when opportunities come.”One of the visible changes he attributes for his improved bowling is fitness, something he admits wasn’t on top of his priority list until recently. These days, he loads up on boiled vegetables and oats if at the breakfast table. The diet is long gone. “I’m lighter by eight or nine kilos now,” he says. “In Mumbai, our trainers worked so hard with us that proper diet became part of my routine since.”Since June, Karn has been constantly working behind the scenes with Narendra Hirwani, BCCI’s spin bowling consultant, at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. He’s been working on his stock ball and trying to impart more revolutions, working on getting rid of the flatter trajectory he’s been used to. The googly, which he used to bowl at least “twice or thrice” in one over is now chosen selectively depending on how vulnerable a batsman is or what he’s trying to do.”Hirwani sir was trying to help me understand how better I can maximise my quick-arm action,” he explains. “When I started my career at Railways, there were senior spinners like Murali Kartik and Kulamani Parida. When I came into bowl, I was expected to just hold one end up.”When you try to experiment when your job is to keep things tight, you fear ‘what if I bowl badly and not get picked again?’ Since I became the lead spinner, I’ve tried to become more attacking. People used to say I was too flat, but I’ve been working on deceiving the batsmen in the air, something I did effectively against New Zealand A and in the IPL.”Every time Karn refers to his bowling, he tends to compare it against his performance on Test debut. In hindsight, Karn feels he could’ve done much better. Although he doesn’t admit to being unprepared, he says the pressure got to him, but it’s an experience he learnt from.”I was ready but these are two sides of the coin. If you don’t perform up to expectation, you feel you may have not been ready,” he says. I learnt a lot from there, how to adapt, how to cash in on opportunities. I thought I was okay, but I could have done well. Maybe I had nerves; I was also bowling with a Kookabura ball, which was quite new. I didn’t do well, so I had to accept I had to bide time. I felt bad for a bit, but fact is I didn’t do well. Next time I get an opportunity, I can’t give the same reasons because I’m a different bowler now.”

They combined in 12 Tests, 71 ODIs and three T20Is, and won a World Cup together. What did Zaheer Khan make of Ashish Nehra in all that time?

Zaheer Khan31-Oct-20172:23

Do you remember when Nehra made his international debut?

With Ashish comes lot of talking a lot of (knowledge).The fact that Ashish is very expressive became evident right from the moment I met him for the first time in 2001 during the Zimbabwe tour. He likes talking and this is something you really cannot escape from so you just have to sit and listen to him.Ashish’s strength, if I may say so, is that he has always been very realistic in his approach towards things, be it life or cricket. And that is something he has advised us, too. If there were times when you were not putting in the desired effort with regard to your game he was never shy of pointing that out. You do need a friend like that if you are slacking off or not putting in the desired effort that needed to be put in. He was very vocal about that and he was not afraid to tell me that.That he could tell me clearly what was missing was also because both of us practised the same art of fast bowling and we could relate easily. And he was not just telling people what to do – he was equally happy to accept and embrace suggestions whenever I had some. Such transparency only helped us in our preparations, our bowling plans, and to react during a match situation. As he grew as a fast bowler he would act like a bowling captain. He always enjoyed talking about cricket and he is also a guy who is easy to talk to. That was one of his other strengths – to talk fluently and freely.Left-arm fast bowling is not an easy trade to master. Luckily some of the best have come from the sub-continent: Wasim Akram and Chaminda Vaas top that list. It would not be inaccurate to place Ashish somewhere close to that bracket of good fast bowlers. His run-up, which we always made fun of, was really hard and he had to put in a lot of effort. But he had a very strong bowling action. Bowling in the subcontinent he could bowl reverse-swing, he could bowl a good yorker, he had good variations, and he had that extra bounce.As a fellow fast bowler I always aspired to that extra bounce Ashish could extract, which was a result of his high-arm action. His long bowling stride, as opposed to mine which was short, really gave him the advantage to get on top and extract that extra bounce. Because of that bounce batsmen could not score runs easily against Ashish in ODIs. Also, if you study the early part of his career, Ashish would bring the ball into the right-handed batsman with big swing, which was amazing. The way he could bowl with a Kookaburra was something I always admired.The performance that comes to my mind is him running through England in the 2003 World Cup. Mind you, Ashish almost did not play against England. He had been on the bench in the first two matches, and then he returned back after bowling just one ball against Namibia, having slipped on the ball.Such incidents do not make much difference if they happen in a bilateral series, but for it to happen in a World Cup is altogether different. Doubts can invade the mind of a player, who needs to maintain a clear headspace in the biggest tournament in cricket. His fitness was under clear scrutiny as his ankle was swollen and a lot of people thought he would not be available for the must-win match against England.He took six wickets against England, but for me the way he got rid of Michael Vaughan was the best. Most of the wickets he got in that match were just by pitching in the right areas, going away from the right-hander and forcing a nick off the bat. He was getting the exact movement required to get the edge. He was bowling in an area where you to play the delivery. You could not let it go. Vaughan was a victim of that accurate plan.I am told the 6 for 23 against England still remains the best bowling performance by an Indian in World Cups. Just through sheer determination and hardwork actually Ashish not only played but also produced the spell of his lifetime.AFPUnfortunately for Indian cricket, not just me, he had to cut short his Test career (17 Tests with the last one in 2004) to prolong his international career. The way he had started he was right up there in terms of a Test-match bowler. A really 110% Ashish Nehra would have been a real threat in Test cricket. When you look at Ashish’s numbers, if his body had allowed him he would have been an amazing Test-match bowler and an asset for Indian cricket.Ashish did admit later that he regrets not working hard to stay and excel in the longer format of the game. Yet he never allowed that disappointment to drown him. He fought back and played another World Cup, which India won in 2011.Ashish has always been very relentless with his efforts in terms of just playing the game. His belief in himself, that he can overcome any obstacle, has made him dispel any doubts. This despite being away for long spells recuperating from various injuries, they did not really not matter to him because he always had that belief. That sums up his career: his relentless approach and passion towards the game. It was very evident right through his career.What he has proved, and I felt the same during my career, is if you have the experience and you know you are bowling to your strengths and your bowling action is strong and that co-ordination is ingrained in your mind and body, you don’t need that much of match practice. You know how to deal with the pressure and demands of international cricket, and you can replicate that. If his body was supporting him, Ashish knew he was ready.Ashish has actually set an example because he kept believing in himself and kept coming back. It is not easy to make a comeback from a big injury, especially for a fast bowler, and he has made it a habit.There is no doubt Ashish is an easygoing personality. At 39 he still manages to slip easily into a dressing room where most of the players are in their 20s. It is easy to surmise and say Ashish has no ego.He might not show it, but Ashish takes a lot of pride in his cricket. People who know him know how much he cares about his performance and how he is carrying himself on the field: his numbers matter to him, his bowling matters to him, when he is there on the field he wants to be right up there. He sets high standards for himself. That was another thing that was always evident.Ashish has inspired many players to stretch their careers. Many times in your career you think you are done, but it is not the case. Ashish Nehra is the best example.