The same qualities that brought Jayasuriya criticism when he was a selector have contributed to his success when he was interim coach

Madushka Balasuriya07-Oct-2024Confidence, data-driven insight, and a little bit of luck. These are the core tenets of Sanath Jayasuriya’s coaching philosophy, which have worked well enough for him to be handed the reins of Sri Lanka’s men’s national team, following roughly three months in the role in an interim capacity.Those three months, while not being a runaway success, included a home ODI series win against India, a home Test series win against New Zealand and an impressive Test win in England – yes, they lost the series 2-1, but it was a crucial victory from the WTC point of view. The only real blip was Jayasuriya’s first assignment, a T20I series defeat to reigning world champions India.”What I have always said is that it’s all about confidence and trust. I created that around the team and that’s very important,” Jayasuriya said on Monday, as he faced the media following the announcement of his full-time appointment. “And I think there was a little bit of luck also. You may do a lot of work, but you need that luck sometimes.Related

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“At the same time, the players are determined to do well. They know what they went through over the last couple of years. They were really down and I asked the people to support the Sri Lanka cricketers. They are a good bunch of cricketers and they are talented. Only thing I gave was confidence, and I am there with them. They can talk to me and discuss anything.”That, in a nutshell, is Jayasuriya the coach. Arm around the shoulder, almost parent-like in the handling of his players. While during his time as chief selector, this was one of the criticisms directed at him – that he was at times too comfortable with his players, seen giving them advice and instructions in the lead up to, or even during, matches – now it’s seen as a strength.Jayasuriya has always been all action, with emotions firmly worn on his sleeves. Even during his short stint as interim coach, it was not uncommon to see him standing on the boundary line at the edge of the dugout, no attempt whatsoever at hiding his many emotions.”Yeah, he himself gets nervous sometimes, but he doesn’t let that happen to us,” Angelo Mathews had said recently during Sri Lanka’s second Test against New Zealand.And most times at the highest levels of team sport, it’s not so much about the actual coaching as it is your ability to get the message across effectively to the players. Sri Lanka have had 14 head coaches across their history (not including interim appointments) including some on multiple occasions, but Jayasuriya is only the fourth from Sri Lanka.

“In practice, we try and find different ways to do them [training sessions]. I want to make them interesting. Even before we start training, we’ve done little changes to create a nice atmosphere. So there are little things I do but it goes a long way”Sanath Jayasuriya

While foreign coaches bring a mountain of experience, their communication often relies on a translator, with several anecdotes abound about players over the years having tuned out during team briefings as a result of this language barrier. This, allied with Jayasuriya’s standing as a player , has provided him with a unique authority over the dressing room.”It’s easy for me to communicate first and foremost,” he said. “Any issues they have they can speak with me freely, and it’s easy to sort out. They have the confidence to do that. They also know what sort of cricket I played, so they know the value I bring.”But I have a responsibility as a local coach, I don’t have favourites. I will always play the team that is best for Sri Lanka cricket. I know that after me, it’s unlikely that a local coach will get this role. So there’s a responsibility I have on that end as well.”As for insights into Jayasuriya’s coaching acumen, there is yet to be any real information forthcoming, aside from the results. This is largely down to his role as a man-manager first and foremost, with tactical insights derived from the data gathered by SLC’s centralised hub for advanced cricket analytics – their “brain centre”.”The players also know what sort of cricket I played, so they know the value I bring”•Getty Images”In practice, we try and find different ways to do them [training sessions],” he said. “I want to make them interesting. Even before we start training, we’ve done little changes to create a nice atmosphere. So there are little things I do but it goes a long way.”The basics are very important. And that they enjoy, and that they are focusing [on]. But like I always say, focus maximum and when you finish, switch off. I don’t need to put them under pressure when they are not playing and the game is finished.”A very key area at the moment is the analysing department. That’s why Sri Lanka Cricket has invested a lot of money to the ‘brain centre’. We got some support from India too recently to educate our analysis department. It was very successful. And every tour we get data on the opposition, we go through it and discuss every detail. We then discuss our plans 48 hours before the match, so it’s easy for us to go out and execute our plan.”But while it’s been a satisfying honeymoon period, there are much sterner tests to come. For Jayasuriya, though, as a player, administrator, and now coach, a challenge is something to take head-on.”I think this is [something I] never expected, but I am very happy to achieve this and get this opportunity,” he said. “It’s a challenging job, I know that, it’s not a very easy job. But I want to take on that challenge and move forward with the team.”

In a tournament where fast-scoring has been difficult, West Indies’ opening duo put England to the sword

Valkerie Baynes16-Oct-20243:35

Takeaways: West Indies’ powerplay stuns England to land semi-final spot

Hayley Matthews looked at Qiana Joseph in the changeroom at the innings break and thought something was wrong.West Indies needed to chase down 142 to qualify for the T20 World Cup semi-finals for the first time since 2018 – a target Matthew later said she’d have “bitten your hand off” for at the start of the game.It turns out Joseph was simply in the mood.Related

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“When we went into the changing room at halftime, I looked at her and I said: ‘What’s wrong? You look like you’re upset.’ She said: ‘I’m just ready.'”She’s always up for it, man. And it’s great to have characters like that within the dressing room, especially as a West Indies team who are probably always underdogs. We need fighters within the team and she’s a great example of that.”Joseph didn’t just fight. She pummelled England into submission.England, who had beaten West Indies in their 13 previous games dating back to 2018, had come into the tournament tipped as finalists with their vast resources and unbeaten record in the group stages.In her 15th T20I, Joseph had a big role to fill at the top of the order with Stafanie Taylor – West Indies’ leading run-scorer before the start of the game – succumbing to a knee injury she has been carrying through the tournament.Already the 23-year-old Joseph had shown her versatility, opening the batting in the first game – a 10-wicket loss to South Africa – before dropping below Taylor to No. 3 as West Indies sailed past Scotland. She dropped into a floating role next, listed at No. 6 against Bangladesh but not required as West Indies won by eight wickets.

When we look at individuals within this team, so many times we would hear only ‘Deandra or Hayley or Staf will put in performances’, but one thing we can say we’ve started to see this year is others really stepping upHayley Matthews

Against England, Joseph blasted her way to a career-best 52 off just 38 balls with six fours and two sixes as she and Matthews took West Indies to the highest powerplay of the tournament so far at 67 without loss.It wasn’t until midway through the innings that the duo learned they needed to reach the target in 19 overs to finish ahead of South Africa at the top of Group B on net run rate. West Indies got the job done on the last ball of the 18th, Aaliyah Alleyne piercing the covers to find the boundary off Sophie Ecclestone and close an innings built by Joseph and Matthews.The duo shared a 102-run stand off just 74 balls with Matthews, who played her best innings so far with 50 off 38 – her first half-century against England – after scores of 10, 8 and 34.It was only the second time both openers had scored 50 or more in a women’s T20I for West Indies, the first time being when they beat Australia in the 2016 T20 World Cup final.It was Matthews who took control to begin with, smashing 14 runs off Lauren Bell, the most runs conceded in the first over of a match at this World Cup.Like her captain, Joseph was off the mark with a boundary, two in three balls from Nat Sciver-Brunt, no less. She then ripped into England’s spinners, powering Charlie Dean over midwicket for six then striking back-to-back fours off Ecclestone behind and over square leg.Joseph rode her luck as well, barely clearing fielders a couple of times then put down by Sophia Dunkley on 6, Alice Capsey on 31 the three times by Maia Bouchier. She reached her maiden fifty off just 34 balls, the fastest against England at the T20 World Cup.Hayley Matthews produced best innings of the tournament at a vital time•ICC/Getty ImagesJoseph was part of West Indies’ T20 World Cup squad in 2018 as a 17-year-old, largely as a left-arm spinner, but her ball-striking has improved markedly in recent times, prompting her move up the order.Earlier this year, she played largely as an opener in an away series against Pakistan, which West Indies won 4-1, and was used as a pinch-hitter in a 2-1 series win in Sri Lanka.Despite those results, West Indies hadn’t been expected to do so well here, possibly because of a well-documented lack of resources compared to the likes of India and England, both of whom are now out of the reckoning.”I think a lot of people wrote us off coming into this tournament,” Matthews said. “The way we’ve been able to go about our cricket, especially after the start we had against South Africa, we’ve just bounced back against Scotland, against Bangladesh.”We haven’t beat England in about six years. As far as I can remember, the last time we beat them was back in 2018, but everyone still came here with a belief and a fight and it just shows what we can do as a West Indian team. A lot of people coming up against us know that if it’s one thing we’ve got, it’s a lot of heart and a lot of fight and we showed that today.”Particularly pleasing for West Indies was the fact Joseph was able to step up in Taylor’s absence so that by the time Deandra Dottin came in to score 27 off 19 striking at 142.10, the bulk of the work was done.That said, Dottin was instrumental in setting the tone for the match with some brilliant fielding at the start of England’s innings and she also bowled for the first time in the campaign, taking 1 for 16 in three overs.’To be given this opportunity to come out, represent your nation and making a living out of it, every single person, it changes their lives’•ICC/Getty Images”When we look at individuals within this team, so many times we would hear only ‘Deandra or Hayley or Staf will put in performances’, but one thing we can say we’ve started to see this year is others really stepping up,” Matthew said. “Karishma [Ramharack] with 4 for 17 against Bangladesh] last game, Qiana Joseph this game, and it’s just going to make us more and more dangerous.”By topping their group, West Indies avoid favourites Australia in the semi-finals and will face New Zealand on Friday in Sharjah. Australia play South Africa in Dubai on Thursday. And Matthews was confident the entire Caribbean would be behind her team.”Honestly speaking, we probably just don’t have it like the rest a lot of the time,” she said. “Back home in the Caribbean, sometimes we don’t have facilities and a lot of our girls come from very humble beginnings. To be given this opportunity to come out, represent your nation and making a living out of it, every single person, it changes their lives.”Within the West Indies, I think a lot of the islands can always be against each other, but the one thing that does bring the entire West Indies together is cricket and the passion that the people have for the game is massive. It just brings our whole region together as one for the only time probably.”

Australia were on the brink on the fourth morning before Marnus Labuschagne absorbed pressure and paved the way for the lower order

Alex Malcolm29-Dec-2024Nathan Lyon has never heard a bigger roar for runs off his bat. For the first time since midway through day three, the Australian fans drowned out India’s supporters at the MCG.There was a heavy sigh of relief too, it seems. The two through midwicket in the last over of the day pushed Australia’s lead to 329, past the 328 India had chased down at the Gabba four years ago. It brought up an extraordinary half-century stand between Lyon and Scott Boland. Lyon added four more off the last ball of the day to equal his second-highest Test score of 41.Australia will sleep easier tonight than they might have otherwise. One wonders how their batters are sleeping at all due to Jasprit Bumrah, who once again dragged India back into the game with another extraordinary spell of bowling.Related

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But Marnus Labuschagne’s 70, and his half-century stand with Pat Cummins, before Lyon and Boland’s sit in, took the wind out of Bumrah and India late in the day.”There was a time there where [the lead] could have been 250, 270, maybe even less there for a bit,” Labuschagne said. “I think we navigated that really well and the lower order deserve a lot of credit for how they managed that last part.”Labuschagne also deserves enormous credit for one of his toughest Test innings. Having been under intense pressure for his place earlier in the series, he produced his second half-century of the match on a surface that was offering more seam and variable bounce on day four than it had done all Test match.He did so by taking India’s biggest threat all on his own after Bumrah had ripped the heart out of Australia’s top and middle-order with some help from Mohammed Siraj, who dismissed Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith playing loose strokes trying to profit while not trying to survive Bumrah.Marnus Labuschagne survived a fiery first session at the MCG•Cricket Australia via Getty ImagesHe was nearly unplayable for most of his 24 overs. Bumrah snaked two balls back through the gate to Sam Konstas and Alex Carey to knock back middle stump, having tested them repeatedly with away-swingers in the lead-up.”I’m pretty sure the young guy got under his skin a bit,” Labuschagne said of Bumrah’s reaction to dismissing Konstas. “I’d say that had a bit of fair bit to do with it.”In between, he knocked over Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh in the same over as Australia lost 4 for 11 and were on the brink of trying to defend a total well under 250. Head chipped a catch to forward square before a ball from the same length bounced 40 centimetres higher to Marsh, who gloved it behind. Bumrah has bagged them twice each in this Test match for a total of five runs, the lowest-ever by an Australian five-six combination in a Test and Marsh is averaging 10.42 for the series and 8.33 in his Test career against Bumrah.That’s still better than Cummins, who had a career record of 8 for 51 against Bumrah when he walked to the crease. It led to an extraordinary situation of Labuschagne turning down singles to keep Australia’s captain away from Bumrah.”There would have been a lot [said about the fact] we weren’t taking all the ones,” Labuschagne said. “When Pat came out, I said to Sean Abbott, who is the 12th man, I think I should just face Bumrah here, because obviously I’d been batting for maybe 90 balls or something and I had a fair feeling lining him up, and he was hot.”He got three wickets in two overs. I just said to Pat when he came out, what do you think? I’ll just take Bumrah and we can run on the other guys but let’s just make sure that I’m at the non-striker’s end at the end of each over to make sure that if Bumrah bowls it I can just face as many overs as we can. And we kind of stuck to that process.”Pat Cummins helped Australia stretch their lead past the 250-mark•Getty ImagesMuch was made of Labuschagne’s approach to Bumrah in Perth where he barely offered a shot. That approach still had question marks leading into this Test as Nathan McSweeney paid a price for having too similar a style to Labuschagne. Konstas was picked to throw something different at Bumrah which he did so successfully in the first innings.But Labuschagne’s methods have stood up. Only three players in Test cricket have faced more than 300 deliveries from Bumrah and Labuschagne has the highest average of 42 and has only been dismissed twice. Only five players have a higher average against Bumrah overall and Aiden Markram is the only right-hander among them. The only other Australian aside from Labuschagne and Konstas to average more than 26 against Bumrah is Marcus Harris, who was not selected in this series. He averaged 35 against him in 2018-19, but Bumrah had just 28 Test wickets at 25.57 back then, compared to 202 at 19.51 now.Labuschagne’s method works against the master, despite the optics. He was beaten 12 times today but played the line and never once nicked him. It was pure grit and determination as opposed to Konstas’ flight and flash. Labuschagne had luck at the other end, dropped off Akash Deep on 46 playing a flirty late cut that had also brought him undone earlier in the series.He eventually fell lbw to Siraj to a ball that kept low and hit the stumps from a length of 8.1 metres. But his job was done. Cummins made the most runs he’s ever made in a Test match thanks to Labuschagne’s protection and Lyon and Boland added an extra layer of insurance to their fourth-innings defence.

“The way the wicket played and the way India bowled and came out and put us under pressure in that first 40 to 50 overs, that [declaration] wasn’t an option for us, and it became let’s get as many runs as we can”Marnus Labuschagne

There will be questions as to why Australia didn’t declare.”We obviously had the perfect outcome for us and that probably looked like having a bowl tonight and putting them under pressure,” Labuschagne said. “But the way the wicket played and the way India bowled and came out and put us under pressure in that first 40 to 50 overs, that [declaration] wasn’t an option for us, and it became let’s get as many runs as we can.”In the past India’s middle to lower order have been very good. Obviously we want to make sure we get enough runs, but I think we also need to back ourselves and trust that we can bowl India out.”Both Bumrah and the ghosts of the Gabba continue to haunt Australia. But Labuschagne, Cummins, Lyon and Boland found a way to give them a decent night’s rest ahead of an enthralling final day.

Stats highlights from the fourth day’s play in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG

Sampath Bandarupalli29-Dec-20242 – Sunil Gavaskar and Harry Brook were the only two players to top-score in four of their first six Test innings before Nitish Kumar Reddy. He is also the first batter to top-score in four of his first six innings at No. 7 or lower. Dattu Phadkar, Wayne Phillips and Kamindu Mendis did it three times each, while Reggie Duff was the top-scorer on all three occasions when he batted at No. 7 or below.3912 – Runs conceded by Jasprit Bumrah before taking his 200th Test wicket – the fewest among the 85 bowlers to reach the milestone. The previous fewest conceded by a bowler at the time of their 200th Test wicket was 4067 runs by Joel Garner, and among Indians, it was 4840 by Ravindra Jadeja.Bumrah needed 8484 deliveries for his 200th wicket, the fourth fastest in terms of balls bowled and the quickest among Indians.ESPNcricinfo Ltd23 – Number of wickets for Bumrah in three Tests at the MCG, the most for an Indian bowler at an away venue. The previous highest was 20 wickets by Anil Kumble at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).5 – Total runs scored by Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh in Melbourne – the lowest by No. 5 and 6 batters for Australia in a men’s Test (where the same two batters have played at No. 5 or 6 in both innings).10.42 – Marsh’s batting average in this series – the second lowest for a top-seven Australia batter in a Test series at home, for a minimum of seven innings. The lowest is 10.12 by Kim Hughes against West Indies in 1984-85.5 – Previous instances of an Australian batter scoring 40-plus runs in both innings of a Test match at No. 8 or lower. The last Australian before Pat Cummins at the MCG was Peter Siddle against India in the 2013 Delhi Test, where he scored fifties in both innings.Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon kept the Indian bowlers at bay for 110 balls•Quinn Rooney/Getty Images2 – Number of tenth-wicket partnerships against India to have lasted 100-plus balls in Tests since the start of 2015. Both have come in this series – 18 overs between Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in Perth and 17.5 overs between Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland in Melbourne.744 – Number of balls faced by batters at No. 8 and lower in the Melbourne Test – the highest across the 248 Tests played in Australia since 1980. It is also the sixth highest for a Test match anywhere since 1998.

Championship-winning coach returns to Chelmsford after eventful eight years on international circuit

Andrew Miller18-Feb-2025Chris Silverwood has been on a journey. “Just a little one!” he admits, as he sits – appropriately enough – on board a cruise ship in the Thames, to discuss the circumstances of his return to Essex after eight eventful years on the international circuit.They say never go back. And yet, despite his high-profile stints with England and Sri Lanka in the interim, in many ways it is as if “Spoons” never entirely left the club at which he made his name as a head coach.When he relinquished his role at the end of 2017, having in the space of two seasons guided Essex back to the top flight and then to their first County Championship title in 25 years, Silverwood bequeathed to his then-deputy Anthony McGrath a self-sustaining squad that would land a memorable double in 2019, then the Bob Willis Trophy in the Covid summer of 2020.Even now, with Surrey having flexed their muscles on the way to three Championships in a row, Essex remain one of the country’s pre-eminent red-ball outfits, with top-four finishes in each of their last three campaigns. Certain key figures have moved on, notably the retired Alastair Cook and the golden child of that first stint, Dan Lawrence. But Jamie Porter and Sam Cook, whom Silverwood blooded in that 2017 title run-in, remain as stalwarts of an ever-potent seam attack, alongside other key senior pros such as Tom Westley, Nick Browne and Simon Harmer.Related

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“I’m really proud,” Silverwood says, as he reflects on the extent to which the structures he put in place have held up for the best part of a decade. “Ever since I left, I’ve never stopped following, but I think I’ve been away long enough to come back and see things with fresh eyes.”Mags continued to drive what we put in place, and we have punched above our weight. What we have to do now is make sure we can continue to do that for many years to come. There’s still that senior core there, which is great, but equally, there’s a lot of fresh faces for me to work alongside as well and help bring through. So I think from that perspective, it’s very exciting.”For all the familiarity he brings, it’s an older and wiser Silverwood who will be taking guard for his second innings at the club. It was a “no-brainer” to come back – “You say I’m a proud Yorkshireman but Essex is home” – and with two of his boys already in the player pathway, he has an additional investment in the club’s coaching structures.But he’s seen some sights in his time away. His stint with England was famously ill-starred, and collapsed in ignominy on the Covid-blighted 2021-22 Ashes tour, where his own ten-day isolation during the Sydney Test epitomised the helplessness that engulfed his regime. And though he leapt almost immediately into the vacant Sri Lanka role for a two-year tenure, his fortunes in that role were similarly mixed. Though he was credited for a welcome uptick in the country’s fast-bowling stocks, two poor World Cup campaigns, including a group-stage exit at the 2024 T20 version last June, sealed his fate.”There’s always things you’re going to look back on and say, we could have done that differently,” Silverwood says. “But at the time, you do things for what you think are the right reasons, and you learn from them. So I don’t hold any animosity or any grudges, or anything like that. You put it down to experience. Has it helped me grow as a person? Yes. Has it helped me grow as a coach? Definitely.”It’s easily forgotten now, given how it all ended, quite how much optimism had abounded in the early months of Silverwood’s tenure. “It all started so well, didn’t it?” he acknowledges, looking back on an upbeat tour of South Africa in 2019-20, in which many of the seeds of the subsequent Bazball revolution were sown.

“It’s not just a case of supplying cricketers for Essex, it’s about over-supplying. We don’t have the money to compete with the big Test grounds but what we can do is match them from a development point of view. That’s something that Essex is historically very good at”

England bounced back from a first-Test defeat at Centurion to win three on the bounce, with Ben Stokes’ command performance at Cape Town leading the way, and a host of young players – Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley and the now-forgotten Dom Sibley among them – all thriving in a nurturing environment that, within months, would be wrecked by the bio-secure strictures of Covid.”You could sit there and say, ‘what if?’ until the cows come home,” Silverwood adds. “At the end of the day, it’s pointless. But there were some good times in there as well. The South Africa trip was superb, some of the youngsters did really well and have obviously gone on and achieved what they have. I’ve still got friends in that dressing-room and I enjoy seeing them do well personally as well. I’m still an England fan.”Silverwood also acknowledges that he took on too much in his England role, specifically the national selector duties during Covid which, he admits, he would now avoid if he had his time again. Such over-reach wasn’t a problem in his Sri Lanka stint, however, which he says made him a more versatile coach, and more accepting of short-term wins when wholesale change was hard to come by.”I was a resident of Colombo for two-and-a-bit years, learning how to survive, operate and be successful in a different culture, which was a whole new big adventure for me,” he says. “I know how things work in England, but out there I was on my own, which was a bit of a blessing, because it forced me to dive into their culture and live it.”He credits his assistant coach, Naveed Nawaz, for getting many of his messages across – “at least until they got used to my accent!” – but despite some notable highs, including an innings win over Australia in Galle, and a gratifying victory over England at the 2023 World Cup, Silverwood accepts that his personal development during his Sri Lanka stint was perhaps more profound than that of the overall team.”Off the back of England, to get straight back on the horse again, so to speak, did me a world of good,” he says. “It was about learning that there’s many ways of doing things. We all love structure, but sometimes it’s all right to operate on the outside of that as well, because you can still get things done.Silverwood led Essex to the 2017 Championship title in his first spell at the club•Getty Images”It’s about knowing which battles to fight, and learning how to navigate someone else’s landscape,” he adds. “It’s always been part of my philosophy to find solutions – it’s what I started encouraging these guys to do when I first came into Essex – but I suppose it taught me to look in different areas, because you accept that some things are just not going to happen, or some things will happen slowly. So I suppose I worry about that a lot less now.”And now he’s bringing all that learning back to Essex, in time for a 2025 season that promises to be fascinating for all manner of different reasons.The recent Hundred sale has consolidated the sense that county cricket is now permanently split between the “have” and “have not” clubs, and seeing as London rivals Surrey and MCC, landlords at Lord’s, emerged as the biggest winners in that process, Essex have – on the face of it – many more reasons to question how their humble Chelmsford base can possibly keep them level-pegging with their noisy neighbours.And yet, Essex’s relevance in the grander scheme of English cricket received a huge boost last April, when they were unveiled as one of the eight inaugural Tier 1 clubs in the reconvened women’s professional set-up. Quite apart from the merits of the club’s well-tailored bid, which includes a commitment to hosting women’s home games at Chelmsford and a groundbreaking tie-in with the sports science department at the University of Essex, it was a vote of confidence in the club’s proven ability to harness and cultivate local talent – a trait that Silverwood’s original tenure set in stone.”It’s not just a head coach role now,” he adds. “It’s a DOC [director of cricket], so you’re making decisions for what’s best for the club, and how do we build a legacy that will keep them successful for a long time coming?”It’s not just a case of supplying cricketers for Essex, it’s about over-supplying. We don’t have the money to compete with the big Test grounds like Surrey, but what we can do is match them from a development point of view, and that’s something that Essex is historically very good at.”I want to see Essex boys and girls playing for Essex and going on to play for England. That is ultimately the dream, but if some of them go on and play for other counties, that’s great as well. It’s just making sure that we are tapping into our footprint within the community, whether it be into East Anglia or the Essex area, into East London, or wherever it may be, that we spread far and wide.”

He made his name with Mumbai Indians two years ago and is trying to perform as an improved cricketer with Punjab Kings

Ashish Pant25-Apr-2025″It’s not about being good, it’s about knowing that you are good.”This realisation dawned upon Nehal Wadhera when he faced Jofra Archer for the first time in a Mumbai Indians (MI) practice game ahead of IPL 2023. All of 22 at the time, and yet to make his T20 debut, here was Wadhera facing one of the fastest bowlers in the world.He didn’t just survive but even impressed the MI management so much that he was handed a T20 debut in the IPL in the team’s season opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).Related

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“When I batted against Archer, I think that was an actual moment where I got that self-confidence,” Wadhera said in a press interaction. “It is very important for you to know that you are good. And when I played Archer in the practice games, it was in a way a realisation moment for me.”And from there, I got the confidence that yes, I am prepared for this level. And then, wherever I got the chance, I did well. I think my confidence was sky-high thereon.”Wadhera had a decent debut season, scoring 241 runs in ten innings, with two fifties and a strike rate of 145.18. The MI stint helped him realise that he belonged at this level. It also opened a lot of avenues. He was part of the title winning 2023-24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Punjab team, where he scored 175 runs in six innings at an average of 58.33 and a strike rate of 162.03.The common factor in both his Punjab and MI stints was his batting position. It was never fixed. From opening the batting to slotting in at No. 7, Wadhera has been a floater throughout his T20 career. It’s not ideal for a player, but it’s something he has trained himself for since he was a kid.”Yes, this thing about me playing in every number… if you look at the last two years, when I was playing for Mumbai as well, my batting was very flexible, there was no fixed position,” he said. “Sometimes I have opened, sometimes I batted two down, sometimes at No. 3, 4, 5, 6.

“I don’t go with the intention that I want to score a hundred in this match or help the team reach 200-250. Because if you plan so far ahead, you end up not doing well. And I have faced this before.”

“Since my early playing days, my preparation has been to adjust to any position in the batting order because I have never had a fixed position. I want to do well in any position wherever I get a chance. I have kept my preparation in such a way that I should know how to play every situation. I think that’s helped me.”Wadhera, 24, is now part of Punjab Kings (PBKS) in IPL 2025. Two years back he was a new kid on the block, there was no baggage, and limited expectations from him. But at PBKS, there is an INR 4.2 crore price tag attached. He also now has two years of IPL experience and is expected to play a key role in the PBKS line-up. It’s something he relishes.”I would like to say that I love playing under tough situations,” Wadhera said. “Honestly, players who can win matches from tough situations only go on to play for India. You have to be a match-winner to be able to play for the Indian team.”And Wadhera has often found himself in such tough situations in IPL 2025. He began the season with an unbeaten 25-ball 43 against Lucknow Super Giants, staying unbeaten in the chase. Against Rajasthan Royals, he top-scored with 62 off 41, even though that came in a losing cause.A couple of weeks later, he made amends against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, where against some fiery bowling on a tricky Chinnaswamy surface, Wadhera hit an unbeaten 19-ball 33 to give PBKS an important win. He has 189 runs in seven innings so far this season at a strike rate of 146.51, but more than the runs, it’s his clarity that helps him.Wadhera spoke about the favourable match-up against Suyash Sharma, whom he targeted during the RCB game and his chat with head coach Ricky Ponting heading into his innings.”If we talk about the match against RCB, the coach came to me and he told me ,’Nehal, we just need a run-a-ball. You can just go easy.’ I said, ‘Okay, coach.’Nehal Wadhera has credited the Ricky Ponting-Shreyas Iyer partnership for making things work at PBKS•Punjab Kings”But as soon as I went inside, I felt that RCB had put a lot of pressure on us at that time. I thought that now that I am in, my match-ups bowlers are in front and this is my responsibility now to help my team cross the line.”When chasing smaller targets, if a wicket falls early, then there’s a lot of pressure. So, as soon as Suyash came on, I knew that he was just trying to bowl the googly and that made it easier for me to hit him straight.”It hasn’t been all rosy for Wadhera, especially in this last year. He had an average IPL 2024, where he managed just 109 runs in six innings, without a fifty and then a below-par SMAT 2024-25, where he scored 97 runs in six innings. It made him go back to the basics and analyse the root cause of his lean run.”There is always a time in everyone’s careers where you are not able to score well even when you are trying really hard. That time came with me this year, in Syed Mushtaq Ali,” Wadhera said. “But I am not someone who gives up.”I went through my videos to see what problems I was facing, why didn’t I do well in Mushtaq Ali. I just try to collect all the positives which I can, but at the same time, I also introspect all the weaknesses which can actually cause me trouble in my upcoming games and I am working on that.”I don’t go with the intention that I want to score a hundred in this match or help the team reach 200-250. Because if you plan so far ahead, you end up not doing well. And I have faced this before. I just go with the intent that if the ball is in my range, I have practiced well, I will go for my shot. Nine times out of ten, I know I’ll clear the ground. It is possible that I will get out once. But if I have worked so hard on a shot, I will back it.”Wadhera was also effusive in praise of Shreyas Iyer, the PBKS captain and the bond he shares with Ponting. The captain-coach duo had a stint together previously at Delhi Capitals, and Wadhera says it’s helped in welcoming the newbies into the PBKS set-up.Wadhera is someone who wants to work on his faults and get better, something PBKS could resonate with having not made the playoffs since 2014. They have both started IPL 2025 on the right note and will hope they now get into the final four, if not to the podium to lift the trophy.

Playing just his fourth IPL game, he took on an attack boasting 732 international caps and tore it to shreds

Karthik Krishnaswamy08-Apr-20252:37

Jaffer: Hope to see Arya in India colours soon

Virender Sehwag was a cricketer of many extraordinary gifts, but the thing that made him so different from other players with similar gifts in his era was an ability to distil the complex art of batting into a pursuit of crystal-clear simplicity. His philosophy could be condensed into two maxims: “forget the previous ball” and “see ball, hit ball”. The philosophy existed even before anyone needed to put words to it. He didn’t need to repeat the words to himself as the bowler ran in. They were already part of his very being.When Priyansh Arya, another opening batter from Delhi, took strike Tuesday night, he could have been excused if his previous ball was playing on his mind. That ball was a jaffa from Jofra Archer that had snaked from leg to top of off at 144.6kph and bowled him for a golden duck.From all available evidence, that ball occupied no part of Arya’s mind when he faced up to his first ball on Tuesday. From all available evidence, his only thought was some verbal or non-verbal version of “see ball, hit ball”. Khaleel Ahmed’s length was okay, and he even got a bit of swing away from the left-hand batter, but he gave Arya width, and he wasn’t going to stand around and let width go unpunished. He took a short step forward, but not across, so he could extend his arms fully and carve the ball high over backward point for six.Related

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Minimal footwork, still head, stable base, and a gloriously unconstrained bat-swing. A flashback in a mirror.Over the next four balls Arya faced, the flip side of that lack of footwork began to make itself felt. He was nearly out caught-and-bowled off the leading edge, and another edge lobbed just wide of short third.All this, however, was out of Arya’s mind when he faced up to the fifth legal ball of Khaleel’s over. Here was width again, and another chance to free his arms. The first six had gone behind square; this one went just in front, more punch than carve.This IPL 2025 game between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) kept giving Arya the chance to worry about the previous ball, or balls of comparable recency. Each time, he paid no heed, and chose instead to simply see the ball in front of him and give it a whack.PBKS had just lost their first wicket when he took strike for the first time in the second over. Mukesh Choudhary went short and erred marginally down the leg side, and Arya, standing more or less still but having enough time to shift his weight from front foot to back, hooked him for six.When he faced up in the fourth over, PBKS had just lost their second wicket, that of their captain Shreyas Iyer. It didn’t inhibit Arya in any way – it didn’t even stop him driving at catchable height through the off-side ring as he crashed Choudhary for three successive fours.

Arya’s century, which came off 39 balls, was the joint fourth-quickest in IPL history, and the quickest by an uncapped batter. If those facts didn’t make his innings special enough, throw in the fact that the others in the PBKS top six scored 0, 9, 4, 9 and 1

PBKS kept losing wickets, Arya kept playing his shots, and he didn’t stop even after he had come close to getting out. Another aerial square drive brushed the fingers of the diving point fielder, when PBKS were 49 for 2. They were 114 for 5 when a miscued loft ended up in the hands of long-off, only for the fielder to step on a boundary cushion.Arya’s instincts were keeping PBKS going at ten an over or thereabouts even when they were losing so many wickets. At the time of that fluffed chance at long-off, Arya had scored over 64% of PBKS’s runs. By the time he was out for 103 off 42 balls, he had upped that percentage to nearly 67.The century, which came off 39 balls, was the joint-fourth-quickest in IPL history, and the quickest by an uncapped batter. If those facts didn’t make his innings special enough, throw in the fact that the others in the PBKS top six scored 0, 9, 4, 9 and 1.Interviewed during the break between innings, Arya seemed to suggest that the conditions in Mullanpur demanded that he had to keep batting this way even as his partners came and went. PBKS had just set CSK a target of 220, and this is what he said when asked about the conditions and what he thought of his team’s chances: “The ball is coming on nicely. It is not turning much. We have to bowl in good areas and take as many wickets as we can in the powerplay.”Arya didn’t seem to think PBKS were safe despite the magnitude of their total, and they eventually only won by 18 runs.2:44

Is Arya’s ton the greatest IPL knock by an uncapped player?

This, increasingly, is the way of T20 – or certainly the way of the IPL. Teams batting first are loath to let early wickets – PBKS lost five in the first eight overs here – curtail their ambitions. Better lose big in the pursuit of possible victory than lose by a respectable margin having given up the chance of winning.Embracing this thinking takes doubt away from players like Arya, and gives them the license to be themselves, no matter what. After the match, PBKS captain Iyer said he had reinforced this message to Arya after his first-baller against Archer.”When I had a chat with him in the last game, he was a bit timid in terms of his decision-making when he faced Jofra,” Iyer said. “Today, when he went out to bat, he was like, ‘I’m just backing my instincts – I saw the ball pitched in my area and I was just free-flowing’. And that’s the mindset I want each and every individual playing in the team to have. One odd day, you don’t have it your way, but today he kept on going, he was fearless, and it basically was one of the top knocks I’ve seen in the IPL so far.”In his post-match press conference, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming noted how Arya’s willingness to take on risk, in the circumstances PBKS were in, had shifted pressure back onto the bowlers.”It’s very brave, when you come off a first-ball dismissal, to look to play a shot like that,” Fleming said. “Our fault was we were too wide. The plan was to bowl straight, at the stumps, and create some pressure that way. The first ball we bowled straight, we created a caught-and-bowled chance, and that [had it been caught] changes the night quite drastically.Priyansh Arya made a 39-ball hundred•BCCI”So we were just a little sloppy. We were put under pressure, and the young man hit some amazing shots. We succumbed a little bit to that pressure by putting the ball in areas that he was stronger in, and we just didn’t adjust quick enough. He countered us, he played some beautiful shots.”When batsmen at the other end are faltering, it’s pretty special to go out and create the innings yourself, and that was what he was doing for a majority of the game.”As Fleming observed, Arya’s innings was special not just for his uncluttered, unfettered mindset but the quality of his shot-making too. PBKS wanted both these things when they fought off furious interest from Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to sign Arya for INR 3.8 crore, more than ten times his base price, at the last auction.At times on Tuesday, Arya deceived you into thinking he was merely putting bad balls away, so simple did he make his stand-and-deliver method look. But every so often he played a shot that made you gasp.He went from 47 to 53, for instance, by exposing all his stumps against a ball that R Ashwin fired towards middle and leg, and flat-batting it over wide long-off.Priyansh Arya hit seven fours and nine sixes in his 42-ball 103•BCCIThen, on 80, Matheesha Pathirana slung a low full-toss across Arya from over the wicket. It was just inside the wide guideline when it reached the batter. It was close to being a well-executed wide yorker, and Arya opened his bat face and sliced underneath the ball to send it flying flat and effortless over the backward-point boundary.And he hit an even better shot next ball. This was a genuinely good ball from Pathirana, skidding towards Arya’s left hip from just short of a length, giving him barely any room to work with and barely any time. Or so you thought until his bat came scything across the ball and slightly underneath it to half-pull, half-shovel it over the midwicket boundary.A relatively regulation pull brought him another six off the next ball, and the century came up off the ball after that, via an edged four to third. He was batting on 102 off 39 balls, and the other six PBKS batters who had batted up to this point had, between them, scored 46 off 40 balls. This 24-year-old playing just his fourth IPL game, with no first-class experience and just 25 domestic white-ball games coming into this tournament, had taken on an attack boasting 732 international caps and torn it to shreds.