Pakistan cabinet on Tuesday rejected a proposal to liaise with an Indian company for live telecast of the upcoming Pakistan-England cricket series due to the current political tensions.
England Pakistan Match Telecast problem
Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry told the media after the cabinet meeting that Pakistan Television (PTV) requested the government to sign an agreement with Star and Sony to broadcast the matches.
“The cabinet has rejected the request of PTV to sign an agreement with Star and Sony to air the England-Pakistan cricket series,” Fawad said.
He said the Imran Khan government had already made it clear that relations with India depended on reversing the August 5, 2019 action, referring to the revocation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. “Our ties with India cannot be normalized until those actions are withdrawn,” he said.
Chaudhry said that Star and Sony have a monopoly over all cricket content for South Asia and due to the absence of agreement with any Indian company, “the series will not be aired in Pakistan.”
But he said that the government was trying to find a middle ground by approaching the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and other foreign companies to secure broadcasting rights.
He also said that the PTV and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would suffer financial losses due to the cabinet decision. The cricket series between Pakistan and England is scheduled to start from July 8.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board CEO Wasim Khan said on Saturday that experienced left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir could still play for the national team and efforts are on for a rapprochement between him and the coaches, including head coach Misbah-ul-Haq. Khan disclosed that Amir had met him in the UK and he had poured out his grievances against the team management.
“I also made it clear to him that the path he adopted was not right as a senior player,” he said on the Cricket Baaz channel on YouTube. “I think Amir is a valuable player for us even now and we will now make efforts to bring about rapprochement between him and the coaches.”
The Hundred Cricket Squad: The inaugural edition of the Hundred cricket tournament is scheduled to play with 8 teams that were named after the cities of England.
Both men’s and women’s teams are named under the same team name and play the match on the same day on the same ground. The Hundred cricket Schedule has been announced earlier according to which the tournament will kick start from July 21.
How many teams are participating in “The Hundred” Cricket?
The inaugural tournament consists of 8 teams in total which were named after the cities in England. The teams are as follows.
Birmingham Phoenix
Manchester Originals
London Spirit
Oval Invincibles
Northern Superchargers
Trent Rockets
Southern Brave
Welsh Fire
The Hundred Cricket Squad
Following are the Hundred cricket squad details for both Men and Women which kick starts from July 21.
Birmingham Phoenix
Men’s squad: Moeen Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Henry Brookes, Pat Brown, Chris Cooke, Tom Helm, Adam Hose, Benny Howell, Liam Livingstone, Dominic Sibley, Kane Williamson, Chris Woakes, Adam Zampa, Tom Abell, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Miles Hammond.
Men’s squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Mohammad Amir, Mason Crane, Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Jade Dernbach, Dan Lawrence, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Nabi, Luis Reece, Adam Rossington, Roelof van der Merwe, Mark Wood, Ravi Bopara, Chris Wood.
Men’s squad: Ben Stokes, Aaron Finch, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Chris Lynn, Adil Rashid, Adam Lyth, David Willey, Olly Stone, Matthew Potts, Matthew Fisher, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Harry Brooks, Brydon Carse, Callum Parkinson, John Simpson.
Men’s squad: Jos Buttler, Nicholas Pooran, Kagiso Rabada, Harry Gurney, Phil Salt, Matt Parkinson, Joe Clarke, Jamie Overton, Shadab Khan, Tom Lammonby, Wayne Madsen, Steven Finn, Colin Ackermann, Richard Gleenson, Tom Hartley.
Women’s Squad: Georgia Boyce, Natalie Brown, Danielle Collins, Kate Cross, Mignon du Preez, Alice Dyson, Sophie Ecclestone, Cordelia Griffith, Alex Hartley, Hannah Jones, Emma Lamb, Lizelle Lee, Ellie Threlkeld.
Oval Invincibles
Men’s squad: Sam Billings, Alex Blake, Rory Burns, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Laurie Evans, Will Jacks, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sunil Narine, Jason Roy, Nathan Sowter, Reece Topley, Saqib Mahmood, Colin Ingram, Brandon Glover, Jordan Clark.
Women’s Squad: Georgia Adams, Megan Belt, Sarah Bryce, Alice Capsey, Tash Farrant, Jo Gardner, Eva Gray, Marizanne Kapp, Rhianna Southby, Dane van Niekerk, Fran Wilson, Rachael Haynes, Mady Villiers.
Southern Brave
Men’s squad: Jofra Archer, David Warner, Alex Davies, Liam Dawson, George Garton, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Craig Overton, Delray Rawlins, Andre Russell, Marcus Stoinis, James Vince, Max Waller, Ross Whiteley, Danny Briggs.
Men’s squad: Lewis Gregory, Matthew Carter, Joe Root, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ben Cox, Alex Hales, Rashid Khan, Dawid Malan, Tom Moores, Steven Mullaney, D’Arcy Short, Luke Wood, Luke Wright, Timm Van Der Gugten, Samit Patel.
Men’s squad: Qais Ahmed, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Ben Duckett, Ryan Higgins, David Payne, Liam Plunkett, Ollie Pope, Kieron Pollard, Jhye Richardson, Jake Ball, Ian Cockbain, Josh Cobb, Matthew Critchley, David Lloyd.
Women’s Squad: Laura Filer, Katie George, Amy Gordon, Alex Griffiths, Georgia Hennessy, Sophie Luff, Natasha Wraith, Jess Jonassen, Meg Lanning, Beth Mooney, Bryony Smith, Sarah Taylor.
The Hundred Cricket Schedule: England’s 100 ball cricket match is scheduled to kick start from July 21 with finals on August 21. Both men’s and women’s matches will be held on the same day at the same grounds.
The Hundred cricket tournament will be playing with a different set of rules on comparing to the regular cricket format. Check The Hundred Cricket Rules if you are not aware of those.
The competition takes place during the school summer holidays in England. In total there will be 32 matches in the league.
Each team will play four matches at home and four matches away, This will include one match against every other side and then a second bonus match against their nearest regional rivals.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 is set to resume on September 19 while the final of the 14th edition will be played on October 15.
IPL 2021 Rescheduled
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had suspended IPL 2021 due to a spike in the number of coronavirus cases inside IPL’s bio-bubble. After a lot of discussions, the board decided to shift the remaining matches to UAE due to the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in India.
Speaking to ANI, a BCCI official confirmed that the tournament will resume on September 19 while the final will be played on October 15.
“The discussions went really well and with ECB already giving us the oral nod to host the event ahead of the BCCI SGM, it was about closing the deal over the last week. The first game after the season resumes will be held on September 19 while we will have the final on October 15. The BCCI was always keen on a 25-day window to finish the remaining matches,” the official said.
With most of the overseas players back home, and with a packed calendar ahead, it remains to be seen how many overseas players can turn up for the remaining matches.
When asked about the availability of overseas players, the official added that the Indian board has kept its fingers crossed and talks are underway.
“The discussions have started and we are keeping fingers crossed that the foreign players will be mostly available. If a couple of them do not manage to turn up, we shall then decide on the future course of action. But keeping fingers crossed for now and hoping to have an action-packed end to the 14th edition in UAE,” the official said.
The official added that the overseas players form an integral part of the tournament and picking replacements for them would be a challenge if they do not turn up.
“Yes, if we do end up missing some of the foreign stars, that is an area which would need some attention when it comes to picking replacements as the foreign players are also integral to the teams. Team balance can go for a toss, so keeping fingers crossed on that one,” the franchise official said.
Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell has rubbished Sanjay Manjrekar’s comments on Ravichandran Ashwin not being one of the all-time greats of the game.
Ian Chappell praises Ashwin
Manjrekar has said that senior Team India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is not one of the all-time greats as he does not boast of having registered a fifer in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand & Australia) countries.
“When people start talking about him as being one of the all-time greats of the game then I have a few problems,” Manjrekar said on the ESPNcricinfo program ‘Runorder’.
“One basic problem I have with Ashwin is that when you look at SENA countries, Ashwin doesn’t have a single five-wicket haul there.
“And the other thing when you talk about him running through sides on Indian pitches that are suited to his kind of bowling is that in the last four years, Jadeja has matched him with wicket-taking abilities.
R Ashwin became the fastest bowler to take 300 Test wickets (54th match)
“Then, interestingly, in the last series against England, Axar Patel got more wickets than Ashwin on similar pitches. So that is my problem with accepting Ashwin as a real all-time great,” Manjrekar concluded.
Not convinced with Manjrekar’s observation, Chappell, the astute captain of his time, cited Garner, one of the most feared fast bowlers of all time, as an example.
“I would like to make a couple of points there — if you look at Joel Garner, I mean how many five-wicket hauls Joel Garner has? Not many, when you consider how good he was and his record. And why, because he was performing with three other very, very fine players,” Chappell pointed out as Manjrekar listened.
Ashwin reached the 400 wickets club in the 3rd Test match of India vs England Test series
“And I think, particularly of late, I find that the Indian attack has been so strong that the wickets are being shared around more.
“And the other point I would make is because of Ashwin’s reputation I think the England players probably concentrated more on keeping Ashwin out and with Axar Patel, well, let’s be blunt about it, they didn’t have a bloody clue,” Chappell added.
Besides Ashwin, the former Australian captain picked Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, and Kagiso Rabada among the top-five best bowlers right now, while keeping Pat Cummins at the top of the list.
Ashwin better than Lyon
He rated Ashwin ahead of Australia’s off-spinner Nathan Lyon.
“I think Ashwin is a better bowler than Nathan Lyon. Have a look at Nathan Lyon’s strike rate, you are in the 70s and I am going back to 2018.
Nathan Lyon
“Nathan Lyon, to me, I think runs get scored through the onside when he is bowling to the right-handers and that really just shouldn’t happen. Yes, he is a fine bowler but I think Ashwin is a better bowler.”
As far as Ishant is concerned, Chappell is very impressed with his record since the start of 2018.
“Ishant’s record in the last I think I went back to the start of 2018 and looking at some stats and his record is extremely good,” Chappell said. Ishant Sharma has taken 77 wickets in 22 Tests since 2018.
Thirty-four-year-old Ashwin possesses a stellar record in Tests. He has 409 wickets to his name in 78 matches at an average of 24.69, including 30 five-wicket hauls in an innings and seven 10-wicket hauls in a Test match.
He’s also India’s fourth-highest wicket-taker currently, only nine behind Harbhajan Singh, 26 behind Kapil Dev, and 211 behind Anil Kumble.
Sri Lanka’s limited-overs tour of England, due to start later this month, has been thrown into doubt after an escalation in the dispute between Sri Lanka Cricket and the players.
Sri Lanka Tour of England Gets in Oscillation
All 24 members of the squad announced on Friday are among the 36 signatories of a statement released on Saturday which explains their refusal to sign new central contracts.
The deadline set by SLC for the contracts to be signed passed on Thursday, and with no resolution, there are likely to be temporary contracts put in place to cover the tour, a device that has been used since the previous central contracts expired last October.
There is little time for significant negotiation, with the squad due to depart in the early hours of Wednesday morning, though the players stated that their “first priority is to play for our country” and that they would continue to do so “even if Sri Lanka Cricket refuses to pay us at all”.
ECB
Contracts have been offered to 24 players, down from the 30 who previously had deals. In addition to improving their own pay and conditions, the 24 want more of their colleagues to be retained.
“Because of the problems with the transparency of the rating system devised by SLC, the players will not sign the [tour contract],” the release signed by 38 top players said.
Their lawyer, Nishan Premathiratne, told ESPNcricinfo that in addition to refusing the tour contracts on principle, there was also a legal objection to these contracts.
“The tour contract also refers to matters of the annual [main] contract for 2021, which is yet unsigned,” he said. “In the event, the annual contract is not settled and a dispute is pending, the validity of the tour contract referring to an unsigned contract is also an issue.”
SLC says the new arrangements are intended to incentivise good performances, with the team having won just one of their last eight series in all formats, but they have been denounced by the players’ lawyer for being “unfair and opaque”.
Aravinda de Silva, the former Sri Lanka captain who now works at SLC and helped to create the proposed new pay structure, said last week that players “should get into the middle and play positive cricket and start winning games for the country rather than complaining.”
Ollie Robinson suspended from all international cricket
England and Sussex bowler Ollie Robinson has been suspended from all international cricket pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation following historic tweets he posted in 2012 and 2013.
Ollie Robinson Suspended
Earlier England cricketer Ollie Robinson has apologized “unreservedly” for a number of racist and sexist messages he posted on Twitter in 2012.
The tweets, in one of which he wrote that “my new Muslim friend is the bomb” and in another that “a lot of girls need to learn the art of class”, were all posted between April 2012 and June 2013.
In a third, he wrote that “females who play video games actually tend to have more sex than the girls who don’t”.
“On the biggest day of my career so far I’m embarrassed about the racist and sexist tweets that I posted over eight years ago,” Robinson said in a statement. “I want to make it clear that I’m not racist and I’m not sexist.
“I deeply regret my actions and I’m ashamed of making such remarks. I was thoughtless and irresponsible and regardless of my state of mind at the time, my actions were inexcusable.
“Since that period I’ve matured as a person and fully regret the tweets. Today should be about my efforts on the field and my pride at making my Test debut, but my thoughtless behavior in the past has tarnished this. In the last few years, I’ve worked hard to turn my life around. I’ve considerably matured as an adult. I would like to unreservedly apologize to anyone I’ve offended, my teammates and the game as a whole.”
Ollie Robinson Tweet from 2012
Robinson, who has thrived since joining Sussex in 2015, has previously acknowledged that some of his conduct during the period in which he sent the tweets was unacceptable.
He had been released by Kent in 2012 and two years later was also released by Yorkshire for what his coach, Jason Gillespie, called “consistently displaying behaviour that isn’t professional”.
The ECB had been trying to position itself as a leader in the fight against discrimination, and in March published a new anti‑discrimination code of conduct and announced the creation of an Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket.
“I do not have the words to express how disappointed I am that an England men’s player has chosen to write tweets of this nature, however long ago that might have been,” the ECB’s chief executive officer, Tom Harrison, said.
“Any person reading those words, particularly a woman or person of colour, would take away an image of cricket and cricketers that is completely unacceptable. We are better than this. We have a zero-tolerance stance to any form of discrimination and there are rules in place that handle the conduct of this nature. We will initiate a full investigation as part of our disciplinary process.”
Nasser Hussain’s View
Speaking on Sky, the former England captain Nasser Hussain said:
“It’s another lesson, if you’re going to wear T-shirts about anti-sexism and racism, you can’t be doing this. It’s just not good enough, it’s just not on. But I also think that we’re a bit of a cruel society if we don’t realise that an 18-year-old does make mistakes.
Nasser Hussain along with Virat Kohli
It does not make it right in any way. I’ve read the tweets, you should never say those sorts of things whether you’re 18 or 28. But he’s an 18-year-old lad who’s made mistakes. We’ve all made mistakes, and it has ruined his biggest day as a professional cricketer.”
Conway, promoted from the No3 position he normally occupies at club level to open on debut, ended the day unbeaten on 136 with New Zealand 246 for three.
“It was a pretty surreal moment for me,” he said of the completion of his century, achieved with perhaps his finest shot of the day to flick the ball off his thigh for four.
“I couldn’t have dreamed for a better start to my Test career. It’ll take a few days for it to sink in but it was really cool to have Henry Nicholls on the non-striker’s end cheering me on. As the ball was going towards the boundary I knew it was in the gap and I could just hear Henry saying, ‘Yes boy, yes boy.’ It was a pretty special moment and a moment I’ll remember for a very long time.”
He will not be available for selection for the LV= Insurance second Test against New Zealand starting at Edgbaston on Thursday 10 June. Robinson will leave the England camp immediately and return to his county.
In an interview with Sportstar, the batting great VVS Laxman gave a rather interesting suggestion regarding the toss, while maintaining that Tests do not need to undergo any major changes.
VVS Laxman Toss Suggestion
Over the course of the last few years, there have been several suggestions on tweaking the format of Test cricket to make it more interesting and entertaining for the fans and viewers.
Even Team India’s most prolific run-scorer Sachin Tendulkar voiced an idea on the matter, saying that every match should be played on two different tracks – the first and second innings on a green surface and the third and fourth on a turning track.
He said this would eliminate some of the challenges the longest format of the game is facing.
“We have seen some high-quality Test cricket over the last few months, so, I do not think that the formats need to be tweaked.
Joe Root and Virat Kohli in Test tossing event
“Since the home team anyways enjoys a home advantage, maybe, in the first Test of the series, the touring team captain can be asked to decide what he wants to do,” Laxman explained.
The right-hander knows a thing or two about batting away from home. In fact, he has scored more runs in away Tests (5014 in 77 matches) than he did at home (3767 in 57 matches).
Elaborating further on the point, the 46-year-old observed that the home teams enjoy an advantage anyway. So, why not give some advantage to the away side, at least in the first game?
“Definitely for the first Test (on letting the touring side decide what they want to do). I have always enjoyed playing overseas. That always gave me and my colleagues a lot of satisfaction, but performing in the first Test was always challenging. You have to get used to the conditions.
“Home advantage comes in terms of the pitch the match is played on, so whichever team wins the toss, will definitely have the advantage. So giving away the home advantage will at least help the touring side and it will give them a fair chance to do well in the first Test. At least you are giving them the best chance to compete,” commented Laxman.
Virat Kohli’s Team India is currently in England, preparing for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final against Kane Williamson’s New Zealand. Following that, they will lock horns with England in a five-match Test series.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hassan doesn’t see “any possibility” of former skipper Shakib Al Hasan playing in the rescheduled Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.
Shakib Al Hasan may not play in IPL 2021
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced it will complete the remaining matches of IPL 2021 in the months of September and October in UAE.
The BCB chief cited Bangladesh’s busy schedule and T20 World Cup which is slated to take place in India in October as the reasons behind KKR all-rounder Shakib not getting a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the board for IPL.
“Given our schedule, it is almost impossible (for Shakib) to get the NOC. I don’t see any possibilities, nor any opportunity. The World Cup is coming up, which makes every game important for us,”Hassan told Ekattor TV on Sunday.
Mustafizur Rahman, the only other Bangladeshi in the IPL – for the Rajasthan Royals – is also unlikely to get a NOC, given his importance in Bangladesh’s white-ball plans.
After touring Zimbabwe for a Test, three ODIs and three T20Is in June-July, Bangladesh will take on Australia in five T20Is at home in July-August, and both New Zealand (three T20Is) and England (three ODIs and three T20Is) are expected to tour Bangladesh after that for white-ball matches in the lead up to the World Cup.
Akram Khan, BCB’s cricket operations chairman, stressed that keeping in mind all these matches, especially the England series – where the ODIs will be a part of the World Cup Super League – it was important for all the players to train and play together.
“We have to consider the team training together,” he said. “We want to go into the England series with full strength. Both the ODI Super League and the World Cup T20 are important to us.”
Shakib was involved in a tussle with the BCB in March after he accused the board of “misrepresenting” his letter requesting a NOC to play in the IPL.
In response, the BCB threatened to revoke his NOC but ended up granting it. Shakib had missed the New Zealand tour in March this year because of a thigh injury and later opted out of the two-match Test series in Sri Lanka to play in the IPL. He has since skipped the PSL, opting to play in the Dhaka Premier League T20s instead.
Fast bowling legend Brett Lee reckons India captain Virat Kohli is getting better with age and not only does he have great batting skills, he’s got a ‘great cricket brain’ too.
Brett Lee Praises Kohli
Kohli will be leading his men in the final of the ICC World Test Championship later this month when they face New Zealand in Southampton.
Speaking to ICC, Lee said, “When you look at the recent greats, it is hard to look past Virat Kohli (favourite batter). What an incredible record he has got. He is only getting better with age. He has got a great mindset, a great cricket brain as well.”
Virat Kohli
The immense popularity of cricket in India means Kohli is always under scrutiny but the pressure that comes along only helps him take his game to another level, feels Lee.
“Kohli, he is such a dynamic player, such a great influencer for the team, world-class batter. We know that that’s a given. But I think that with his emphasis on how important Test cricket is to him, and his team, and his nation, it is going to weigh in very heavily on him and that will improve his performance,” Lee said.
“We know that Kohli steps up on the big occasions. And, as you mentioned, he wants to see his side be the first winners of the ICC World Test Championship. It means a lot to him,” he added.
The WTC final is slated to get underway from June 18 and the India squad, which arrived in UK earlier this week, is currently undergoing hard quarantine before being allowed to train.
“Once everything is said and done, once the preparations are done, when they arrive there when the quarantine is done, just before they walk out, I think that will be the last comment – Let us enjoy it but let us become the first side to ever to win this ICC World Test Championship,”Lee said.
Chahal picked MS Dhoni led CSK as the franchise he would like to play for in IPL if not Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Chahal shows interest to play for CSK
After starting his career with Mumbai Indians in IPL back in 2011, Chahal had to wait till 2013 to make his debut for the franchise. He only played one game in the 2013 season before being dropped into the players’ pool at the next auction.
Chahal was then picked up by RCB ahead of the 2014 spinner and the 30-year-old has since been a mainstay in the team.
When asked about a franchise he sees himself playing for if not RCB in a Q&A with Crictracker, Chahal picked the name of Chennai Super Kings.
Considering the sort of environment CSK have for spinners, it isn’t much of a surprise that the Chahal picked the MS Dhoni-led side.
Yuzi Chahal (in CricTracker) said “I would like to play for Chennai Super Kings if not RCB in IPL”.
Over the years, Chahal has been one of the finest performers for RCB in the IPL. He has played 13 or more games for the Kohli-led franchise every single season since joining them 8 years ago.
In his IPL career so far, Chahal has played a total of 106 matches, taking 125 wickets at an average of 23.30. He also has a decent economy rate of 7.70.
The IPL 2021 that was cut short due to the Covid-19 outbreak within the league, had seen Chahal bag just 4 wickets in 7 matches.
The veteran spinner hasn’t looked at his best this year and the situation has also put his participation in the forthcoming T20 World Cup under question.
The emergence of some of the other spinners like Varun Chakravarthy, Rahul Chahar, Ravi Bishnoi, etc. has increased the competition for Chahal.
He, however, still has the Sri Lanka tour as well as the remainder of the IPL 2021 campaign to rediscover his form and submit a strong case for T20 World Cup selection.
Dinesh Karthik Interview: The 36-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman from Chennai is on his way to England to give commentary on the World Test Championship final as a ‘pundit’ for Sky Sports, something that he first experienced and “enjoyed” during the India-England Tests earlier this year, followed by The Hundred.
Dinesh Karthik Interview Excerpts
You are on your way to England as a television commentator. How excited are you to be calling on the game?
Definitely, I am very excited. It is something that is very new to me. I’m looking forward to this stint. I am really happy to be a part of this new journey.
You would have, rather, preferred to tour England as a part of the Virat Kohli squad…
Yes. In an ideal world, obviously, I would have loved to be a part of that squad but as things stand, I am happy to be going there and speaking about the matches. I am extremely excited to be doing this as well.
India test team
You toured England last time and played in two of the Tests. Could you have revived your Test career then?
Yes, I toured England the last time India played Tests there. It was a very interesting and hard-fought series. I tried my best but it did not happen the way I envisioned. But, that is part and parcel of life.
Just the fact that I came back and played after a long time, I was so happy. Things could have gone much better than they did, but that is the beauty of this sport and I have no regrets at all.
You debuted in Tests and ODIs before MS Dhoni. Would you blame partly yourself for not grabbing the opportunity and cementing your place in the Indian side?
Everybody plays the sport trying to do their best and do whatever they can. I was no different.
Sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn’t. As I said, when I look back at my journey, I am very proud of whatever I have done over a period of time.
When Dhoni was keeping wickets, you were in the team as a batsman. You opened too. Was it tough?
When you play international cricket, it is bound to be tough. If you are expecting anything else, you are in the wrong place.
The key is, knowing that it is tough, to find ways to enjoy it and that is the beauty of playing at the international level.
Dhoni
You are always thrown into questions and have to find answers. That’s what every player tries to do. The opening was a part of the journey and the short while that it lasted, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
How do you see the youngsters of today compared to when you were coming into the side as a 19-year-old?
The youngsters of today are far more mature in many ways. Before playing for the country, they have already rubbed shoulders with the best while playing in the IPL.
That gives them a lot more confidence in getting into the international arena. That’s why today’s youngsters play very fearlessly, which did not happen earlier.
How pleasing was it to see Washington Sundar do well in Tests?
I was extremely happy for him. I have seen him all the way from the start to where he is now.
He has a phenomenal career ahead of him and I am happy seeing him don the whites. The work that he puts in behind the scenes is second to none.
Washington Sundar
How do you look at the wicketkeeping talent in the country?
A. There are a lot of wicketkeepers who are doing well. Because of the advent of IPL, we see a lot of people who play as batsmen donning their gloves so that they could contribute in another direction as well for whichever franchise they play.
That has produced a lot of wicketkeepers at the T20 level for sure.
How has the dimension of wicketkeeping changed? They are called all-rounders.
The dimension of wicketkeeping has changed a lot. In today’s world, there is hardly any wicketkeeper-batsman.
Most of them are batsmen-wicketkeepers. Captains want the wicketkeepers to contribute a lot with the bat. In the earlier days, there were a lot of wicketkeeper-batsmen.
That has changed drastically in the last couple of decades or so with the arrival of Adam Gilchrist and MS Dhoni, people who have contributed a lot with the bat. A pure wicketkeeper, per se, has taken a backseat.
It also allows – and the Indian team is a prime example with Rishabh Pant batting at No. 6 – them an option to play an extra bowler. I can see a lot of international teams play a lot of batsmen-wicketkeepers.
On that England tour last time, Rishabh Pant debuted for India. How have you seen him grow? He has displaced Wriddhiman Saha as the No. 1 wicketkeeper.
Rishabh Pant is a great case of what confidence can do to you. The fact that he has done so well in the IPL and for India ‘A’, you can see the confidence coming off every time he plays for the country.
Rishabh Pant
Now he has grown and become one of those front-runners in the batting where you can see a lot of the international teams talking about him saying they fear him a lot because he could change the game in a session and that is a great place for India to be.
Wriddhiman Saha is a phenomenal wicketkeeper. To me, he is one of the best ’keepers in the world. It’s just that Pant has come a long way with his batting and contributed so much that has made Saha sit outside the team.
How long do you like to continue playing?
I will continue playing as long as I am fit. I can see myself playing for another three-four years. Touchwood, if my fitness is as it is and if I continue to contribute with the bat, I see no reason as to why I shouldn’t be playing.
These days, there are so many fitness tests and the rate at which they have the fitness tests, they remove the age out of the equation.
What they want to see is not the age but how fit you are. If you can get through the fitness tests, it means you are ready to play for the country. My aim is to play for the country in the T20 World Cups.
There are back-to-back T20 World Cups, this year and the next year, and I am doing everything I can to be a part of that.
I know I have done really well in the past and even when I got dropped from the team after the World Cup, I thought I had done phenomenally well for India in T20s up till then, but because the World Cup did not go well, I got chucked out of the T20 as well.
But given an opportunity, especially in the middle order, I know India definitely needs a finisher there.
I know we have Hardik (Pandya) and (Ravindra) Jadeja there. That’s something that I have kept my focus on, to be a pure middle-order batsman.
I feel that is a specialised slot, the ability to win games and set up good totals to help the team win. That’s something that I have focussed on and I have done well over a period of time and am backing myself to do it over and over again.
And, I know that if I do that, there will be a place in the Indian team.
Talking about your goal of playing again for the country, are you eyeing on the limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka that is on the cards in the coming weeks?
Hundred percent. I would love to. Being a middle-order batsman in T20s, you cannot put numbers like how the top three could put up in terms of volumes.
What you need to see is the impact you play, the strike rates at which you play, whether you are able to change the course of the game. That is what I have been able to do over a period of time.
Are you confident of doing what Dhoni did, the finisher’s role?
Definitely, that is the role I have been working on. I have been doing it for KKR and also for TN. I am very confident in that role.
You can get a lot of runs batting in the top-order when there is Power Play and the fields are up and you can go over the top. The skill comes in for a middle-order batsman, especially after 14 overs, what is he going to do.
That’s what I have tried to focus on and tried to help teams achieve that. To be fair, I have done with a fair degree of success and that is why I am confident that if given the opportunity, I will make a difference for the country in the T20 format.
Many hold this against you – DK was given enough opportunities but did not do enough to grab those opportunities. How do you deal with this?
As I said, in a journey that has spanned over 15-16 years, just to be a part of the Indian team over a period of time and playing all the three formats, there are so many reasons for me to be happy about myself and the efforts I have put in.
I have always told myself that only I know the amount of effort I put in and whatever I did over a period of time to get those opportunities. I did everything I could, sometimes these things work, some other times they don’t.
What is important is when you lie down on your bed, you should get good sleep knowing that you have given it everything and I can proudly say I have definitely done that.
How do you look back at your career? You seem to be around for ages and people who have debuted after you have retired.
Haha! I am very happy with how my career has taken shape. I have always been someone who has been very satisfied and have been very grateful to have played this sport, because in India, for the billion-plus population that has been over a period of time, only 302 have played (Tests) for the country, and to be a part of that is something really special.
I am really, really happy. There are so many things to be happy about playing this sport. At the start of my career, all I wanted to do was play one game for my country. To have played 150-plus overall, I am very happy. It has been a terrific journey for me, wearing the India blues.
People usually take up commentary after their playing days. But you are still an active player…
If you see foreign countries, especially football and NBA, current players come and talk about the sport when they are injured or when their team is not playing.
The perception in India is that if you go to be an expert commentator, their playing career is finished. You take football, current players sit and talk in the studio, talk about other teams and give their expert opinions.
In NBA and tennis, this is a norm. Why should it be any different in cricket?
