All posts by csb10.top

India’s Test captain Virat Kohli hailed R Ashwin’s impact and Ravindra Jadeja’s relentlessness after India’s 197-run win over New Zealand in the series and season opener in Kanpur. For a while now Ashwin has hovered around the top in the ICC bowlers’ rankings, trading it with Dale Steyn and James Anderson. He is the top-ranked Test allrounder. In India’s win he took 10 wickets for 225, including a six-for in the second innings. Jadeja, on the other hand, took a five-for in New Zealand’s first innings, scored 42 crucial runs with the tail in India’s first-innings and a quick half-century to set up a declaration in the second.”Ashwin has been outstanding for the Indian team,” Kohli said. “If you see all the impact players in the world, he comes in the top three-four easily. There are quite a few players making big impact for their respective sides, especially bowlers. Bowlers are the ones I feel that win you Test matches, and Ashwin is one of them. The rankings – I’m not a big fan of them – suggest that Ashwin is the best at the moment.”There’s no doubt that he’s been bowling wonderfully well for the last couple of years. He works very hard on his game. He’s a very keen thinker of the game. He likes to talk cricket. He understands the game very well, [he’s a] very smart cricketer, very intelligent. That shows in his batting as well. He understands the situation and plays accordingly. He knows when to get runs and when to play the situation out. So it’s priceless to have a cricketer like Ashwin in your Test team. He gives balance with both bat and ball. I would wish him all the best that he keeps nurturing his skill so that we can keep dominating Test matches and keep winning Test matches as much as we can.”With the quality of bowlers Kohli had at his disposal, he was confident New Zealand didn’t stand a chance to defend their way out for a draw on the final day. The visitors had lost four wickets on Sunday evening and resumed the final day on a score of 93 for 4 facing a target of 434.”Having batted on that wicket, and all the batsmen will vouch for this, you could not have defended your way out of the game,” Kohli said. “On a wicket that spins and bounces, you need to put the bowler under pressure. It is not so much as releasing your own pressure but it’s more to put the bowler under pressure and disrupt his lines and lengths. That’s a strategy all batsmen will use on a wicket like this.”It’s very similar to a seaming wicket as well. Whenever you get the opportunity you want to get a boundary and put the bowler under pressure [and tell him] that he cannot make a mistake. We knew that it was impossible for them to be defending all day, and we knew that the one odd chance will come. That’s all you look forward to. You have to be optimistic and have to be positive in that particular phase when a partnership is going.”The team’s confidence in Ashwin and Jadeja let India play with only four bowlers, Kohli said. “Well obviously if you have a bowler of his quality, along with Jadeja who is so accurate…” Kohli said. “We know Kolkata is a much better batting wicket, so we can afford to maybe play an extra bowler there, you never know. But a place where it will help the two quality spinners that we have, and reverse swing coming into play as well – you know two crucial wickets by Mohammed Shami in the second innings, first breakthrough by Umesh Yadav in the first – it makes a massive difference. Those things are also very important moments in the game.”You obviously have to strengthen your batting on a wicket that might go 50-50. You never know, the game can slip away very quickly. And the extra batsman helped. I mean Rohit got runs in the second innings, pretty solid with Jadeja. Both were able to play positively, and gave us an hour extra to bowl at them. Maybe we would have otherwise declared with our tail-enders batting one hour after tea. But that gave us the whole session yesterday and we got four wickets. So that makes quite a bit of difference. Again, having intelligent people in the change room obviously helps you make better decisions as you go on. You understand the game much more, you understand the combinations much better and you can afford to take smart decisions according to the wicket that you’re playing on.”Apart from possibly playing an extra bowler, India could make a change at the top of the order for the Test in Kolkata, which starts from September 30. After he was dismissed in the second innings, KL Rahul played no further part in the Kanpur Test due to a hamstring strain. Soon after the match, Shikhar Dhawan, the reserve opener, was seen having a lot practice session on the centre track. That could be a sign.

Misbah-ul-Haq has admitted his batsmen did not have “any clue” how to handle the reverse swing generated by the England bowlers on the final day at Edgbaston.Pakistan lost four wickets for one run in mid-afternoon as England’s seamers transformed conditions that Misbah described as “easy” before lunch to those which they “could not handle”.It lead Misbah to suggest, with tongue in cheek, that Pakistan might have to think about sending their young bowlers to England to learn how to master the art of reverse swinging the ball; an irony considering it was Pakistan bowlers who perfected the art and England, for many years, were tortured by it.”Until lunch it was easy,” Misbah said. “But after lunch they got it reversing and we were not having any clue. We were trying to cope with it, but we could not handle it.”Anderson and Broad are used to these conditions. They are really experienced. Full credit to England for the way they fought back after we had a lead of more than 100.”I think we’ll just have to send someone to learn from England now how they’re reversing this ball. We could not do it even on the fourth day. I think they are really doing it well.”While Alastair Cook rated the victory as one of his most pleasing as England captain, he dismissed the possibility that England could reach No. 1 in the Test rankings over the next few weeks as “an irrelevance.”It is possible that, if England win the final Test and India do not win against West Indies, that England could reach the top spot. But Cook feels his side are still a couple of years from their peak and seems to regard the landmark as something of a distraction at present.”If we become number one there, that’s fantastic,” Cook said. “But it will be a bit of an irrelevance, because this side has still got much further to go.”If we do win at The Oval, I wouldn’t say we are anywhere near our potential. I thought that might come in a couple of years’ time.”Cook was especially pleased by the nature of the win bearing in mind that nobody in his side scored a century or claimed a five-wicket haul. Instead it was an impressive team performance with all five of his frontline bowlers claiming two wickets in the second innings – including Steven Finn, who bowled with hostility and claimed his first wickets of the series – while all seven batsmen contributed decent scores. England were not reliant on one or two outstanding individuals.”Everyone will be in the dressing-room feeling proud to be part of the team and feeling like they contributed,” Cook said. “That doesn’t always happen.”In an absolutely ideal world, I thought there were hundreds left out there. But everyone responded, and I think this side might have just toughened up a little bit. It was hard in the second innings. We weren’t scoring any runs, but everyone dug in.”But Cook refuted Misbah’s suggestion that the reverse swing was lavish and instead suggested it was his bowlers’ skill that magnified the small amount of assistance they gained.”We bowled brilliantly,” he said. “It reverse-swung a little bit. I don’t think it did it massively. It just did enough and if it does a bit either way, Jimmy and Stuart are very good.”Misbah could at least take some consolation in the emergence of Sami Aslam. The 20-year-old responded to his surprise call-up – this was his first first-class game of the year – by scoring 152 runs in the match and looking a player with the technique and temperament to enjoy a long career at this level.But he admitted the balance of the Pakistan side – with just four bowlers carrying a heavy burden – was putting them at a disadvantage and highlighted England’s all-rounders as a key difference between the sides”Sami looks a compact player and has shown great temperament,” Misbah said. “I am happy that he did well against such type of bowling: experienced bowlers in their own conditions. The way he handled the pressure was good to see. It’s good to find this sort of opener for Pakistan.”But having just four bowlers is a problem. We used to have Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik who could bowl, but here we don’t have that option now.”England have Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes. Here Yasir Shah carries a tremendous load and this is a problem for us.”

New Zealand cricket’s core has become so keenly introspective that neither the exclusion of AB de Villiers nor the inclusion of Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander to South Africa’s Test XI will affect their approach to the upcoming series. Or so they say.”It doesn’t change the way we approach this match. We want to focus on how we play our best cricket,” New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said. “Any team that did have AB de Villiers and now doesn’t, it’s not a great thing for them. He’s the best player in the world so for them it’s a bit of a loss but at the same time they’ve got a lot of depth. There’s so much talent in this country. Whatever team they pick will be a good team.”In reality, the personnel New Zealand are up against will very much determine their strategy. They will know that the batting line-up – which includes two senior players in Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy who were both dropped last season – can be broken through more easily without de Villiers. They will also know that it will not give way like Zimbabwe’s did, when all it took was one short-ball barrage in the first Test and a fair amount of persistence in the second.In Zimbabwe, New Zealand had to rely on “more creative bowling to try to manufacture wickets on a surface that was very tough to take wickets on,” as Williamson put it. In South Africa, there will be some assistance but whether it will come in the form of swing through the humid air or turn from an early-season surface is yet to be seen. That means New Zealand will have to showcase more skill than they did in Zimbabwe but it also means South Africa will have to do the same. “We know South Africa have a very good seam attack and are well balanced in the bowling department,” Williamson said.Among South Africa’s six seam-bowling options are swing, seam, and left-arm bowlers who will be far more challenging than the more one-dimensional pack Zimbabwe fielded. New Zealand dealt with mostly medium-pace and part-time bowlers in Bulawayo with respect and only pushed on when they were looking for a second-innings declaration that would give them enough time to win the match. But in so doing, they showed how they plan an attack.South Africa should heed that. For all New Zealand’s downplaying of their higher ranking – Williamson insisted they “don’t pay too much attention,” to the Test charts – their steady improvement as a unit means they are confident enough not to simply follow the opposition’s lead but to set the tone in a Test match. “We know when we play our best cricket, we can beat anyone,” Williamson said.Now that anyone could be South Africa – a team New Zealand have never recorded a series win against – at a place where New Zealand have only won three Tests, one since readmission and none in Durban. If New Zealand are serious about showing how much they have improved as a Test side and how little the reputations of the opposition matter to their own game, this is their chance and Williamson has indicated the want to take it. “I don’t think we regard ourselves as favourites. We know that South Africa are always a strong opposition, regardless of the rankings. You are constantly playing in different conditions and different countries all the time so adapting is part of the international game. For us the focus is on playing our cricket”

ScorecardDaniel Bell-Drummond breathed life into Kent’s T20 season•Getty Images

There were no press-ups on the square but Kent’s Daniel Bell-Drummond threw off his helmet and leapt, punching the air after his unbeaten 112 eased Spitfires to an eight-wicket NatWest T20 Blast win over Surrey in Tunbridge Wells.The former Millfield School and England Under-19 opener captivated a 5,000 sell-out crowd at the Royal Spa Town venue with a maiden List A hundred that helped post Kent’s sixth south group win and kept his side’s qualification hopes alive.Bell-Drummond dedicated his innings to Michael Carberry, the Hampshire batsman facing a battle with cancer who mentored him during his youth.He said: “To play like that after three weeks out through injury was amazing, it was beyond my wildest dreams. I started the week seeing a specialist about my thumb injury and ended it scoring my maiden T20 hundred. It was a brilliant feeling.”I’ve missed playing but hopefully that knock showed the hunger I have. I’m feeling a lot fresher than the rest of the lads because they’ve been toiling in the dirt while I’ve been trying to shake off this injury. We had training yesterday and I stayed behind for an extra session because I felt a little undercooked, needless to say, the other guys were thinking ‘there’s no need for that’.”Needing 181 for victory at an asking rate of 9.1 an over for victory, Kent made a miserable start when Joe Denly went for a first ball duck when playing back to Sam Curran’s second ball of the night.In his first game back and having been sidelined for three weeks with a hand injury, Bell-Drummond took up the attack, cleverly using the pace of the ball to steer the ball to all parts.The right-hander might have gone for 31 when Tom Curran downed a leg-side clip at mid-wicket, but he cashed in by lofting a straight six later in Jade Dernbach’s over as Kent reached 57 for one in their powerplay.Sam Northeast then launched a leg-side six off Zafar Ansari as he and Bell-Drummond eased to a second-wicket record in matches against Surrey beating the 92 set by Rob Key and Martin van Jaarsveld at The Oval in 2009.Bell-Drummond raised his 50 from 28 balls, Northeast needed 32 to reach the same milestone with four fours and two sixes and the records continued as the pair posted Kent’s highest second-wicket T20 stand against any county, beating the 135 raised by Denly and Azhar Mahmood against Gloucestershire at Beckenham in 2011, which had been equalled in 2014 by Rob Key and Northeast against Somerset in Canterbury.The fun ended when Northeast (57) went back to cut Ansari only to edge to the keeper, but their partnership of 151 had eclipsed, by one run, Kent’s record T20 stand for any wicket against all counties set by Bell-Drummond and Denly against Somerset in May.Bell-Drummond – who also posted his 1,000th T20 career run during the innings – marched on to his maiden limited overs hundred by pulling his 58th delivery from Gareth Batty through mid-wicket for his 14th four.With three needed off the final over, Bell-Drummond lent on his bat with 112 to his name at the non-striker’s end to watch Sam Billings clip the winning boundary with two balls to spare.At the start of the night Jason Roy gave Surrey a flying start after they chose to bat only for Kent’s wily bowling attack to claw back the run rate in the middle overs and restrict them to 180 for eight.Roy plundered an early boundary off Darren Stevens then a hat-trick of sixes off the first over of the night by Kagiso Rabada, the second of which caused a stir in the CAMRA real ale marquee.Dominating the strike, Roy raced to a 28 ball 50 with five fours and four maximums, but miscued the next ball from Stevens to Rabada at mid-off.Starved of the strike, Aaron Finch (7) made a desperate attempt to clear the ropes against David Griffiths only to pick out Rabada at deep mid-wicket as Surrey ended their powerplay overs on 69 for two.James Tredwell came on at the Pavilion End and saw his first delivery sail out of the park, but the shrewd off-spinner barely put a foot wrong thereafter turning the innings on its head with a four-over stint of three for 32.Tredwell held one back to deceive and bowl Tom Curran (12) then Steven Davies (23) yorked himself when trying to advance down the pitch to make it 108 for four.Lured by the short, straight boundary Dominic Sibley (14) also marched down the pitch heaving at Tredwell only to be stumped by Sam Billings.Having conceded 21 off his opening over, Rabada – the 21-year-old South Africa firebrand, returned with his dander up to york Rory Burns (10) and concede only 10 runs off his final three overs.With Surrey’s run rate plummeting Chris Morris (25) called for a second run to deep mid-wicket and was run out by Adam Ball’s throw from the deep then, in the final over, Sam Curran (19) was bowled by Mitch Claydon a Surrey fell well short of their anticipated total.

Former India captain Anil Kumble has been appointed coach of the national side for one year, the BCCI announced on Thursday. His first assignment will be India’s four-Test tour of the West Indies.The question of who would take over as India coach has been a talking point since Ravi Shastri’s tenure as team director ended after the World T20. Some of the uncertainty was addressed when Anurag Thakur, after his appointment as BCCI president, said the vacancy would be filled before the Tests in the Caribbean.The BCCI put out an advertisement for a new coach in the first week of June and received 57 applications, including Kumble’s. However, it appears he was not among the 21 names shortlisted by the BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke’s office. The Cricket Advisory Committee, comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, assigned to pick India’s next coach asked for Kumble’s name to be included, at which point he became an instant favourite.The committee interviewed Kumble and a handful of other candidates in Kolkata on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, they made their recommendations to the BCCI. Thakur, along with Shirke, made the final call.”The CAC recommended a few names to the BCCI. After discussions with various stakeholders, we have taken the final call that for next one year Anil Kumble will be the head coach.” Thakur said at a media briefing in Dharamsala. He added the support staff would be appointed after consulting with Kumble.Kumble applying for the job was a surprise to many in the BCCI, considering he has not coached a cricket team before. The BCCI had preferred their candidates to have had that experience, but his pedigree as a player and two stints as mentor in the IPL worked in Kumble’s favour.The BCCI offered Kumble a one-year term to help him acclimatise to the job better and to give themselves the cushion to reassess if needed.”As for the one-year period, Kumble is now transforming himself from being a great on the cricketing field to probably becoming a great coach that we expect him to be. That transition has to be smooth. This is professional appointment. All professional appointments try to cover all bases. Therefore that is the reason we want to be able to be in a position to review our options should there be any need. I am confident that we will not have that need to address that need. That is the exact reason behind the one-year appointment.”A senior official privy to the selection process said a long-term contract was not a viable option considering the lengthy interval between now and the next World Cup in 2019. But he felt Kumble was in “the driver’s seat” to prove his credentials.”We have 13 Tests at home and then there is the Champions Trophy next year,” the insider said. “He is now in the driver’s seat. We have given him the keys and he has to now prove himself.”Kumble’s lack of experience is made up for by his standing as a player and captain in an 18-year-long international career. He finished as India’s highest wicket-taker in Tests, and the third-highest overall, with 619 wickets, including a best of 10 for 74 against Pakistan in Delhi in 1999.After being appointed Test captain in November 2007, he led India in 14 matches, winning three, losing five and drawing six, until his retirement a year later. Among his notable victories as captain was the Perth Test in January 2008, which was played after the controversial Sydney Test where, among other issues, India faced allegations of racism from the Australia side.Kumble is the first Indian to be appointed full-time India coach since Kapil Dev resigned in September 2000.According to Shirke, there were four overseas candidates who had made the shortlist of 21, including Tom Moody and Andy Moles, who, it is understood, were among those interviewed by the in Kolkata.”It’s not about Indian or foreign coach,” Thakur said. “There was no such limitation that we have to look for only Indian coach. We wanted the best for Indian team. We deserve the best. We have Anil Kumble with us. He has been a match-winner for India.”There has been speculation that the delay in choosing India’s head coach – the appointment was expected on Wednesday, but a subsequent BCCI press release said some “finer points” needed to be discussed – was the result of the Cricket Advisory Committee being unable to contact India’s Test captain Virat Kohli for his inputs.Without confirming as much, Thakur said that various “stakeholders” had been consulted.”The CAC looked into all applications. They have shortlisted few names which were suggested to the BCCI. When the names came to us we discussed with other stakeholders in the board, in the team and then you finally take a call on the various experiences [of the candidates]. All of the shortlisted names worked with various teams, in IPL, in various cricket boards, as well as the state units. So you take feedback not only from one sector, you take feedback from all stakeholders. We have taken little more time, but we wanted to be more transparent and wanted to pick the best.”Kumble has also served in administrative roles since his retirement. He was elected president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association in November 2010, served as chairman of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and also headed the BCCI’s technical committee from 2012 to 2015.

A bun fight could be brewing over Dale Steyn’s national-versus-club duties as reports linking him to Glamorgan continue to swirl. Steyn may turn out for the county in part of their NatWest T20 Blast campaign, which coincides with South Africa’s participation in an ODI triangular tournament in the Caribbean.Steyn was left out of the squad for the tri-series after the selectors decided he needed rest ahead of the August Tests against New Zealand. However, Steyn may not be putting his feet up at all, and CSA may have been forced to provide Steyn with a no-objection certificate (NOC), which goes against their selectors’ wishes because the fast bowler is understood to want both game time and pounds.Although neither Glamorgan nor Steyn’s agent Dave Rundle confirmed Steyn was joining the county, Steyn’s former provincial and international team-mate Jacques Rudolph, captain of Glamorgan, confirmed there were ongoing talks. Rudolph was quoted by BBC Sport Wales as saying there was a “good possibility” of Steyn playing for Glamorgan, and that they were waiting on ” a visa issue” to confirm his availability. Steyn himself at hinted at the stint last week, when he asked about good fishing spots in Glamorgan on Twitter.The T20 blast runs over three months from May 20 – the final is on August 20 – with Glamorgan’s first game to be played on May 26. South Africa’s tri-series in the West Indies begins on June 3 and concludes on June 26 but the next time Steyn will be needed for the country is on August 19, when a two-Test series against New Zealand begins. Steyn is also due to play for Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League, which starts on June 30. That means he could play seven games for Glamorgan between May 26 and June 24, and three CPL games before his next international assignment, which will more than double the game time he has had this year; so far in 2016, Steyn has played just seven matches, two T20 warm-up matches, four internationals and one at the IPL.He had spent the bulk of the South African summer injured, after sustaining a groin problem during the first Test against India in Mohali in November and then picking up a shoulder injury during the Boxing Day Test at home against England. Steyn recovered in time to play the T20s against Australia and then at the World T20, where he only featured in two of South Africa’s four games.Despite Steyn’s seemingly waning presence in limited-overs cricket, convener of selectors Linda Zondi said Steyn was “not out of the ODI picture” and could still feature in the September series against Australia, but the priority was to preserve him for Test cricket. For that reason the selectors did not want Steyn in action in June, but the possible deal with Glamorgan will change that and there is little CSA can do to stop it.CSA could force Steyn to rest by refusing him an NOC, a document required by all South African players regardless of whether they are nationally contracted or not to participate in other countries’ competitions. However if an NOC is refused, the South African Cricketers’ Association would scrutinise the reasons for the refusal. Steyn’s non-selection for the West Indies tri-series could work against CSA’s wanting to control that period of his time, though they have made it clear that they want Steyn to rest.This situation could open the door for discussions over the content of national contracts, which could increasingly see players advocate for more free-enterprise. CSA reserves the right to issue disclaimers with their NOCs – for example that a player cannot play more than a certain number of matches during the time he is at an overseas club – and prioritise international cricket over foreign domestic leagues. The weak Rand, which sits at 22.49 to the pound at Tuesday’s exchange rate, has been cited as the main reason for South Africans opting for stints overseas. But there has also been a suggestion that the increased focus on transformation has left many players uncertain over their futures and caused them to seek career security elsewhere.

Spencer Johnson’s hopes of playing for Australia in the T20 World Cup early next year have been dealt a hammer blow after he was ruled out of the upcoming BBL season because of a back injury.Johnson has not played since the IPL, where he suffered back pain that he initially thought was a recurrence of a disc issue he had dealt with previously. The 29-year-old left-arm quick then suffered more pain while training ahead of the July T20I tour of the West Indies and scans showed a stress fracture.He underwent months of rehab which included pilates and swimming while waiting for the bone to heal. He had another scan in October and was hopeful he would be cleared to play in the BBL in the new year.Related

• All the BBL and WBBL squads for 2025-26 season

• Power-packed, but not bulletproof: where Australia stand ahead of T20 World Cup

But Brisbane Heat confirmed on Wednesday that their title-winning quick would be unavailable for the entire season.”Spencer continues to recover from a back injury and pleasingly, this is improving. However, the latest time-frame for his return to play does not enable him to participate in the BBL this season,” Heat CEO Terry Svenson said. “We’re all disappointed for Spencer but will provide him with ongoing support as he continues to recover.”Australia’s first game of the T20 World Cup is on February 11, which means it is almost certain he will not be fit in time to push his case for selection in the final 15-man squad. Johnson was seen as a potential long-term replacement for Mitchell Starc, who has retired from T20I cricket. But while Johnson has been injured, Australia have won three of their four T20I series with a pace attack of Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Ellis, Ben Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett gelling nicely. Pat Cummins could also return for the World Cup if fit.Johnson will continue to do his rehab in Adelaide where he lives and is domestically contracted with South Australia. Johnson has nominated for the IPL auction at the second-highest base price of 150 lakh (AUD$252957) and is hopeful of being fit and available for the tournament if bought after being released by Kolkata Knight Riders at the end of last season.”I’ve had plenty of expert support from everyone involved in the process and I am very confident that I will be back and doing what I love as soon as possible,” Johnson said.Meanwhile, England left-arm quick Reece Topley has signed with Sydney Thunder as an overseas replacement for Lockie Ferguson. Topley will play with Thunder for the first half of the season while Ferguson is at the ILT20. Topley will head to the SA20 when Ferguson returns to the BBL for the second half of the season.

India are going through a period of transition in Test cricket, but Cheteshwar Pujara will not accept it as an excuse for losing a Test at home.After India lost their first Test to South Africa, collapsing to 93 all out in the final innings, Pujara questioned the India batters’ approach on a pitch that had uneven bounce and turn from day one, but also said the batters were not the only ones to be blamed.”I don’t buy this that India are losing at home because of transition. I can’t digest that,” Pujara said on JioStar after India lost by 30 runs in Kolkata. “If you lose in England or Australia because of transition, it could be acceptable. But this team has the talent and potential. You look at the first-class record of all the players – Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill… Washy [Washington Sundar] batted at No. 3 in this game – all their records are so good. Still if you lose at home that means something is wrong.Related

• Gambhir's India – close fights, costly calls, and a growing Test crisis

• Left-hand or left-field – who fills in for Gill in Guwahati Test?

• Formidable to fallible – India slump to 53-year low in home Tests

• Stats – South Africa's first win in India since 2010

• Bavuma, Harmer and Jansen script sensational SA win

“If you had played the same match on a good wicket, there were much better chances of [India] winning. How do you define Test cricket? On what kind of a wicket are your chances better of winning? On such tracks, your chances decrease and the opposition is at par with you. There’s so much talent in India, even an India A side could beat South Africa. So if you say this loss is because of transition, it’s not acceptable.”After the match, where 189 was the best innings total and only one half-century was scored largely due to the sharp turn, up-and-down bounce and rough patches that made batting a challenge, India head coach Gautam Gambhir had clarified that it was “exactly the pitch we were looking for”.Even though India have often preferred rank turners to gain their home advantage, their choice of such a track in the wake of the 3-0 whitewash to New Zealand at home last year and now this loss – their fourth in the last six home Tests – has raised questions.4:55

Philander: ‘On that surface 123 was like 350-400’

“You can’t just blame the batters on this kind of a wicket because firstly if you want to play on such wickets, your preparation has to be different,” Pujara said. “Gauti said they asked for this kind of a wicket but it wasn’t easy to bat on. Look at the stats of both teams – only one batter scored a fifty so it shows it wasn’t a good wicket.”If you want to play on such tracks, your batters have to be prepared accordingly and it didn’t look like they were prepared. On such wickets, you have to play different kind of shots, like rely more on sweeps, play a little positive, try to move the scoreboard. But there was an expectation that this wicket would be a bit decent, it would have some turn, and you can bat well and score runs. But this wicket wasn’t like that. If the Indian team wants such turning wickets where the ball turns from ball one, then the batters’ approach will have to be different.”That 3-0 last year had cost India a place in the WTC final and this defeat to South Africa has seen them slip to fourth position on the current WTC table, behind Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka.The second and final Test of the series begins on November 22 in Guwahati. After this series, India’s next WTC series will be two matches in Sri Lanka in August next year. India’s next home series is more than a year away from now, when they host Australia for five Tests in January-February 2027.

Mitchell Marsh has insisted there is no limit to the number of overs he can send down against India, having put his trust in the coaching and medical staff amid a cautious build-up to the series and then careful management ahead of the Adelaide Test, while Josh Hazlewood continues to push for a return to the side in Brisbane.Marsh has been nursing periodic back stiffness since the white-ball tour of the UK in September, where he bowled just once – in the ODI at Lord’s – which was the first time he’d had ball in hand since suffering a hamstring injury in the IPL in April.There had been plans for him to bowl in the Sheffield Shield early in the season but those were put on ice by the ongoing back issues. He took two wickets on the opening day of the Perth Test, sending down 17 overs in total for the match, after which he pulled up sore, which led to doubts over his place for Adelaide with Beau Webster called up as cover.Related

• Can Smith break out of his slump?

• Hazlewood declared fit to replace Boland at the Gabba

• Past and present weigh on India, and Australia, as the fabled Gabba beckons

• WTC final scenarios – South Africa need one more win for guaranteed top-two finish

• Who has inflicted the most golden ducks in Test cricket?

Marsh didn’t bowl in the lead-up, with Pat Cummins saying it was a decision not to use up overs at training, before finishing with a innocuous none for 26 from four overs in the first innings.”Not in my mind, no,” Marsh said when asked if there was an upper limit on his bowling capacity for the series. “I’ll try and be ready to bowl as much as Patty needs me. Our allrounders haven’t bowled a hell of a lot in Australia the last few years, but I am really thankful for our medical staff and Ronny [coach Andrew McDonald] and Patty who have allowed me the space between that first and second Test to just get right for the game.”I didn’t bowl as much as I would have liked to in the lead-up to the series, but our medical staff, Ronnie and Patty were really clear. I trusted that.”Meanwhile, Hazlewood had another extensive bowl as he continues to overcome the side strain which kept him out of the second Test. With only short run-ups available in the Gabba nets and no spare centre wickets, Hazlewood went out to Allan Border Field to bowl off his full run alongside Mitchell Starc, under the eye of bowling coach Daniel Vettori. If he pulls up without problems on Friday he will be close to slotting back into side at the expensive of Scott Boland.Such was the speed with which Australia bowled out India twice in Adelaide, needing just 80 overs, that even Nathan Lyon was only required to send down a single over as Starc, Cummins and Boland went to work.In the Gabba Test against West Indies earlier this year, Australia used Marsh, Cameron Green, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne for a combined 23 overs.”I had an interrupted lead-in but I am really well placed,” Marsh said. “For me it is about being able to contribute. Whether that is five overs and bowling the occasional good ball and getting a wicket or just bowling overs to give our boys a chop out. Right now, it [the back] is feeling as good as it has felt.”Away from the bowling discussion, Marsh was involved in one of the more curious incidents during the Adelaide Test when he walked for an edge behind against R Ashwin only for replays to show he hadn’t hit the ball.”The reality is I thought I hit it and I didn’t,” Marsh said. “I didn’t speak to Heady [at the non-striker’s end]. I had a mare. When I got to the change rooms they asked if I hit it and I said ‘yeah, I smashed it’. And then the replay came up and the head went into the hands and about one minute later everyone else was laughing at me.”

Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal are the three players likely to be retained by Royal Challengers Bengaluru ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.RCB will lose at least INR 36 crore for retaining two capped players and one uncapped player, and will have three right-to-match options at the mega auction, which they can use to buy back one uncapped Indian player and two capped players, or three capped players.Some of the high-profile players not retained by RCB include their 2024 season’s captain Faf du Plessis, Mohammed Siraj, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green. RCB finished fourth in IPL 2024 and lost the Eliminator to Sunrisers Hyderabad.October 31 is the deadline by which the ten franchises have to submit their lists of retained players to the IPL. The teams have been allowed to retain up to six players ahead of the mega auction before the 2025 season, of which a maximum of five can be capped internationals and two can be uncapped players. While the IPL has set minimum deductions from the auction purse for each player retained – INR 18 crore for the first player, INR 14 crore for the second, INR 11 crore for the third, INR 18 crore for the fourth, INR 14 crore for the fifth, and INR 4 crore for an uncapped player – the franchises are free to pay more or less than those amounts to their retained players.