After a stuttering start, James Anderson’s career has gathered pace to become one of the most prolific in Test cricket

Shiva Jayaraman08-Sep-2017James Anderson’s early career showed little indication that he would go on to achieve what only five bowlers and two fast bowlers managed before him – 500 Test wickets. After his first 20 Tests, played over four years, during which he endured loss of form, a stress fracture and a remodeled action, Anderson had taken 62 wickets at an average of 39.20. At that point, his average ranked 73rd among 76 England bowlers who had taken at least 50 Test wickets. It was hardly a start that suggested one of the most prolific bowling careers in Test cricket.Then came what was perhaps the watershed moment in Anderson’s career: England sought replacements for their pace-bowlers after the bashing they received in the Hamilton Test in 2007-08. And Anderson responded with figures of 7 for 130 – including a five-for in the first innings – in the next Test in Wellington.That timely haul marked the beginning of Anderson’s growth as a fast bowler. By his 50th Test, he had evolved considerably in terms of repertoire and consistency, which also reflected in his career numbers: 181 wickets at an average of 32.08, an overall improvement in a career bowling average of over seven runs from his first 20 matches. After 50 Tests, Anderson had taken ten five-wicket hauls, two more than any other England bowler since his debut, despite missing almost half the Tests he could have played in that period.If there is one recurring theme in Anderson’s career, it is continuous evolution and that is borne out by the numbers. In his next 50 Tests, Anderson took 203 wickets at an average of 27.72. His bowling average had dropped under 30 for good by the time he had played his 100th Test in 2015. Incredibly, Anderson’s career has been on an upswing even after his 100th Test. In the 28 matches since, Anderson has taken 113 wickets at an average of 20.82. This is the best any bowler, with at least 50 wickets, has averaged during this period.

Wkts Ave SR 5wi/10wmFirst 50 Tests 181 32.08 57.50 10/1Next 50 Tests 203 27.71 59.00 6/1Last 28 Tests 113 20.82 49.90 7/1In fact, among bowlers who have played over 100 Tests, no other bowler boasts an average post-100 matches as good as Anderson’s. In this regard, that he averages better than bowlers like Glenn McGrath and Courtney Walsh speaks volumes about his quality.ESPNcricinfo Ltd500 wickets into his career, Anderson now seems to have only hit the peak of his prowess. In terms of bowling average, Anderson’s best 20-match streak in his career was from the Ashes Test at Edgbaston in 2015 to the final Test of the recently concluded series against South Africa. In this time, he took 81 wickets at an average of 18.76. That is a difference in average of more than 20 runs per wicket when compared with the first 20 Tests of his career, when he averaged 39.20. No other bowler in Test history has had such a big difference between the beginning and the peak of their career.ESPNcricinfo LtdAdmittedly, Anderson is more successful at home than when he is playing outside England. No pace-bowler in Test history has taken as many wickets at home as he has. Outside England, he has taken 171 wickets in 53 matches at an average of 33.46 – almost ten runs more than his average at home. Of the 44 pace-bowlers who have taken at least 150 wickets outside England, Anderson’s average ranks 40th.

Venue Mats Wkts Ave SR 5wi/10wmHome 75 326 24.73 51.00 19/3Away 53 171 33.46 66.50 4/0Like his career, however, his performance in away Tests, too, has improved over the years. Even though he is not as effective a strike bowler when playing outside England as he is at home, he has found ways to make batsmen work hard for their runs. Anderson played 19 of his first 50 Tests away from home and took 52 wickets at an unenviable average of 43.84. In the 23 matches that he played outside England in his next 50 Tests, Anderson improved his average to 31.18 while taking 82 wickets. Eleven of his last 27 Tests have been outside England and in those matches, his average has improved further to 23.91.ESPNcricinfo LtdOnly four of his 22 five-fors have come outside England and none of them have come in the 13 Ashes Tests he has played in Australia. The forthcoming Ashes series will be a good time to add a first to that tally. He could possibly overtake Courtney Walsh’s tally of 519 Test wickets by the time the series ends. The odds of surpassing Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 are slightly against Anderson, given he is 35 years old. The chances of him reaching this milestone, however, weren’t high either, for no bowler before him who averaged 35-plus after 20 Tests ended up with 500 wickets. Or even 400 for that matter.

Stats highlights from Evin Lewis’ 130-ball 176, and West Indies’ superb recovery after being 33 for 3 at The Oval

S Rajesh27-Sep-2017Coming into The Oval ODI, West Indies’ openers averaged 23.59 runs per dismissal in the period since the 2015 World Cup. That average was the worst among all teams in these two-and-a-half years – it was lower than the UAE (25.36), Papua New Guinea (25.58), and Hong Kong (27.00), among other teams. In one magnificent innings, Evin Lewis has lifted that average by almost two-and-a-half runs, to 26.04.Since the 2015 World Cup, there have only been two hundreds by West Indies’ openers, and Lewis has contributed both – he had also scored 148 versus Sri Lanka in Bulawayo last year. While he averages 36.50 since the World Cup, the other West Indies openers collectively average 22.49.

Lewis’ unbeaten 176 is the fourth-highest ODI score for West Indies, next only to Chris Gayle’s 215, and Viv Richards’ 189 not out and 181. It wasn’t just the runs he scored, though; it was also the manner in which he lifted West Indies from a tricky 33 for 3. He played within himself till he reached his century, which still came off 94 balls but contained no six. Thereafter, he exploded, with 76 off the next 36 balls, including seven sixes and four fours.

Among the England bowlers, the only one who went at under seven an over against him was Chris Woakes, who conceded 25 from 28. Adil Rashid leaked 40 from 26.

Lewis two hundreds in ODIs have yielded 324 runs; the only batsman with more runs from his first two ODI centuries is MS Dhoni, whose first two tons fetched 331 runs (148 and 183*). The problem for Lewis in his ODI career is his lack of consistency. His two hundreds have been big ones and fetched him 324 runs, but his other 18 innings have yielded only 326.When he does get going, though, the results are spectacular. His runs at The Oval, and the partnerships with the two Jasons – Mohammed and Holder – ensured West Indies scored 323 runs after the fall of the third wicket, the third-highest in any ODI. Of the top seven such totals, four have come in 2017.

There were century stands for the fourth and fifth wickets, the first time West Indies have ever achieved this in ODIs, and only the ninth such instance among all teams. The net result of all that heavy hitting was a grand total of 356, West Indies’ fourth highest in ODIs.

Also, Moeen Ali won’t be England’s saviour. You heard it here first

Andy Zaltzman07-Dec-20171. Australia Have No Sense of History
There have been 2286 Test matches in the 140-year history of the Greatest Things Humanity Has Ever Invented, 343 of them between England and Australia. Never had a team lost a Test match after both (a) declaring in their first innings, and (b) electing not to enforce the follow-on.Amid the unending deluge of cricket splurging through the world’s multiformatted screens today, a precious moment of historic uniqueness was there for the taking. It was a once-in-a-history-of-the-sport opportunity to do something that fans of the sport would still be talking about in 40,000 years’ time as they drift from galaxy to galaxy looking for a planet with a cricket-suitable climate, with an atmosphere more conducive to human exercise and existence than, for example, that of Delhi.The Australian batsmen, to give them due credit, sensed this tantalising slither of statistical immortality, and did their level best to facilitate it. Their dreams were rapidly squished by Josh Hazlewood’s remorselessly probing opening spell on the fifth day in Adelaide, however, an interrogation so intense that at least two England batsmen broke down in the dressing room and confessed to their roles in a string of unsolved crimes in the 1920s.2. England are succeeding in their goal of “putting miles in the legs” of the Australian pacers
Unfortunately, a number of those miles have been clocked up while charging towards the slip cordon celebrating another wicket. Thus far, the weakest link in the Australian attack (in my opinion, rather than the stats’ opinion) has been Mitchell Starc, and he has taken 14 wickets at an average of 18.9 with a strike rate under 36, and been frequently borderline unplayable. As weakest links go, he has been devastatingly strong.As a result, the lack of an allrounder, or even a reliable part-time bowler, has not been a problem. The Adelaide Test was only the second time since 2004 that Australia have used only four bowlers in a home Test. The only other time they have done so at the Adelaide Oval was in 1894-95, when they skittled England for under 150 in both innings. The 160.3 overs delivered by Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins, Lyon and the Concept of Unrelenting Pressure were the most bowled by Australia without recourse to a fifth bowler since the Lord’s Test of 1985 (nb: a series England won), and their second most ever in any home Test (behind the 268.1 four-ball overs (178.5 in today’s money) delivered in the SCG Test in February 1882.

In recent years, England’s batting has been like an unpersuasive missionary trying to convince people to accept a new religion that requires them to chainsaw one of their legs off

A hundred and fifteen of those four-ball overs came in an unbroken entire-innings-long opening spell on the first day by Joey Palmer and Edwin Evans, during which England were bowled out for 133. That is the equivalent of 76.4 six-ball overs. It was, at the time, the most overs bowled in a Test innings in which only the two opening bowlers have bowled. It is, at this time, still the most. By a long way. Without wishing to claim that I am imbued with the prognosticatory chops of Nostradamus, I foretell that this record will never be broken.3. Not only do England need to work on converting fifties into hundreds, they also need to work on converting 25s into fifties
England rectified their Brisbane problem of failing to convert 40s into 60s (one out of six), by instead failing to convert 20s into 40s – nine scores of 20 or more, but only two past 40.In recent years, their batting has been like an unpersuasive missionary trying to convince people to accept a new religion that requires them to chainsaw one of their legs off – their conversion rate has been very poor.Since 2012, England have converted 25.7% of their fifties into hundreds (excluding not-out innings between 50 and 99), comfortably the worst figure of the top-eight-ranked Test teams. South Africa, India and Australia are all around the 40% mark. By striking contrast, from 2004 to 2011, England’s conversion rate was 37.8%, just behind leaders Sri Lanka (39.5%) and South Africa (38.7%).In the absence of any three-figure scores, and amidst a scarity of fifties, we should celebrate the fact that England have posted 16 quarter-centuries in the first two Tests. Their average for those innings, however, is just 46.4. Currently, this represents England’s lowest average for innings-over-25 in any of the 253 Test series (including one-off Tests) they have played since 1888.Admittedly this is something of a niche statistic, but as the wise old cricketing saying goes, “You don’t win too many Test series if your batsmen only average 21.4 more runs after reaching 25.”Australia, only too aware of this sage adage, cleverly avoided reaching 25 at all in their second innings, despite eight of them scoring 10 or more. It was only the third Test innings ever in which seven or more players had reached double figures without anyone scoring more than 20, and just the second time since 1906 that a team has won a Test despite having an innings when all 11 men batted without anyone passing 20.He’s not Murali, he’s better: Peter Such (right) is the only visiting spinner in over 30 years to have bowled over 100 overs and averaged under 30 in Australia•Getty Images4. England are reconnecting with their cricketing heritage
England have now lost their last six Tests away from home, by margins of 246 runs, eight wickets, an innings and 36, and innings and 75 (in India); ten wickets, and 120 runs (in Australia). It is only the fourth six-match losing streak England have suffered in Tests. Ominously, two of the previous three involved an Ashes whitewash (2006-07 and 1920-21, both followed by a first-Test defeat on England’s next tour).Since their glorious victory in India in 2012-13, England have won four and lost 16 of their 27 Tests away from home. Prior to that, they had won nine and lost seven of the previous 20, which represented one of their most successful phases as an overseas Test force since the 1970s.Being obliterated overseas is as much as part of English cricketing tradition, identity, history and heritage as Lord’s, rain, the cucumber sandwich, the beer snake, and the tail-end collapse. In their first 26 away Tests of the 20th century, England won just eight and lost the other 18, including seven of the nine featuring Sydney Barnes, often regarded as the greatest bowler in English history, and three of the ten in which the young Jack Hobbs played. The last match in this sequence was a 146-run loss at the SCG in the first Test of 1911-12, after which England won four in a row to take the Ashes. Could that be an omen? No. No it could not. On any number of levels.5. Moeen Ali is unlikely to tweak England to glory, even if he gets a new bionic finger
Moeen and his hurty finger have had a tough Australian baptism. Even great visiting spinners at their peak have struggled in Baggy Greenland. Since the start of the 1986-87 season, 28 touring tweaksters and/or twirlers have bowled more than 100 overs in Australia. Only one has returned an average below 30. Any guesses? Muralitharan, Kumble, Vettori, Swann, or a Mushtaq, perhaps? No. None of them. It is Peter Such.This millennium, visiting spinners in Australia have collectively averaged 53.2 – more than 10 runs per wicket more than the next most challenging venue for touring spinners, India (42.7).

The Ashes captains’ journeys have been similar: each having spent some of his formative years in the other’s country

Daniel Brettig21-Nov-20172:19

‘How the captains perform will be key’

Of all the observations to choose from in the usual pre-Ashes talkfest, one looked more widely at the looming series than most. That it came from Shane Warne was at once surprising and telling, for he has shared his time more evenly between Australia and England than just about anyone else to be signed up to the airwaves this summer.”The biggest shift over the last few years is, they don’t fear Australia anymore,” Warne said. “England no longer fear Australia and haven’t for a long time and hence that’s why they can beat Australia.”Warne, of course, was a lead actor in the series that shattered that fear – the epochal 2005 encounter. The central figures in this forthcoming bout are the captains, Steven Smith and Joe Root, who have each grown up amid this new reality. Root has admitted to skiving off school in order to watch the last day of that series at home. Smith, meanwhile, was also glued to the television in his parents’ Sutherland Shire home, coming to terms with the fact that Australia’s previous dominance was at an end.Both, therefore, have learned their games amid this changed landscape, and experienced its resultant fluctuations. Smith’s first experience of Ashes cricket was a comprehensive Australian defeat in 2010-11, Root’s a solid English victory in 2013. Their roles were then reversed in 2013-14, the summer the hosts this week have gone out of their way to talk about, while the tourists riposte by questioning its relevance. Either way, Smith and Root were shaped by the way that series played out, and will take those learnings into this contest.For a Yorkshireman, many of Root’s influences are remarkably Australian. This arguably stems from the fact that Darren Lehmann added a good deal of Antipodean attitude to Yorkshire during his long and prolific stint as their overseas player. By the time Root was emerging as a player of note, having scooped up armfuls of junior trophies, the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy in Adelaide was seen as a sound pathway for players wanting to polish their games while un-varnishing their on-field vocabularies.

Root and Smith also share some commonalities as batsmen. Their favoured scoring areas are midwicket and cover, and both are most likely to be dismissed in the arc between the wicketkeeper and the slips

In 2010-11, Root played for Prospect in Adelaide grade competition, making 262 runs at a modest 29.11 but learning plenty about the game. He shared a dressing room with a young Nathan Lyon, who was in the process of being fast-tracked from Prospect to South Australia to the Test team in a matter of months. Root came home from that season on a similar steep trajectory, making his Yorkshire debut in 2011 and then gaining a first England cap in late 2012.Smith also learned plenty of his game on the opposite side of the globe. In fact, he may actually have played for England had he so chosen – with dual citizenship, he is currently as ineligible for Australia’s Federal Parliament as Barnaby Joyce. During an influential 2007 season in Kent, a teenaged Smith deflected attempts by Surrey to sign him as a local player. Even after he joined the Australian team for the first time in 2009-10, English influences remained: the nickname “Smudge” was bestowed by Michael Hussey, who had picked it up as a common sobriquet for a Smith or two during his time with Northamptonshire.Apart from the nickname, Smith also learned much about the hard side of international cricket during his early stint. He was sledged relentlessly by a triumphant England during the 2010-11 series, while at the same time having his technique pulled apart by James Anderson in particular. He also observed the training and lifestyle habits of Ricky Ponting, among others, and resolved to improve his diet and exercise regimen to shed the “puppy fat” he then carried. At the same time, he started to think in terms of captaincy, aided by a swift elevation to leadership of Sydney Sixers in the inaugural Big Bash League in 2011-12.By the time Smith and Root first crossed paths during the 2013 Ashes in England, Root was already a firm member of the home XI, elevated from the middle order to open alongside Alastair Cook. As the recipient of a David Warner punch in a Birmingham nightclub during the Champions Trophy that preceded the Ashes, Root unwittingly played a key role in the appointment of Lehmann to coach Australia.Smith, meanwhile, was a late inclusion in the touring party, then thrust into the XI at No. 6. Both he and Root wrestled with their respective commissions but also produced one big innings apiece – Root’s second-innings “daddy” hundred at Lord’s sealed a decisive 2-0 lead for England, then Smith’s freewheeling first Test century, at The Oval, helped raise optimism for the Australians to carry home despite their defeat.Root c Smith b Johnson for 2 at the Gabba in 2013-14•Getty ImagesAs a pair of young players, both Root and Smith were carried with that prevailing tide. Smith had little impact on either of the first two Tests, but feasted on short bowling by an increasingly frustrated England at the WACA Ground and then carved out another hundred at the SCG in what was more 5-0 victory party than Test match for Michael Clarke’s team. Root, by contrast, fell amid the shuddering England collapse on day two at the Gabba and never really recovered, being dropped from the team before the series concluded. Notably he was troubled less by Mitchell Johnson than Ryan Harris, Shane Watson and Nathan Lyon.Equally, the barbs of Australian crowds and players caused Root’s stiff upper lip to quiver ineffectually at the WACA Ground, when at the start of the second innings he followed Ian Bell and Matt Prior into a slanging match with David Warner. Throughout the series, whether through Harris’ skill, Johnson’s pace or the generally hostile environment, England were often goaded into abandoning their usual methodical ways. As though trying to follow the stoicism of Cook and the coach Andy Flower, Root retreated into himself while soaking up 577 balls for a mere 192 runs. Smith’s own contribution was far from swift (327 runs at 40.87, strike rate 51.25) but demonstrated a balance between attack and defence that England lacked.In the following 18 months, Smith established himself in the team while rising steadily up the batting order, and at the same time becoming a serious subject in conversations about future leadership. Root, too, was growing into a player of seniority, though the pair’s experiences of first-class captaincy could not have been more different. With a double of 75 and 103 not out in the final, Smith led New South Wales to the Sheffield Shield at the end of March. Little more than a month later, Root and his bowlers were unable to defend a fourth-innings target of 472 against Middlesex on an improving Lord’s pitch against a clinical Chris Rogers: 241 not out for the Australian, and the dressing-room bestowal of a new nickname, “craptain”, for Root.

Smith’s first experience of Ashes cricket was a comprehensive Australian defeat in 2010-11, Root’s a solid English victory in 2013. Their roles were then reversed in 2013-14

Nevertheless, his growth as a batsman, reconnecting with freer-scoring ways, made Root the single most positive element of the Peter Moores era, afflicted as it was by the underperformance of others and the seemingly endless Kevin Pietersen saga. By May of 2015, Moores was gone, soon to be replaced by Trevor Bayliss, but Root was England’s player of the year – the result of burnishing his strengths rather than fussing over any weaknesses. “I think when I came back from Australia I realised that a lot of the time out there I was trying to work on things I wasn’t too good at, and putting all my energy into that, rather than spending more time strengthening the stuff I am good at,” he said at the time. “I think I was so desperate to do well that I ended up hindering myself.”Smith had already captained Australia after Clarke was injured during 2014-15. It was an emotionally draining summer, forever to be associated with the death of Phillip Hughes but also punctuated by a home World Cup triumph in which Smith struck the winning runs at the MCG. Confidence from that tournament, plus a canter to victory in the West Indies, had a hubristic Australia arriving in England for the Ashes. For all the work he had done to make smart decisions as a batsman, Smith got caught up in it too.”I can’t wait to get over there and play another Ashes against England in their conditions after beating them so convincingly in Australia,” he said before the tour. “It’s going to be nice to go in their backyard. If we continue to play the way we have been playing over the last 12-18 months, I don’t think that they’ll come close to us, to be honest.”The scoreboards show that this was a foolhardy claim, as the Australians failed badly to adapt to seaming conditions whether in terms of technique or selection, while Smith’s series oscillated wildly from big scores at Lord’s and The Oval to fidgety ineffectiveness in the pivotal Birmingham and Nottingham Tests. Newly anointed vice-captain to Cook, Root reaped fewer runs but far greater influence, whether it was a commanding century – having been dropped early by Brad Haddin – in Cardiff or a foot-on-the-throat 130 after Australia had been razed for 60 at Trent Bridge.Root ended the series in a fit of giggles, thanks to an accidental double entendre from Cook, at a post-match press conference after Australia’s consolation win in the final Test. But he was there as England’s Man of the Series, and captain-in-waiting. For Smith the formalities of the office had actually been bestowed in the sleepy surrounds of Northampton between the fourth and fifth Tests, following Clarke’s decision to retire from the game. So it was that the pair was set on a collision course for the Gabba this week.In the 2015 Ashes, Root scored 460 runs to Smith’s 508, but stamped his authority on England’s 3-2 win•Getty ImagesApart from their similar ages and faces devoid of hair, Root and Smith also share some commonalities as batsmen. According to CricViz analysis, their favoured scoring areas are midwicket (20% for Root, 19.5% for Smith) and cover (20% and 19%), while both are most likely to be dismissed in the arc between the wicketkeeper and the slips (48% and 40%). In terms of the correct length to bowl to them, fuller offerings are far more likely to bring an error: Root averaging 51.67 on the front foot and 60.83 on the back, while Smith’s split is 59.24 and 67.92.Greater contrast can be found in how they move at the crease – Smith across his stumps, Root more classically forward or back. Then there is the approach to the spinners: a dancing Smith has ventured out of his crease to 8% of all deliveries faced, whereas Root has done so just a mere 2% of the time. In recent Asian Tests, Smith has tempered his tendency to jump out at the spinners, but he is more likely to do so in Australia, where pace and bounce are more consistent.As intense devourers of the game, Root and Smith have also tried to find ways to seek reward or escape from its pressures. For several years Root has travelled with a ukulele in tow, on which he can commonly be found strumming tunes by Oasis or the Arctic Monkeys. In a nod to his earlier days of occasionally eating a packet of M&Ms for dinner, Smith now rewards himself for each international century by eating a block of chocolate, a tip picked up from the former Sydney Swans AFL player Adam Goodes.As leaders, Smith is the more experienced both before and during international captaincy, but Root can tend towards the more adventurous in terms of tactics and ideas. Both can expect to be tested for patience and mental reserves when batting, after the fashion of contemporary Test match tactics. Heavy, too, will be the weight of their own expectation, for a poor series with the bat for either captain would more or less ensure defeat for his team.In the words of the former Hampshire captain Mark Nicholas: “They’re both top-class players and the first thing they’ve got to do is make runs. It’s very hard as a captain if you’re not making runs, I don’t care how gifted you are, how comfortable you are in your own skin. Tactically they’re both learning. Root is more inclined to the unorthodox than Smith, who is more inclined to resort to the obvious in a practical way – and I don’t mean that as a criticism. Captaincy’s changed at the international level now, because of the way guys bat they are more likely to deny attacking players and force an error than they are to attack a player.”Given Australia’s recent history of batting collapses, Root has a pair of perceptive and vastly experienced fast bowlers in Anderson and Stuart Broad to test the hosts’ patience. He may also be reinforced by Ben Stokes at some point in the series. However, he lacks the sheer speed and shock value open to Smith, via Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins in particular. Equally, Josh Hazlewood has the combination of bounce, pace and seam movement to discomfort Root’s own methods. Ian Chappell sees the contrast in bowling resources as the key.”I think Steve Smith holds the advantage with the two genuine quick bowlers in Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc,” he said. “In Australia, if you are struggling for wickets you can always resort to a bit of short-pitched stuff, and that is more easily done with genuine pace. England have a good attack but I am just not sure how they will go if the Kookaburra isn’t doing much. That will be a real challenge for them and Joe Root.”Smith, then, has the pace-bowling weaponry and the home ground advantage, but Root has none of the old fear Warne spoke about. Theirs is an Ashes script about to be written.

A negative Smart Economy Rate essentially means a bowler has saved more runs than he has conceded. Five bowlers have managed such a feat this IPL season

Shiva Jayaraman18-May-2018The match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium witnessed outstanding spells by arguably two of the best bowlers in the T20 format. Both Jasprit Bumrah and Andrew Tye earned a Smart Economy – one of ESPNcricinfo’s new metrics for the T20 format. That means, in the context of the match and historical averages of the overs bowled by them, they ended up saving more notional runs than they actually conceded. Who else has managed such a feat this IPL? ESPNcricinfo looks at five performances that fetched the bowlers a negative Smart Economy.ESPNcricinfo LtdJasprit Bumrah, 3 for 15 v Kings XI PunjabWith Kings XI Punjab needing 42 off the last four overs, Bumrah gave away just four runs in the 17th to arrest the momentum Kings XI had gathered from the previous Mayank Markande over that had gone for 17 runs. After the 18th over went for 15 runs, Bumrah snuffed out Kings XI’s fight in the 19th by dismissing the dangerous KL Rahul and conceding only six runs. His two overs at death had gone for only 10 runs while the other three of the last five overs cost 46. Added to his two frugal overs earlier in the innings, Bumrah’s economy of 3.75 – in a match where bowlers conceded runs at an economy of 8.72 – had actually saved 19.68 runs. Bumrah ended up with a Smart Economy of -1.17 – the best for any bowler in a match this season. Andrew Tye, 4 for 16 v Mumbai IndiansThe first innings of the same match saw another seesaw battle for momentum. Mumbai Indians had got off to a flyer, having made 21 runs off the third over. However, Andrew Tye applied the brakes in the next over, dismissing Evin Lewis while conceding just two runs off it. Mumbai wrested the advantage back in the fifth over by scoring 18 runs, only to lose it in the next over, when Tye conceded three runs and took the wickets of an in-form Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan. Tye’s two overs in the Powerplay had gone for just five runs while the rest had conceded 55 runs from four overs. He came back later to bowl two overs at the death for just 11 runs. Tye had an economy rate of 4.00 in a match where the overall economy for the bowlers was 8.72. He ended up saving 18.92 runs. Tye’s Smart Economy of -0.73 for the match was the second-best of the season. Sunil Narine, 1 for 17 v Chennai Super KingsNarine may not have bowled the tough overs like Bumrah and Tye in the above instances, but he managed an economy of 4.25 in a match where over 400 runs were scored. With CSK requiring 75 off the last six, the 15th over went for 17 runs and had them primed to launch a late assault. Narine did his part by conceding just seven runs off the next over – also his last – against MS Dhoni and Sam Billings. However, Super Kings still managed to win as the last four overs went for 53 runs. Narine, though, finished with a Smart Economy of -0.49 and ended up saving 18.96 runs for his team. Rashid Khan, 1 for 13 v Mumbai IndiansRashid Khan was at his indecipherable best against Mumbai Indians when he totalled three overs of dots and conceded just 13 runs off the remaining six balls. It wasn’t a high-scoring match, but Rashid’s economy of 3.25 – over two times better than the overall match economy of 7.15 – meant that he saved 13.98 runs for his team. Rashid’s Smart Economy of -0.24 in that match is the fourth-best in this IPL. Jofra Archer, 2 for 16 v Mumbai IndiansIn a match where Bumrah went for 34 runs in three overs and pacers registered an economy of 8.74, Jofra Archer gave away just 16 runs from his four overs to go alongside the wickets of Suryakumar Yadav and the Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma. Archer’s economy of 4.00 was twice as good as the overall match economy of 8.00. That translates to him having saved 16.05 runs, and a Smart Economy of -0.01.

The first day of the Women’s T20 tri-series witnessed a slew of records being set.

Shiva Jayaraman20-Jun-2018New Zealand set a record, England break it in a few hoursFirst, New Zealand set a new record for the highest T20I total in women’s cricket by making 216 for 1 against South Africa, then England Women smashed that record by 34 runs, and against the same opposition. The three teams are involved in a tri-series being played in England. The previous record for the highest total in Women’s T20 internationals was held by Australia, who made 209 for 4 against England at Brabourne Stadium earlier this year. Five of the top six T20I totals in women’s international cricket have come this year. Click here for a list of the highest T20I totals. Before this manic day, Women’s T20Is had seen only two 200-plus totals in 423 games. England’s highest T20I total, across the boardThis is the highest total for England in the T20 international format (men’s or women’s). England men’s 230 for 8 against South Africa in the 2016 World T20 was the previous highest. This was the first time England Women had made 200 runs in this format. Their previous best was 199 for 3, which they made against India in Mumbai earlier this year. Click here for a list of the highest totals by England Women in T20Is. New Zealand’s 218 for 1 was also the first time their women’s team had breached the 200-run mark in T20Is. A record standIn the first match of the tri-series, the New Zealand openers added 182 runs, setting a new record for the highest partnership in T20 international matches (men’s or women’s). They broke the record set by their men’s team: Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill had put together an unbeaten stand of 171 runs against Pakistan in 2016. Click here for a list of the highest stands in men’s T20 internationals. The previous record for the highest stand in women’s T20 internationals was held by the South Africa pair of Trish Chetty and Shandre Fritz, who had added 170 runs against Netherlands back in 2010. Bates gets one record, narrowly misses anotherDuring her unbeaten 124, Bates passed England’s Charlotte Edwards as the leading run-scorer in women’s T20 internationals. Edwards had made 2605 runs in 93 T20 innings. Bates narrowly missed the highest individual score in this format though, falling short of Meg Lanning’s 126 by just two runs. Click here for the highest scores in Women’s T20 internationals. Incidentally, Bates’ 124 is also the highest individual score by a New Zealand batsman (men or women) in this format. Brendon McCullum’s 123 against Bangladesh in 2012 World T20 was the previous highest.Beaumont hits 22 boundaries, and the second-fastest hundredTammy Beaumont, the other centurion of the day, got her name in the record books too by biffing 22 boundaries in her 52-ball 116. These are the joint-most boundaries hit by a batsman in a women’s T20I. Australia’s Lanning too had hit 22 boundaries on her way to the highest T20I score in women’s cricket, against Ireland in the 2014 World T20. Beaumont reached her century in 47 balls, making it the second-fastest of the nine centuries scored in Women’s T20 internationals. Deandra Dottin’s 38-ball hundred against South Africa in the 2010 World T20 is the fastest.

Batsman Team Opposition Date BoundariesMeg Lanning Australia Ireland 27-Mar-2014 22Tammy Beaumont England South Africa 20-Jun-2018 22Beth Mooney Australia England 21-Nov-2017 20Danielle Wyatt England India 25-Mar-2018 20Suzie Bates New Zealand South Africa 20-Jun-2018 19 England record the biggest winEngland restricted South Africa to 129 for 6 in reply to their mammoth total of 250 for 3, making their win the biggest in Women’s T20 internationals. Incidentally, the previous record for this was held by South Africa themselves: they had beaten Netherlands in 2010 by 115 runs. Click here for a list of the biggest margins of victory in Women’s T20Is. And the record that stood for the shortest period was …If you thought New Zealand’s record for the highest total being broken in a matter of hours was the briefest a record stood on this day, then you are in for a surprise. South Africa’s Stacy Lackay bowled the 18th over of the innings and finished up with figures of 2 for 59 – the most expensive figures for any bowler in Women’s T20 internationals. This dubious record was promptly exceeded by Masabata Klaas by the end of the very next over, when she finished with equally expensive figures, but claimed the bottom spot due to her lack of wickets. The pair’s economy-rates of 14.75 are also the worst for any bowlers to have bowled three or more overs in a Women’s T20 international.

In a country where being a Test specialist is usually seen as a hazard, Taijul Islam could have very easily slipped through the cracks. Thankfully for Bangladesh, he didn’t

Mohammad Isam24-Nov-2018It’s unlikely Taijul Islam will be the toast of Bangladesh tonight. He is not the type who floods his social media pages with photos, graphics or heartfelt messages. In fact, Taijul was not even adjudged the Player of the Match during the first Test against West Indies; that honour went to Mominul Haque for his 120 in the first innings.Nope. Taijul simply took a six-wicket haul – his seventh five-for in Tests – and ran off with the stumps as souvenir.While the entire Bangladesh team deserves credit for the win, most of the attention is likely to head Shakib Al Hasan’s way. Besides becoming the first Bangladeshi to take 200 Test wickets and the fastest to the double of 200 wickets and 3000 runs, the 64-run win was also Shakib’s first Test victory in his second stint as captain.Shakib is a charismatic presence on the field for Bangladesh. With him around, his team-mates feel secure, knowing their backs are watched. On Saturday morning, Shakib knocked West Indies completely off course at the start of their 204-run chase, removing Kieran Powell and Shai Hope just before lunch.But even with Shakib’s heroics, the first Test was all about Taijul. He got into the act with a six-wicket haul, while also complementing Shakib, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Nayeem Hasan with tight spells from his end. Whether he gets noticed or not, Bangladesh’s win in Chattogram had a lot to do with Taijul’s accuracy.Even on a pitch that started to turn from the first afternoon, a bowler still has to be precise in pitching deliveries. Other bowlers might have been tempted to get carried away, but not Taijul. It should have come as no surprise. Throughout his career, Taijul has been unfazed by both success and failure.In a country where being a Test specialist is usually seen as a hazard rather than an advantage, Taijul could have very easily slipped through the cracks in the selectors’ table, joining an unfortunate list of Javed Omar, Rajin Saleh, Enamul Haque jnr and Robiul Islam.However, in a day and age where consistent performers in Tests are hard to come by for Bangladesh, Taijul has stood out. He has 94 wickets in 22 Tests, and is primed to become the fastest to 100 scalps for Bangladesh, beating out both Shakib (28) and Mohammad Rafique (33).In the seven Tests during the last four years that Bangladesh played without Shakib, Taijul proved his worth by taking four five-fors as well as a 10-wicket haul.Thankfully, Taijul’s efforts, even when they have not yielded a lot of wickets, have not gone unnoticed in the Bangladesh dressing room.”He really works hard on his bowling,” Shakib said. “He got only one wicket in the first innings but we all agreed in the dressing room that he was our best bowler on the second day. A bowler sometimes doesn’t get wickets despite bowling well, but we notice these small things and ensure that everyone gets the message. Taijul bowled really well. I hope he bowls the same way in the second Test, and perhaps takes two five-fors.”Shakib, however, called for a balance between his spinners. He noticed that several times during the first Test, whenever one bowler was attacking and taking wickets, the bowler at the other end also tried to follow suit, instead of containing the flow of runs as planned.”All of us are attacking bowlers. Sometimes it is difficult for us to bowl defensively. We always opt for the attacking option. We have to learn how to string together tight overs so that someone at the other end can attack. I think we have to develop this game sense and learn to do this.Taijul’s worth has not gone unnoticed by his team-mates•AFP”But at the same time, it is good to have wicket-taking bowlers around all the time. Even if we use four proper spinners, we don’t have to cut down on the number of batsmen. It is a plus point.”Shakib also singled out debutant Nayeem for showing courage with both bat and ball.”Nayeem bowled really well as a debutant. There was less help for spinners yesterday and yet he bowled so well. He has a good future. He can learn quickly. I think the best part is, he is brave.”Mehidy did his part too, removing Shimron Hetmyer in both innings, as well as breaking the crucial Jomel Warrican-Sunil Ambris partnership which had started to threaten Bangladesh on the third afternoon.Graham Gooch once famously described Richard Hadlee’s New Zealand bowling attack of the 1980s as, “the World XI at one end, and Ilford Second XI at the other”, a blunt but honest assessment that could very well have also applied to Bangladesh over the years.But since Taijul and Mehidy came into the fold, Bangladesh have had a lot more attacking options, particularly in home Tests. Taijul is still unlikely to the toast of the nation, but he will be more than happy working in the background, biding his time and then pouncing on rare opportunities to play Tests.

With the World Cup less than eight months away and places up for grabs in the ODI set-up, here’s the stage for hopefuls to build their CVs

Saurabh Somani18-Sep-2018

Spots in focus

The claimants for No. 4 and No. 6On Monday, Rohit Sharma said India are looking to seal the No. 4 and 6 slots. In addition to the contenders part of the Asia Cup squad, a few other players will also fancy their chances. Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer and Suresh Raina lead the list, having played for India in 2018, and been tried at those positions.Rahane, who is leading Mumbai, has historically found strike rate to be his chief problem. If the World Cup is played on flat pitches that have been rolled out for white-ball cricket in England, the team will need someone who can get on with it and even explode when needed. Even in the IPL, where he opens the innings, Rahane’s strike rate across the last two seasons has been only 118.24.Iyer made a decent fist of his chances at the international level, but not done enough to cement a spot, and unlike a Manish Pandey, he didn’t collar attacks in recent matches for India A either. Raina, the Uttar Pradesh captain, was picked for the ODIs against England after not playing a single 50-over match through 2016 and 2017. His IPL numbers weren’t overwhelmingly good either, but he offered a bowling option in the top six that India were desperately looking for. It didn’t come off though, with Raina failing in the ODIs and back on the exit route.Rishabh Pant at a training session•Getty ImagesThe Pant factorRegardless of his batting form, MS Dhoni remains the first-choice wicketkeeper. The selectors have also picked Dinesh Karthik as Dhoni’s back-up. But Rishabh Pant (Delhi) with his explosive batting, on display even in the Test series against England, cannot be ignored. Pant’s List A strike from 2017 onwards is 111.42. He’s been even more irresistible in the IPL, hitting at 170.73 in the last two seasons at an average of 38.89. He can almost make a case for playing on the strength of his batting alone.Who will be the back-up for Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar?Khaleel Ahmed and Shardul Thakur are at the Asia Cup, while Siddarth Kaul, Avesh Khan and Prasidh Krishna were called up to help out in the nets there. Apart from them, Deepak Chahar (Rajasthan) and Mohammed Siraj (Hyderabad) will be the ones to watch out for. During the 2018 IPL, Chahar showed that he could hit the ball some way, too. Siraj sparkled in the recently concluded A series against Australia A and South Africa A, albeit with the red ball. But his career average in List A cricket is 20.78, and he has made picking wickets a habit with the white ball too. He’s also added strength and a yard of pace in the past season.Spin-bowling allrounderAlthough Axar Patel has been preferred as the third spinner in the Indian squad, the pair of Krunal Pandya (Baroda) and Ravindra Jadeja (Saurashtra) will still think they have the potential to challenge for that spot.Krunal was recently called up to the Indian squad to replace Washington Sundar (who is not playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy due to injury) for the T20Is in England. In the IPL, where he plays for Mumbai Indians, Krunal has emerged as among the most consistent allrounders. He’s able to hit big in the lower order, and has been parsimonious with the ball. His economy rate over the last two IPL seasons is 6.95 – phenomenal given he doesn’t bowl only in the middle overs.As for Jadeja, although he has not recently been part of India’s limited-overs squads, he showed as recently as the last Test that he’s still a gun fielder with fitness and athleticism intact. His challenge will be to prove he’s still a force with the ball. His white-ball form has not been particularly encouraging, but the spell out of the team could have given Jadeja the rest needed to rediscover his zip as a limited-overs bowler. He’ll also have to show that he’s still capable of cameos with the bat down the order.

New Format, New Entrants

ESPNcricinfo LtdThe format for the Vijay Hazare Trophy will have nine teams each in Groups A and B, and ten teams in Group C. All the new entrants will be in the Plate Group. Each group will play a round-robin league among themselves, to be followed by the knockouts.For Group C and the Plate Group, it’s fairly straightforward: the top two teams in C and the top team in Plate will go through to the quarter-finals.For Groups A and B, it’s a bit more complex. The top five teams from both groups combined will go through to the quarterfinals. This effectively means that in theory at least, you could have all five teams coming from just one group. If, say, five teams in A all have more points at the end of the league stage than the top-most team in B, none from B will go through. For the teams themselves, this adds an extra element of strategy (or headache, if you will) of tracking how things are going in the other group, especially in the last few rounds.The new entrants also means that there is the danger of some very lopsided matches, and the opportunity for some records to fall.

List of domestic transfers

Karn Sharma – Andhra (from Vidarbha)
Harpreet Singh Bhatia – Chhattisgarh (from MP)
Krishna Das – Goa (from Assam)
Amit Verma – Goa (from Assam)
Urvil Patel – Gujarat (from Baroda)
Irfan Pathan – J&K (from Baroda)
Chandrakant Sakure – Railways (from MP)
Madhur Khatri – Railways (from Rajasthan)
Rajat Paliwal – Services (from Haryana)
Arjun Sharma – Services (from HP)
Abhishek Tiwari – Services (from UP)
Harmeet Singh – Tripura (from J&K)
Bravish Shetty – Tripura (from Mumbai)
Professionals and transfers for new teams:Puducherry:
Fabid Ahmed (from Kerala), Thalaivan Sargunam (from TN), Nikhilesh Surendran (from Kerala), Sagar Trived (from Mumbai), Shashank Singh (from Mumbai), Iqlas Naha (from Kerala), Abdul Safar (from Kerala)
Professionals – Abhishek Nayar (from Mumbai), Pankaj Singh (from Rajasthan), Paras Dogra (from HP)Bihar:
Ashish Sinha (from Jharkhand), Keshav Kumar (from Jharkhand), Samar Quadri (from Jharkhand)
Professionals – Ashutosh Aman (from Services), Pragyan Ojha (from Hyderabad)Nagaland:
Rongsen Jonathan (from Railways), Nitesh Lochab (from Delhi), Hokaito Zhimomi (from Assam)
Professionals – Abrar Kazi (from Karnataka), KB Pawan (from Karnataka), Pawan Suyal (from Delhi)Arunachal Pradesh:
Professional – Kshitiz Sharma (from Delhi)Uttarakhand:
Saurabh Rawat (from Odisha)
Professionals – Rajat Bhatia (from Rajasthan), Malolan Rangarajan (from TN), Vineet Saxena (from Rajasthan)Manipur:
Professionals – Yashpal Singh (from Tripura), Hrithik Kanojia (from Delhi), Lakhan Arjun Rawat (from UP)Meghalaya:
Mark Ingty (from Assam), Raj Biswa (from Tripura), Jason Lamare (from Assam)
Professionals – Puneet Bisht (from J&K), Gurinder Singh (from Tripura), Yogesh Nagar (from Delhi)Mizoram
Professionals – Taruwar Kohli (from Punjab), Akhil Lalchand Rajput (from Mumbai) Sinan Abdul Khader (from Karnataka)

So far, the team under Langer and Paine has proven more adept and comfortable being underdogs and fighters than front-runners and dominators

Daniel Brettig08-Dec-2018Among the countless things that have confronted Australia’s coach Justin Langer since he took the job in May, most recently the criticism of none other than Sachin Tendulkar for the team’s Adelaide scoring rate, none will be a source of greater frustration than this: the script evolving in his first Test in charge at home was much the same as that written for the preceding encounter away to Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

Pujara set the blueprint – Head

Travis Head suggested Cheteshwar Pujara, who hit a first-innings century and is batting on 40 in the second, set the example for the way everyone else must bat in this Test.
“The way he played in the first innings was the blueprint for this wicket,” Head said. “He had a really good leaving game, good forward defence, as the ball got softer, he got more runs.”
Head was disappointed to be caught behind for 72 just as his stand with Nathan Lyon was assuming pesky dimensions for India, but he showed an ability to combat R Ashwin that outstripped his fellow left-handers. He also believed that a significant fourth innings chase was possible based on the way the pitch has played in Sheffield Shield matches this summer.
“Disappointing to feel the momentum swing back, I wanted to continue on and felt if we could keep doing it for a period of time we could put them under pressure and keep them out there,” he said. “I just tried to stay busy on [Ashwin]. I learned a lot from Dubai first innings to second innings, I was really positive against the off-spinner, watching the ball and not premeditating. It’s going to be the same in the next innings, there’s not much rough for the left-handers but this wicket always spins with the grass coverage.
“This year bigger scores have been made and teams have batted out draws. It’s more of a new ball wicket at the moment… it’s vital to win those moments when the new ball comes around again.”

Separated by a few weeks and a 13-hour long-haul flight, Abu Dhabi and Adelaide have thus far evolved in maddeningly similar fashion for an Australian team trying, despite slender resources in batting terms especially, to make a fresh start.In both cases, Tim Paine lost the toss. In both cases, his bowlers found an early opening by way of their opponents’ indiscretions. In both cases, a couple of sturdy innings and a discernible drop in the quality and intensity of Australia’s bowling allowed for the cobbling of a defensible total. In both cases, an unsteady Australian batting lineup was strangled into submission by precise bowling plans and slow scoring. In both cases, the third innings unfolded without the sort of dramatic incisions required to turn the tide.While Adelaide is far from over as a match, and a momentous rearguard in the first Test against Pakistan in Dubai will give the home side some hope, the fact that the Australians have been unable to make the most of productive starts with the ball – by far their strongest suit in the absences of Steven Smith and David Warner – will undoubtedly cause Langer’s brow to furrow. For as much as he has talked about fighting qualities and not giving up in the game’s longest form, capitalisation upon advantage is a central plank of any successful team.In between these two Test matches, Langer will have noted how New Zealand were able to scrap their way to victories against the same Pakistan side that humbugged his collective, demonstrating the sort of sustained performance vital to defeating an opponent as capable as Virat Kohli’s India. Equally, he will know that the confidence of the team under his tutelage remains decidedly fragile, even when bolstered by the dual advantages of home turf and a full complement of fast bowlers.It is this last factor that will also be a source of disquiet for Australia and enormous succour for India after day three. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are, with the support of Nathan Lyon, the truly world-class element of this team. The truism that bowlers win Test matches has stood up throughout history, with the caveat that any team containing them must produce at least a middling supply of runs to defend. By creeping up toward parity with India while occupying the crease for an additional 10 overs, the Australian batting lineup did not grant their bowlers an advantage but also left the game open for them.Adelaide was, in a promising trend, Australia’s longest first innings since making 351 in 110.4 overs in Durban, not coincidentally their last victory. That has been followed by 243 in 71.3 in Port Elizabeth, 255 in 69.5 in Cape Town, 221 in 70 in Johannesburg, 202 in 83.3 in Dubai, 145 in 50.4 in Abu Dhabi and now 235 in 98.4 in Adelaide. What followed was to the credit of India’s top order, but also a sobering sight for Langer, Paine and bowling coach David Saker. Even as the removal of India’s openers for 76 brought some respite for Australia, it was difficult to escape the conclusion that the pacemen had not quite seized a critical moment of this Test when armed with the new ball on an overcast day in Adelaide.There was a good contest between Pat Cummins and KL Rahul•Getty ImagesKL Rahul and M Vijay were given enough latitude to leave plenty of balls early on, with neither batsman overly worried about scoring runs in the opening overs of the innings. Starc, gaining some useful swing once again, struggled to control it as he wanted to, while Hazlewood’s tempters floating away outside the off stump were a little wider and more frequently so than they had been on day one.Having seen through the opening salvos, Rahul was emboldened enough to open his shoulders, cracking Cummins for six over cover point then following up with a boundary through the same region. Only 11 runs ticked by in the first nine overs, but they were followed by no fewer than 51 from the next nine. The effect of these runs was also to force Paine to post in/out fields for Lyon, who was unable to prevent regular turnover of the strike in his first five overs – costing 19 runs – despite not conceding a boundary.So when Starc coaxed Vijay into following a ball well wide of the off stump and edging it to Peter Handscomb, the Australian huddle was marked by far more relief than jubilation. Though they were to be further deflated when a caught behind verdict for Lyon against Cheteshwar Pujara was overturned after replays showed no contact between bat and ball. Hazlewood belatedly found Rahul’s outside edge to setup a brief and theatrical duel with Kohli before the break.Well though Kohli and Pujara went on to bat, the latter assisted further when adjudged lbw playing no shot at Lyon but reprieved by ball-tracking that showed the off-break barely easing over the top of the middle and leg stumps, they had been given a head start not afforded on the opening day of the series. Kohli’s exit late in the day, undone by Lyon’s bounce in a spell that grew in quality the longer it continued, provided a glimmer, but even a rush of day four wickets will still leave a testing chase.This all demonstrated that, so far, the Langer/Paine Australians have proven themselves more adept and comfortable being underdogs and fighters than front-runners and dominators. As Langer himself put it on SEN Radio: “There’s going to be some bumps over the next five weeks and the next couple of years, because you can’t just give these guys Test experience.”They’re great young blokes, they’re working so hard, they’re well prepared, they’e good players, but trust me Test cricket is so hard. It took some of my best mates a long time to get it right and that’s usually how it works. What the public saw yesterday, they’re fighting hard. You can’t just switch on ‘I’m going to be a Test cricketer today’.”The way that Adelaide’s third day unfolded meant that they will still be fumbling for the aforementioned switch on days four and five. Langer, for one, will be ardently hoping it can be flicked soon, while remaining realistic about the fact that it may not for some time to come.

England women go to the Caribbean for the World T20 with some uncertainty, having really only tested their skills in the Super League and the Big Bash

Melinda Farrell04-Nov-2018It was swelteringly hot at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi. And there was no respite from the stuffy atmosphere as journalists waited in a dark room for the post-match press conference. When England coach Mark Robinson and captain Charlotte Edwards walked in to dissect the five-run loss to Australia, it was hard to tell if the temperature plunged or rose even higher; there was both the heated flush of embarrassment at the manner of England’s exit from the tournament and the cool assessment of England’s failure – primarily a lack of fitness that left twos untaken and made a modest target unreachable.”We’re looking for players who can stand up and be counted, and play under the pressure, and have the aerobic fitness to do the job necessary,” Robinson told the gathered media. “That will be a necessity for any women’s team going forward.”***The aftermath of England’s 2016 Women’s World T20 camp was comprehensive. A little more than two years later, seven players from the team that lost in Delhi will head to the Caribbean for this year’s edition after the sweep of a broom that also saw the end of Edwards’ long tenure as captain.The current squad also contains three debutants and several players who have pushed their way into the England frame since the 2016 campaign. So that ticks off the old cliché of “a good mix of youth and experience”, then, but just how much has this England side changed?There is certainly a sense that while Heather Knight leads on the field, this is very much Robinson’s side. He had limited experience of the women’s game before taking up the position of head coach at the end of 2015, and recalls meeting some of the squad for the first time at the airport when they were heading to South Africa for a tour that preceded the World T20 in India.England allrounder Nat Sciver made 362 runs and took ten wickets in Surrey Stars’ title-clinching 2018 Super League campaign•Getty ImagesHe has not shied away from making strong selection decisions and has been vocal about the need to improve fitness – a particular bugbear – as well as increasing the players’ skill level, and lessening the reliance on slow bowlers who offer little in the way of genuine spin or attacking options. At the same time he has encouraged batsmen to test the limits of their power-hitting. The results can be seen in the improved performances of players such as Tammy Beaumont, Nat Sciver and Dani Wyatt.”We’re definitely fitter, we’re definitely more resilient,” said Robinson in the weeks leading up to England’s departure for the Caribbean. “So, in many ways we’ve made a move. The key bit is, you’ve obviously got to do your skills as well. You’ve got to outscore, outbat and hopefully out-field the opposition.”The other bit is, we needed to be tougher at big moments and to win more close games and to get over the line when we should get over the line on a more frequent basis, and I think we’ve done that, which is brilliant.”Winning the big moments was clearly a key to England’s success in the 2017 World Cup, a title that probably came earlier than expected in the wake of Robinson’s shake-up of the status quo. The consequence is that it has raised expectations for their performance in the shortest format.The problem, however, with trying to gauge England’s form in T20Is is that, like other countries, they simply don’t play much of it; in the two and a half years since the last tournament, England have played only 16 T20Is. As a result, Robinson sees a similarity to England’s position before the 50-over World Cup: he thinks they have a good chance, but he doesn’t know where they truly stand.”You’re having to use the KSL [Women’s Super League in England], anything that happens in the women’s Big Bash, your own players, to try and formulate a plan and get a handle on where you are,” said Robinson. I think the players are ready to show they’ve made a move, but I don’t really know, and we’ll know a lot more at the end of the time in the Caribbean.Coach Mark Robinson thinks England’s improvement in T20Is can only be judged by how they do in this World T20 because there aren’t enough international performances to go by•Getty ImagesEngland will undoubtedly miss the multiple talents of wicketkeeper-batsman Sarah Taylor, who elected not to take part in the tournament as she continues to deal with mental-health issues. And there are concerns over the fitness of one of England’s most experienced campaigners and new-ball bowler Katherine Brunt.Robinson believes Taylor’s replacement, Amy Jones, is second in the world to the player she comes in for behind the stumps (“I’ll argue that passionately with anyone”), while newcomers Kirstie Gordon, Linsey Smith and Sophia Dunkley have all impressed at domestic level.”They haven’t come out of the cold,” said Robinson. “What they haven’t been able to do is put on an England shirt yet, and we don’t really know how they’ll handle that until they get the opportunity.”Although England are the current champions of the 50-over format and West Indies hold the World T20 title, which they earned by beating Australia in the final at Eden Gardens, it is – as ever – the Australians who wear the favourites tag in the Caribbean. And that’s not just because their best batsman and captain, Meg Lanning, is free from the shoulder injury that plagued her during last year’s World Cup campaign.One of the key findings in the recently released FICA report on the payment and conditions of female players around the world names Australia as having the only “fully professional” set-up for women, while England and India are listed as “partly professional”. Other countries lag even further behind in areas such as central contracts, access to medical care, and multi-year contracts that provide security. The women’s game has come a long way, but there is further to go.Holding England back from becoming fully professional is the fact that the structure of women’s domestic competitions is held to ransom by the contentious dealings between the ECB and the counties.Amy Jones replaces Sarah Taylor behind the stumps for the World T20•Getty ImagesAfter steadily building a fan following, increased media coverage, and promise as the world’s second major women’s T20 domestic tournament, the Women’s Super League already has a kill-by date. It will cease after next season so that the way is clear for the women to take part in The Hundred. While there may be greater publicity and marketing opportunities involved in pairing with the men’s competition, England can simply not afford to not have a women’s domestic T20 tournament – the format is too important internationally. And while there have been murmurings that such a competition will emerge, it is worth remembering that when the Super League was originally mooted, the ECB also said a 50-over women’s domestic competition, involving the same teams or hosts that made up the Super League, would follow within a year or two. It never did, and England currently have one year of high-level domestic T20s left with no equivalent beyond in the two formats that matter in international competition.But such things are out of this England team’s control in St Lucia, where they must first perform in the group stages against Sri Lanka; Bangladesh, the Asia Cup champions; West Indies, the current World T20I champions; and South Africa, the most improved team of the past few years and the one that came excruciatingly close to knocking England out of the World Cup in their semi-final clash.And for all the uncertainty surrounding England’s current standing in T20Is, Robinson believes the nature of the format renders many predictions irrelevant.”It’s probably going to be a more keenly contested competition from the outside looking in before it starts,” he said. “The shorter the format, the more an individual can influence it; the longer the format, the more the collective can come into it. A lot more teams in the world have now got players who individually can influence a game and that’s what makes it exciting.”