The batter says he wasn’t fussed about being left out of the XI in India after making a terrific hundred in the WTC final

Andrew McGlashan07-Jun-20231:51

Haddin breaks down Head’s high-risk game

This World Test Championship final is Australia’s 20th Test match in the two-year cycle. Four of their players have appeared in all the games. Travis Head has been part of 18 of them. One of his absences was due to Covid in Sydney during the 2021-22 Ashes, but the other was when he was dropped.Head, unbeaten on 146 off 156 balls after the first day against India, has now scored 1354 runs in this WTC at an average of 58.86 and strike rate of 81.91, and he can eye a double-century on Thursday. However, earlier this year, he was not deemed worthy of a place in the first Test against India in Nagpur.Whichever way the argument is spun with statistics, it will go down as one of the stranger selection calls in recent times, even when Head’s previous struggles in Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2022 are factored in, but he insisted there is no lingering resentment.Related

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“It honestly doesn’t faze me,” he said at The Oval. “Very privileged to be where I am and do what I do. We’ve got a very strong squad of guys, selection isn’t always going to go your way, it hasn’t in the past, that’s out of my control. All I can do is be as consistent as I can be on the field, [and] off the field enjoy myself.”Yes, I’d love to play every Test but that won’t always be the case. That gives good perspective to moments like this. Hopefully I don’t get dropped too much in the future but it will definitely happen … it doesn’t give me extra fuel.”I know certain decisions haven’t gone my way in the past but I feel like I [have] got a fair bit to contribute to this team and [am] valued within the team. I’ve got the backing of the staff and the captain and the players so it’s nice.”Like Nagpur, The Oval is also a ground where Head has been on the rough end of a selection call when he was omitted from the final Test of the 2019 Ashes. This time his sixth Test century, and the fourth in this edition of the World Test Championship, three of which have come at decisive stages of an innings, powered Australia to 327 for 3 at the close.The unbroken stand with Steven Smith was worth 251 to suggest few gremlins in the surface. However, batting was far from easy for considerable portions of the day, with some deliveries jumping from a length and others scuttling low. Australia, too, would have bowled first had they won the toss, but it appears to have worked out perfectly for them if the unevenness develops further over the game.”If you get it in the right area there’s plenty there,” Head said. “As the game goes on, hopefully it gets a little quicker for us and we can find the right lengths, and I feel if you do that for long periods of time it can be a challenging wicket.”That good length at the top of the stumps was hard work. And as we [saw] when they went to that short-pitched plan it wasn’t the most consistent wicket, and the Dukes swings a little so it made for some awkward moments.”

“If the shoe was on the other foot, I would have a deep think about the whole spirit of the game”

Osman Samiuddin02-Jul-20231:50

Cummins and Stokes respond to controversial Bairstow dismissal

Ben Stokes says he would have withdrawn the appeal if his side had dismissed a player in the manner that Alex Carey stumped Jonny Bairstow on the final day of a thrilling Test at Lord’s. Australia won a see-sawing Test by 43 runs, surviving a Stokes scare along the way, but a pivotal moment came when Bairstow was dismissed shortly before lunch.England were settled, having only lost Ben Duckett in the morning session when Bairstow ducked a Cameron Green bouncer, the last ball of the 52nd over. He walked out of the crease, without having checked with either umpire whether the over had been called, as Carey collected the ball and without pause, under-armed a throw to the stumps. He hit and though Chris Gaffaney at square leg called for a TV review, Bairstow was well out of his crease at impact.Related

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The dismissal riled up the Lord’s crowd – leading to a brief fracas between Australian players and members in the Long Room – and turned up the heat on the field, with the incoming batter Stuart Broad immediately getting involved in ongoing chatter with a number of Australian players.After the game, Stokes pointed to the grey area between the time the ball went to Carey and both the umpires motioning as if to end the over, though not calling it.”When is it justified that the umpires have called over?” he said on BBC’s TMS. “Is the on-field umpires making movement, is that signifying over? I’m not sure. Jonny was in his crease then out of his crease. I am not disputing the fact it is out because it is out.”If the shoe was on the other foot I would have put more pressure on the umpires and asked whether they had called over and had a deep think about the whole spirit of the game and would I want to do something like that. For Australia it was the match-winning moment. Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer for me is no.”Asked whether he would have withdrawn the appeal, Stokes said, “Yeah.”Pat Cummins – “I thought it was totally fair play. That’s how the rule is. Some people might disagree. That’s how I saw it”•Associated Press

Pat Cummins, the Australian captain, said the attempt was pre-meditated, as Carey had noticed Bairstow walk out of his crease and up the pitch several times during the over.”I think Carey saw it happen a few balls previously, three or four balls previously, and there’s no pause, catch it, straightaway and throw at the stumps,” Cummins told Sky TV during the post-match presentation, comments that prompted more boos from the remaining crowd. “I thought it was totally fair play. That’s how the rule is. Some people might disagree. That’s how I saw it.”Cummins also suggested in his post-match press conference that Bairstow had attempted the same move when keeping himself.”You see Jonny do it all the time,” Cummins said. “He did it on day one to Davey Warner. He did it in 2019 to Steve [Smith]. It’s a really common thing for keepers to do if they see about a batter keep leaving their crease. So Kez [Carey], full credit to him. He saw the opportunity. I think Jonny did it a few balls beforehand. Rolled it at the stumps. Jonny left his crease. You leave the rest to the umpires.”Brendon McCullum, England’s coach, was not happy with the dismissal either, arguing that it goes against the spirit of the game. McCullum is no stranger to such dismissals, straddling the line between the laws of the game and its spirit. He was, famously, the wicketkeeper who whipped off the bails as Muttiah Muralidaran completed a run and wandered off to celebrate Kumar Sangakkara’s hundred in a Test in Christchurch in December 2006.A year before that he had done something similar in a Test against Zimbabwe, when running out Chris Mpofu to end a comfortable victory in Bulawayo. McCullum publicly apologised to Sangakkara and Muralidaran while addressing the MCC’s Spirit of Cricket lecture in 2016, saying that while he recognised the dismissal was within the laws of the game, it was against the spirt and he regretted effecting it.Reacting to Bairstow’s dismissal, he again called for players to protect the spirit of the game. “I think firstly, it was probably more of a thing in terms of spirit of the game that developed as you become a little bit mature and you’ve been around the game for a long period of time, and you realise that the game itself is something you need to protect, and the spirit is such an important part of that,” he said on BBC’s Test Match Special.”You’ve got to make decisions in the moment. They’re not easy to make and sometimes they can have pretty big effects on not just games but also on people’s characters as well.”It’s a tough one. To the letter of the law it was out. From our point of view, Jonny felt he was certainly not trying to take a run and he felt that as far as the umpires were concerned, they had effectively called over so therefore they thought the ball was dead.”It’s one of those really difficult ones to swallow. And when you look at a small margin at the end of the day, and you think of a player like Jonny Bairstow so many times in chases, has stood up. It’s incredibly disappointing, but in the end, lots of people will have their opinion on it. They’ll sit on both sides of the fence and then probably the most disappointing aspect is probably going to be the most talked about part of what was a great Test match, and that’s pretty disappointing to have two teams who have played in front of full houses and millions around the world and it would have been great if it was for the cricket.”Asked if the incident could impact relations between the two teams, McCullum said: “I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer anytime soon, if that’s what you’re asking. From our point of view, we’ve got three Test matches to try and land some blows and try and win the Ashes and that’s where our focus will be.”

Prasidh Krishna, Jitesh Sharma and Rinku Singh were also picked

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Jul-20231:20

What could Samson’s selection for the T20Is in Ireland mean?

A fully-fit Jasprit Bumrah is finally back in the India squad – as captain as well – for the T20Is in Ireland in August. In another boost to India’s fast-bowling stocks, Prasidh Krishna was also picked in the squad for the three games in Dublin.Bumrah hasn’t played any cricket since the T20I series at home against Australia last September. He has been at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for the past two months where he has slowly increased his bowling workloads after undergoing surgery in New Zealand for a back injury. He had a few practice games and the NCA staff, led by VVS Laxman, is believed to be satisfied with Bumrah’s progress.ESPNcricinfo has learned there were deliberations over whether Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was named captain for the 2023 Asian Games, should lead in Ireland as well to reduce Bumrah’s workload, but it’s understood the fast bowler was keen to lead. Bumrah had previously captained India in the Birmingham Test against England last year.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Prasidh, meanwhile, is returning after extensive rehabilitation for a lumbar stress fracture that had kept him out of all cricket since the tour of Zimbabwe in August 2022. He didn’t undergo surgery initially and had been working towards a full recovery prior to the Ranji Trophy, but was advised surgery in December after another assessment.At the time of his injury, Prasidh was emerging as an effective bowler in the middle overs in ODIs with his height, pace and hard lengths. Last week, the BCCI had said that Bumrah and Prasidh were “bowling with full intensity in the nets.”Related

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Many of the players picked for the T20 cricket competition in the Asian Games were also selected to tour Ireland. The ODI regulars were rested to prepare for the Asia Cup starting on August 30 in Sri Lanka, just a week after the final Ireland T20I on August 23. The team management is considering a conditioning camp in Bengaluru prior to their departure to Sri Lanka.Apart from Gaikwad, Jitesh Sharma, Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube were also picked on the back of impressive IPL seasons. Gaikwad was Chennai Super Kings’ second highest run-getter with 590 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 147.50 in a victorious season.In all, seven members of India’s Caribbean-bound T20I squad, including seamers Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh, feature in the side for the Ireland tour. Ravi Bishnoi, Shahbaz Ahmed and Washington Sundar are among the spin-bowling options for India.

Warwickshire lose last five wickets for 29 to concede hefty first-innings deficit

ECB Reporters Network21-Jul-2023Lancashire 327 and 182 for 6 (Jennings 64*) lead Warwickshire 212 (Rhodes 82) by 297 runsLancashire were hoping for kind weather on the last day of their LV=Insurance County Championship match with Warwickshire after they took charge on the third day at Edgbaston.An incisive burst of spin-bowling followed by patient batting has engineered a strong position for the Red Rose. After bowling the home side out for 212, for a first-innings lead of 115, Lancashire closed a rain-shortened third day on 182 for 6 – 297 ahead as Keaton Jennings constructed an unbeaten 64 from 174 balls.On a slow pitch which has never been easy for batting, the visitors were poised to put Warwickshire under pressure on the final day but need the grim weather forecast to be wrong. The dark clouds ever present at Edgbaston this week remain likely to have the final say.That would be frustrating for Jennings’ side who finally forced the match forward in its seventh session after the preceding six had advanced at various degrees of slow. After Warwickshire resumed on the third day on 179 for 5, the Red Rose deployed their spinners, partly because the light was so poor, and it proved a highly productive move as the last five wickets fell for 29 runs in 88 balls.The catalyst for the collapse was an indiscrete reverse-sweep by Dan Mousley (47 off 97 balls) straight to slip off Jack Morley. The left-arm spinner followed that by having Michael Burgess adjudged caught at leg slip before Luke Wells removed Danny Briggs, caught off the face of the bat at short leg.Warwickshire squandered their last two wickets as Olly Hannon-Dalby was run out pursuing a single that didn’t exist and Chris Rushworth, batting with a runner due to a hamstring injury, charged at Wells and was stumped by yards. Suddenly, after two finely balanced days, Lancashire had seized a meaty lead 115.Batting remained tricky when they went in again and Wells’ hitherto happy morning took a dive when he fell lbw to Hannon-Dalby’s third ball. Josh Bohannon came closest to fluency in a 40-ball 25 which ended when he chipped Hannon-Dalby to substitute fielder Marques Ackerman at midwicket but Jennings dropped anchor deep, going into lunch with just a single from 42 balls.The skipper remained entrenched throughout the afternoon while partners came and went. Phil Salt nicked a pull at Ed Barnard. Daryl Mitchell skied Mir Hamza to give Ackerman his second catch. When George Bell nicked Briggs behind it was 83 for 5 and Warwickshire, despite the absence of Rushworth, were fighting back hard.Still the Jennings anchor remained and first-innings century-maker George Balderson settled alongside him to reassert the Red Rose. Jennings posted a 163-ball half-century in a partnership of 92 in 26 overs which looked ready to grow much further until Balderson self-destructed. He set off for a single when his drive was parried by bowler Briggs and, rightly sent back by Jennings, was beaten by Sam Hain’s throw from extra cover.With the lead approaching 300, Lancashire had just started to seek acceleration when rain arrived to lop off the last 20 overs. That lost time, with probably more to follow, is likely to thwart the Red Rose victory bid.

He was the fourth-highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy last season, with 859 runs at an average of 95.44

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Aug-2023Dhruv Shorey joins Karun Nair as Vidarbha’s two professionals signings ahead of the 2023-24 domestic season. They also have a third in Ganesh Satish.Shorey, the 31-year-old top-order batter, played 42 games for Delhi in a 52-match first-class career that has brought him 3841 runs at an average of 54.87, including 11 hundreds. He also has 1945 List A runs at 36.01, and 866 T20 runs at a strike rate of 116.39. He was part of the Chennai Super Kings IPL squad in 2018 and 2019, but only got to play two matches, scoring 8 and 5. He has not been part of Delhi’s T20 plans in recent seasons – his last match in the format was in November 2021.Related

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Earlier this month, Shorey – along with Nitish Rana – had requested a no-objection certificate from the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) to allow them to play elsewhere. On Thursday, Shorey announced his move to Vidarbha via an Instagram post. The Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) has confirmed the move to ESPNcricinfo.