Taking the nasty short ball out of the game might seem unthinkable, but we might soon be at the point where we’re seriously considering it

Sidharth Monga06-Jan-2021The current India tour of Australia has already had a bowling allrounder, a lower-order batsman, miss the T20I series because of a concussion. A key bowler is missing three Tests of the series with a broken arm. An opening batsman has missed out on a potential Test debut because of a hit to his head, which gave him his ninth concussion before the age of 22. All three players were hit by accurate, high-pace short-pitched bowling, which takes extreme skill, and some luck, to keep out.The concussed bowling allrounder is now back. He has scored a fifty at the MCG that has frustrated the home side, who have been accustomed to rolling India over once they lose five wickets. India’s additions from five-down in their last six innings in Test cricket: 64, 43, 48, 40, 48, 21. In Melbourne, the sixth wicket alone has added 121 because this bowling allrounder hung around with his captain, one of only five specialist batsmen, a bold selection by the visiting side after 36 all out.Related

• Phil Hughes' death is a stark reminder of the danger players face on the cricket field

• Will Pucovski and the other Australia batsmen need clarity to succeed at SCG

• Chappell: Don't ban the bouncer, fix batting technique instead

• Why the bouncer is not essential to cricket

• The contradictory fear of the fast bowler

The fast bowler whose bouncer in the T20I ended up concussing this allrounder goes back to the bouncer plan in the Test. Experts on TV feel he has been too late getting there, that he has not been nasty enough. The allrounder shows he can handle himself, dropping his wrists and head out of the way of a couple of snorters, but he eventually plays a hook and is caught in the deep.The next few batsmen are much less adept at handling this kind of bowling – the kind of players who have yielded low returns for India batting lower in the order. Bouncer after bouncer follows. One batsman has to call for help after getting hit in the chest. The other is hit twice on the forearm. All told, the bowler bowls 23 consecutive short balls at Nos. 7-9. Welcome to the land of “broken f****** elbows”.

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This is Australia. This is the land of tough, “hard but fair” cricket. This is also the place where there was an exemplary inquest into safety standards in cricket after the tragic death of young Phillip Hughes on a cricket field. Hughes was a specialist batsman, it was not a high-pressure Test match, and he was not facing an express bowler. He was hit in the side of the neck by a bouncer, just where the helmet ends.It was a moment of awakening in cricket; of realisation that we have been extremely lucky, given the number of blows batsmen take, that we have not had too many such grave injuries. That it needn’t be an inept tailender, that it needn’t be 150kph, that it needn’t be particularly nasty at first look, that any of the large number of bouncers we see and enjoy could be fatal for any of the practitioners of this highly skilled sport.No. 9: the blow in the Sydney tour game was the ninth time Will Pucovski had been concussed playing cricket•Getty ImagesImagine the number of concussions we have missed, now that we know how likely a blow to the head from a fast-paced bouncer is likely to cause one. In 2019, in the aftermath of the Steven Smith concussion, Mark Butcher told ESPNcricinfo’s podcast Switch Hit how he faced a barrage from Tino Best and Fidel Edwards in 2004, wore one on the head, went off for bad light, didn’t tell anyone how he felt, came back and batted with the same compromised helmet on. He is pretty certain he has batted through concussions. “You just batted on as long as you saw straight.”A concussion is a head injury that causes the head and the brain to shake back and forth quickly, not too unlike a pinball. It can make you dizzy, it can disorient you, it can slow your instincts down, its symptoms can show up at the time of impact or five minutes after, or an hour later, or at any time over the next couple of days. Just imagine the number of players who have continued risking what is potentially often a much graver “second impact”, which can be caused in part by slowed instincts because of the first impact.Australia is the land trying hard to normalise going off when you’ve had a head injury. It led cricket into instituting concussion substitutes. Six years on from Hughes’ death, we are in the middle of a series between two highly skilled pace attacks capable of aiming high-speed, accurate short-pitched bowling at the bodies of batsmen.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhile there is conversation around making cricket safer, the threat for lesser-skilled batsmen is going up: 13% of deliveries from fast bowlers to those batting from Nos. 1 to 7 has been short in this series; for the lesser batsmen, batting from 8 to 11, this number has gone up to a whopping 29%, or roughly two short balls an over. The corresponding numbers in the recently concluded series between New Zealand and West Indies were 9% and 13%, which is still higher than the norm in Test cricket: 6% for batsmen 1 to 7 and 9% for the tail since concussions substitutes were introduced in July 2019.

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Cricket is a weird sport. If you are a tail-end batsman, you often have to go out and let millions watch you do something you are inept at – sometimes hilariously so. And do it against opponents who are almost lethally good at doing what they are doing. The less you like it, the more you get it.Opposing fast bowlers have stopped looking after each other now, what with protective equipment improving and lower-order batsmen increasingly placing higher prices on their wickets. When you are hit by a bouncer, you know there are former cricketers, some of whom you grew up idolising, waiting to label you soft should you show pain, let alone walk off.”You just batted on as long as you saw straight:” Mark Butcher gets hit by one from Tino Best•Getty ImagesWhen Ravindra Jadeja, the previously mentioned bowling allrounder, took a concussion substitute in the T20I, the predominant conversation was about the need to watch out against the misuse of the concussion substitute. Perhaps because Jadeja batted on for three more balls after he was hit – which was also a sign that not all teams take concussions seriously enough. Not every batsman has a stem guard at the back of his helmet, an appendage that might have saved Hughes’ life.Mark Taylor’s response is a good summation of what the pundits thought: “The concussion rules are there to protect players. If they are abused, there’s a chance it will go like the runner’s rule. The reason runners were outlawed was because it started to be abused. It’s up to the players to make sure they use the concussion sub fairly and responsibly. I’m not suggesting that didn’t happen last night.”Taylor is a former Test captain, a former ICC cricket committee member, and a current administrator. He is better informed than many. During India’s home season in 2019, when Bangladesh’s batsmen were hit again and again in less-than-ideal viewing conditions in a hurriedly organised first day-night Test in India, commentators questioned their courage and called the repeated concussion tests ridiculous.

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Mitchell Starc is the bowler whose bouncer resulted in the concussion to Jadeja. He is the one who bowled 23 short balls in a row at India’s lower-order batsmen. He has had to deal with criticism from former players for being too soft at various points in his career. He saw his batsmen score just 195 after winning the toss in Melbourne, and was part of the bowling group that was asked once again to bail the team out. India batted extremely well, five catches went down, the pitch was easing out a little, and the deficit was growing. There was a microscope over Starc now.Umesh Yadav gets out of the way of a Starc bouncer. “You don’t hit me, I won’t hit you” doesn’t apply among fast bowlers anymore•Getty ImagesTest-match cricket is no ordinary workplace. You have to do whatever is within the laws to get your wickets. Almost everyone is so good at what they do that errors have to be prised out, sometimes forced. Every weakness is preyed upon for whatever small advantage it might yield. It is not far-fetched to imagine Will Pucovski, the previously mentioned repeatedly concussed opening batsman, will be peppered if and when he makes his Test debut. This Indian team has fast bowlers who can give as good as they get, and they have got some from the Australian bowlers.For over after over, fast bowlers do what their bodies are not biomechanically meant to be doing. You have to find a way to get a wicket. The bouncer is a legitimate ploy to get wickets, to mess with the batsman’s footwork, to let them know they can’t plonk the front foot down and keep driving or defending them, and even to send a message out to the remaining batsmen. That line between bowling bouncers to get wickets and doing it to hurt can get blurred. If you have an awesome power and no one has a way to tell with certainty that if you are always using it with good intent, there are chances you will end up misusing it once in a while.It might sound extremely cynical, but if a blow to the head is highly likely to get a concussion substitute in, thus putting a front-line bowler out for at least a week and denying the opposition their ideal XI for the next Test, is it that difficult to imagine a fast bowler trying that extra bouncer before going for the full ball? Test match cricket is no ordinary workplace.

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“I didn’t want just that bloke to be scared,” Len Pascoe said to me in 2015. “I wanted the guys in the dressing room to be scared too. If you got him scared, that’s it. Often when I took wickets, I would get them in batches. One, two, bang. You just hit hard, hit hard.”Pascoe is a man after whom a hospital ward was named in the New South Wales town where he lived. Back then in the 1970s, every Saturday, Bankstown hospital would receive cricket victims in the Thomson-Pascoe ward. (And that despite being told years later by the groundsman at Bankstown that because of Thomson and Pascoe he used to make incredibly flat pitches.)Sandeep Patil is felled by Len Pascoe in Sydney in 1981•Getty ImagesPascoe was a young fast bowler, son of an immigrant brick carter, who grew up with racial abuse. To him, the man standing in the way of everything he wanted was the one across the 22 yards. He would do anything to get him out, and his captains and batsmen loved using him to do that. He bowled in an era when it was commonplace to hear chants of “Lillee Lillee, kill kill” at cricket rounds. In those days, any discussion around player safety was arguably mostly a ploy to neutralise West Indies, who had by then developed a pace battery that could match if not outdo any pace attack blow for blow.The injuries Pascoe caused concerned him. Once, a batsman, George Griffith of South Australia, told him in a hospital after a day’s play that had he been hit half an inch either side of where he had been, he wouldn’t probably have been around to accept the apology. When Pascoe next hit a batsman badly – Sutherland’s Glenn Bailey in a grade game, who then vomited blood – his mate Thomson had only recently lost his former flat-mate, 22-year-old Martin Bedkober, felled by a blow to the chest while batting in a Queensland grade match.The young Pascoe kept doing it despite his discomfort, kept rationalising it to himself, comparing it to the risk a policeman or an army man takes, but when, at 32, he hit Sandeep Patil, a blow that knocked the batsman off his feet, he had had enough. He saw Patil stagger off the field, barely conscious, swaying this way and that despite support from the medical staff. Pascoe told Ian Chappell he was walking away. Pascoe said Chappell asked him, “What if he hits you for six? Do you think he feels sorry for you?” That kept Pascoe going for another season but his heart was not in it.Pascoe never injured another batsman. As a coach now, he teaches young bowlers to use the bouncer responsibly: bowl the first one well over the leg stump, only as a fact-finding mission to see where the feet are going. Bowl to get wickets, not to injure batsmen. It is important to instil fear, but it is equally important to not get addicted to instilling that fear.

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Test cricket in New Zealand is played upside down. As matches progress, the pitches get slower and better to bat on. The best time to bat is the fourth innings. Everywhere else in the world, no matter how green the pitch, you win the toss and bat if no time has been lost to rain before the toss. New Zealand is the only place in the world where you win the toss and bowl first, because dismissals have to be manufactured in the second innings.Life is nasty, brutish and short when you’re facing Neil Wagner•Getty ImagesThese conditions have given rise to a phenom called Neil Wagner. But for Wagner’s style of bowling – persistent short balls between the chest and the head of the batsmen – there would be a high rate of draws in New Zealand. Since his debut, Wagner has bowled more short balls and taken more wickets with them than anyone else. He trains like a madman so that he can keep doing it over extremely long spells.Two days after Starc possibly flirted with the line between bowling bouncers for wickets and bowling them for the hurt, Wagner goes to work on a dead pitch in the face of a stubborn Pakistan resistance to try to draw the Test. Running in on two broken toes, over an 11-over spell, Wagner bowls bouncer after bouncer from varied angles at varied heights and paces, and finally manages to get the wicket of century-maker Fawad Alam with a short ball from round the wicket.The tail dig in their heels, and we go into the last hour with two wickets still in hand. Wagner figures the batsmen can block if he keeps pitching it up. So he digs it in short, and gets Shaheen Shah Afridi in the head in the 11th over of his spell. Over the next few overs, Afridi is tested repeatedly for a possible concussion.This Wagner spell is compelling to watch. One man against the conditions, against his own hurting foot, against stubborn batsmen, trying to win his side a Test match in the dying minutes of the final day. The tail, emboldened by the improved protective equipment batsmen get to wear, braving blows to the body, trying to save a Test match. The fast bowler, fitter and stronger than he has ever been, able to sustain hostility and accuracy over longer spells than ever before.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

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“The bowling of short-pitched deliveries is dangerous if the bowler’s end umpire considers that, taking into consideration the skill of the striker, by their speed, length, height and direction they are likely to inflict physical injury on him/her. The fact that the striker is wearing protective equipment shall be disregarded.”

The MCC leaves it to the umpires to decide what is dangerous. In most cases the umpires are professional enough to prevent things from getting bad enough to be visible to those watching from the outside. Often a quiet word when the bowler is walking back to their mark is enough. Yet the times that it does get out of hand, the umpire can call a dangerous delivery a no-ball, followed by a “first and final warning” and suspension from bowling should the bowler repeat the offence. It is near impossible to remember when such a no-ball was called, let alone a suspension.The one time in recent memory when it did look like it got out of hand was when Brett Lee bowled four straight bouncers at Makhaya Ntini and Nantie Hayward in Adelaide back in 2002. Ntini was hit on the head twice before staggering through for a leg-bye, with Ian Chappell on air observing he was “perhaps a little dazed”. After the fourth short ball, which chased Hayward’s head as he backed away towards square leg, umpire Simon Taufel had a quiet word, resulting in two full deliveries.Often under fire from commentators – former players themselves – and fans, umpires can be reluctant to draw any attention to themselves. The common refrain they have to deal with: “They have come to watch us play, not you umpire.” Umpires don’t want to be seen as overly officious – when it comes to policing player behaviour or in ball management or pitch management or ensuring player safety.If the umpire steps in in the case of Starc, it will certainly be controversial in this high-profile contest. If he steps in to prevent Wagner from bouncing Afridi, he knows his one quiet word could end up being the difference between a win and a draw for New Zealand. The umpire has to ensure player safety but without compromising the integrity of the contest or attracting vitriol from former players and media. It is an extremely tight rope.

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Those running the sport stand at a crucial crossroads. A lot of sports – especially those played by teams – have their roots in military training or colonisation. They were originally played to keep troops fit and ready for war, to hone a killer instinct for real war by indulging in a phony war; for voyeuristic entertainment; or to discipline the people of a new country so as to control and spread the right messages among the colonised. The war analogies endure but we have come a long way from sport’s original purpose. Player safety standards might need to catch up.Brett Lee to Makhaya Ntini, 2001: welcome to Adelaide•Getty ImagesOne of the reasons bouncers are such a thrilling spectacle is the real danger they carry. At that pace and that height, you can’t always control what is happening. To watch an expert batsman try to tame this force through technique, skill, courage and luck is a rush. There has to be a rush involved in bowling or facing them too. But only till someone gets hurt again, especially knowing as we do now what even a moderate-looking impact can do to a player’s health. The rush gives way to unease pretty quickly these days.Any new regulation that aims to limit this damage will be tricky to enforce. The existing regulations, which limit the number of short balls that are head-high (and not, for instance, chest-high) might need to be looked at too. In the last decade there were two recorded instances of club cricketers not surviving blows to the chest.At first glance, the idea of regulating the use of bouncers seems ridiculous, given how integral the bouncer is to the game of cricket. There must have been a time, too, when the idea of a concussion substitute must have seemed ridiculous. When it must have been okay for players to compromise their safety by carrying on playing with potential brain injuries.There will have to be a time when it might not be considered ridiculous for player safety to take precedence over the desire to preserve the bouncer. It seems more a matter of when than if. Any decision will involve carefully examining what the sport will end up losing. A length-ball outswinger might not be as effective if the batsman knows he can keep planting his front foot down to cover the movement. We might end up losing out on a whole genre of bowling: Wagnering, if you will. It will make the umpires’ job even more difficult, bringing more subjectivity into it as they rule one bouncer dangerous and another passable.Then again, do we, and the sport, have it in us to wait for another grave injury – or lawsuits in some countries – before we make that move?

Nobody in the past 20 years has gotten an autograph from Malcolm Marshall, and nobody ever again will

Samarth Shah04-Feb-2021Among my treasured cricketing memorabilia is a tie embroidered with the Lord’s logo, a USA cricket jersey, a photo with AB de Villiers at Kingsmead and a pavilion pass to the fifth day of the 2008 Chennai Test. However, my most prized cricketing possession is a simple piece of paper with a name written on it with a blue ball-point pen. And that name is Malcolm Marshall.Marshall was the most fearsome cricketer of my youth – a nightmare for opponents and an absolute terror to behold. I never saw Dennis Lillee or Jeff Thomson live. The great West Indies pace quartet of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft was before my time. I’ve also heard that the Indian spin quartet gave visiting batsmen sleepless nights. But I never saw any of those famous spinners in action, either. Viv Richards was the most intimidating batsman of my youth. He could pummel the ball and shatter a bowler’s ego, but he wasn’t out to cause you bodily harm. Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Ian Botham were all tremendously skilled, but not scary. No, to me, the most intimidating cricketer of the 1980s was Marshall.It’s hard to describe to a modern cricket-viewer what a terror Marshall was. In this T20 age, with sculpted batsmen, gigantic bats and all kinds of protective gear, there really doesn’t seem to be that intimidating a bowler. Sure, they may be quicker. They are most definitely taller and stronger. But they all go at eight-an-over in the IPL. Somehow, it’s hard for a viewer to feel the palms getting clammy when batsmen are dancing down the track to fast bowlers and when the scorecard reports how many sixes a bowler has conceded. It’s a different era: there are impressive bowlers, but none that send shivers down a lay viewer’s spine.Marshall wasn’t physically intimidating. He was about the shortest West Indies fast bowler there ever was. He was athletic, but not the fittest bloke in the West Indies team, let alone in world cricket. He was quick, but there were quicker bowlers before him and there have been quicker bowlers since. He wasn’t verbally menacing. Indeed, he rarely said a word to an opponent on the field. Marshall’s intimidation was through sheer skill and attitude. It is hard to put that fear into words, but I’ll try. The fear was that if he had a ball in his hand and you had all the batting gear available on earth, he could still ping you between your eyes if he wanted to. And he often seemed like he wanted to. Mike Gatting knows what I’m talking about. If your nose was such an easy target, your wicket was simply no match for him.”There are no cricketers like those seen through 12-year-old eyes,” wrote cricketer and author Ian Peebles. I met Marshall when I was 12 years old. He was hardly seven or eight inches taller than me. I stood straight, out of sheer respect. He leaned casually against a desk, a black bag slung over his shoulder. Since we were almost level, I could look him straight in the eye. He had joyful, dancing eyes and a wide, lop-sided smile on his face. He didn’t have a ball in his hand, and I wasn’t holding a bat. There was no intimidation, even though he was the greatest fast bowler in the world and I was a gawky Indian kid.Malcolm Marshall’s autograph•ESPNcricinfo LtdHe carefully put down his bag, gently took the autograph book and pen from me with each hand, and proceeded to slowly write his name in the book. He didn’t carelessly scrawl his name. He didn’t look elsewhere as his hands moved. He looked squarely at the target. He pressed the pen firmly down on the book. No half measures: the right hand that smashed a one-handed boundary at Headingley in 1984 – one-handed because the left hand was broken and in a cast – and then took 7 for 53 with the ball didn’t do half measures.Marshall’s autograph wasn’t a scribble: his handwriting was proud and neat. The autograph was so firmly signed, I couldn’t use the next page of the book because his writing got etched on that one as well. This, too, was reminiscent of his bowling. When he blew one batsman away, the next one entered the field shell-shocked, the previous ball etched in his mind. Ravi Shastri, who once walked in to face the ball after Yashpal Sharma retired hurt, knows what I’m talking about.Marshall returned the autograph book and pen, saying, “You’re welcome,” in response to my thanks. Still smiling widely, and lop-sidedly. If his autograph was reminiscent of his bowling, his manner was its exact opposite: slow and gentle. That evening, I showed my father the autograph book, with Marshall’s name slanting across the page, much like his bowling run-up. My father ran his fingers over the two heavily stressed capital s and remarked, “He puts more effort into his autograph than you put into your cricket practices!”Years later, my sister got an autograph from the great Carnatic classical singer MS Subbulakshmi, who was over 80 years old at the time. Her autograph reminded me of Marshall’s: it was meticulously inscribed, gouging a deep rut in the paper and in a handwriting so neat that it could have been print. My sister was, to borrow a phrase, bowled over by how polite and gentle the great singer had been to a teenaged girl.A decade after he signed my autograph book, Marshall was no more. He died of colon cancer at just 41 years of age. It was so sad that the most fearsome cricketer of his era was reduced to 25 kilos in the days preceding his death. I tried to imagine what a fully-grown man weighing 25 kilos looks like. Let alone wield a cricket bat or a 5.5oz ball, I imagined he might not have been able to write his full name with a pen. Never mind immaculate control over line and length, seam and swing.Nobody in the past 20 years has gotten an autograph from the late, great Malcolm Marshall, and nobody ever will again. My drawer of memorabilia might get another t-shirt or a tie with some logo or the other. Maybe someday a picture with Sachin Tendulkar or Shane Warne might be added to it. But its most precious contents will always remain that old piece of paper with the two blue Ms pressed deep into it.

He often bats within himself nowadays, but he plays that role for a specific reason and does it brilliantly

Mohammad Isam25-Jan-2021Tamim Iqbal’s strike rate is the sacrifice he makes for his team’s needs, and he’s been doing it for over a decade now.Tamim spent 28 overs at the crease during the third ODI against West Indies. He made 64, and was one of four half-centurions in Bangladesh’s innings. His strike rate, over 80 balls, was 80.00. He hit three fours and a six.Those numbers aren’t those of a dasher, someone who goes after the bowling whenever he pleases, someone whose dismissal won’t have a major impact on his team’s position or the mood of his dressing room.Those numbers, instead, are those of a senior opening batsman performing a specific role in the side, a batsman who can set a platform to allow the middle-order batsmen to play their shots. It’s the role Tamim has played for a number of years now, but it hasn’t always received the appreciation of the wider public. There’s an expectation that he should bat in a more carefree manner, especially with all the strokeplayers around him who have scored at attractive strike rates especially over the last couple of years.Last year, after Tamim made 24 off 43 balls in the first ODI against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh’s then batting coach Neil McKenzie explained why his role was so important to the team. In the following two games, Tamim made 158 and an unbeaten 128, finishing with 100-plus strike rates in both innings. But his starts are usually watchful, and he usually denies himself the license the likes of Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar have to express themselves freely.That role, of going hard at the bowling right from the start, used to be Tamim’s early in his career. It’s likely he himself has forgotten when he stopped being that sort of batsman and became the responsible senior.Tamim Iqbal drives against the spin•AFP via Getty ImagesIt was important Tamim played himself in even in a game of little consequence like the third ODI against West Indies, because Bangladesh lost Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto by the ninth over. Using all their experience, Tamim and Shakib Al Hasan added 93 runs for the third wicket, which ensured that those coming next, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, had the security of a solid start, and enough tiredness in the bowlers’ and fielders’ legs, to go for quick runs.In the 22 overs following Tamim’s dismissal, Bangladesh smashed 166 runs, to finish on a formidable 297 for 6. They eventually won by a whopping 120 runs, and while the rapid half-centuries of Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah deserve a large share of the credit for that margin of victory, it’s important to acknowledge the foundation laid by Tamim as well. That platform needed to be built from scratch. It is not a pretty job, but it’s a vital one, particularly in a team like Bangladesh whose top order, Tamim apart, isn’t always the most durable.This plan came into being under Mashrafe Mortaza back in 2015, and it has worked more often than not. It wasn’t the duty of any one of the top three to play this anchor role. It was always Tamim who was marked out to bat through as many overs as he could, and ensure he passed the baton to one of the three senior middle-order batsmen.Among the 36 ODIs in which Tamim has scored at least 50 and Bangladesh have gone on to win, 22 have come in the last six years.It wasn’t always like this for Tamim. In 2007, he was marked out as the big-hitting opener who could take advantage of the first powerplay. His breakout innings against India during the 2007 World Cup, involved a lot of hoicking and stand-and-deliver shots, but he has come a long way from that version of himself.A quick look at the revolving door of his opening partners and the unstable No. 3 position over the years will also tell you why Tamim has had to cut down on his free-flowing strokeplay, and bat more responsibly. If Tamim hadn’t done so, it may not have hurt him too much at an individual level, but Bangladesh may have remained a more mercurial side.Successive coaches since Jamie Siddons, under whom Tamim evolved considerably as an opener, have always relied on him to provide early solidity. Under Chandika Hathurusingha, a mature Tamim guided the ODI, Test and T20I line-ups with a mix of caution and aggression.This method has gained even more importance in the last three years as a string of batsmen have failed to hold on to their positions in the top order. It forced Steve Rhodes, who was Bangladesh’s coach from 2018 to 2019, to agree with Shakib and promote him to No. 3 during the 2019 World Cup. The decision was a raging success, but the fact that Russell Domingo, the current coach, wanted Shakib to bat at No 4 suggests Bangladesh still feel the need for a sturdier middle order.Tamim finishes his first ODI series as the designated, non-temporary captain with scores of 44, 50 and 64, and though they came against a feeble West Indies side, all his contributions have been significant. It is unlikely that the current or any future team management would let him go back to his old style, and while that may cause some of his fans to heave a nostalgic sigh, they’ll come to understand why he’s put away some of the flashy shots of his youth.

Dawid Malan could be set for a longer run while Eoin Morgan needs to catalyse his team into action

Andrew Miller03-May-2021Moeen Ali More unobtrusive excellence from a liberated player. Moeen picked off 15 free-flowing runs from eight balls against the Sunrisers Hyderabad to ensure there would be no loss of momentum after a 129-run opening stand between Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis, then he lumped five sixes in a 36-ball 58 against the Mumbai Indians, which ought to have been ample until Kieron Pollard got busy in an extraordinary 219-run chase.In between whiles, his offspin has been a quietly vital weapon in MS Dhoni’s armoury – three more overs this week, including an exceptional piece of matching-up against Mumbai: one over, one run, one wicket as the dangerous Quinton de Kock chipped a return catch into his midriff. Any more of this, and England will have no option but to take note for the T20 World Cup.Sam CurranTo borrow a phrase from Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, Sam Curran is a f***ing mentality giant. Nothing else can explain his insatiable lust for the sharp end of IPL combat – never better exemplified than his heroics against Mumbai, which could have won the game twice over had the support been there from his team-mates, with the ball and in the field alike. With Pollard running riot in his extraordinary 87 not out from 34 balls, Curran nailed his yorkers with extraordinary poise, prising out Krunal Pandya to a plumb lbw while conceding just two runs in his third over, the 17th of the innings.Then, in arguably an even more pronounced display of cojones, he battled back from being bashed for back-to-back sixes in the 19th over to claim two for three in his next four balls. Had Pollard not been on strike with 16 left to get, it would have been the game’s decisive contribution. As if that wasn’t enough fun for one week, he secured intra-squad bragging rights in the England camp by bouncing out the Sunrisers’ Jonny Bairstow.Jos ButtlerIt’s a debate that has been in slight abeyance since the injury to Ben Stokes, but if there were any lingering doubts about Jos Buttler’s value as a T20 opener, they were emphatically scotched against the Sunrisers this week. It has taken him the small matter of 282 matches to reach his maiden 20-over century, but he made it worth the wait in a brutal 124 from 64 balls.It’s true, there are few players in the world with Buttler’s finishing powers – his last 74 runs came from an eye-popping (and wrist-cocking 25 balls) as he slammed sixes at will with that inimitable crack of the bottom hand – but in toughing it out at the top to reach a 39-ball fifty, he also laid himself a platform that lesser players might not have managed. He showed the early glimpses of a return to his best form in making 41 from 32 balls against Mumbai, before being done in flight by Rahul Chahar. But in setting up a vital win that has vaulted the Royals from the bottom of the table to fifth, Buttler may have hit top gear at the perfect moment for his injury-plagued side.Jonny BairstowIt’s been a pretty terrible week for the Sunrisers. You suspect that the fall-out from the axing of David Warner as captain has only just begun, particularly after Sunday’s crushing loss to the Royals. But Bairstow’s form at the top of the order has been one of their few saving graces this season, even if he struggled to produce his best this week. Sam Curran had his number against Chennai. It was always asking a lot for Bairstow to match Buttler’s impact in the clash with the Royals, even if his 30 from 21 balls seemed to have got his side on the right track until he holed out to long-on. If the Sunrisers are to haul themselves off the base of the table, Bairstow and his new captain Kane Williamson may need to strike up a bromance to rival what he once enjoyed with his deposed leader.Eoin MorganHarsh words were spoken after the Kolkata Knight Riders slumped to their fifth defeat in seven against the Delhi Capitals on Thursday, with coach Brendon McCullum particularly critical of a becalmed top order that had creaked along at barely a run-a-ball in the first 10 overs of their innings – a platform that didn’t exactly allow Morgan to die wondering as he gave himself room off his second ball and slapped a flat slog to long-off for a duck. Nevertheless, it was another non-contribution from a skipper who’s struggling to get his no-fear message across to his players.Eoin Morgan returned to form against the Punjab Kings but his team hasn’t found momentum yet•BCCI/IPLAt least he can take personal credit for KKR’s second win of the campaign earlier in the week, after coming in at 17 for 3 in the third over against the Punjab Kings, and anchoring a chase of 124 with 47 not out from 40 balls. Therein lies a truth about Morgan’s preferred approach to T20 cricket. If you’re going to malfunction at the top, at least do so quickly enough for your team-mates to bail you out.Dawid Malan… which brings us to Malan’s long-awaited T20 bow, a run-a-ball 26 for the Kings against the Capitals that inadvertently encapsulated all of the concerns for England’s incumbent No.3. His low-octane approach often comes off in the closing overs, but when it doesn’t, it adds up to a whole lot of not a lot – on this occasion, a Kings’ scoreline of 87 for 3 in the 14th over that never looked like being enough, even after Mayank Agarwal had turned on the afterburners in a brilliant 99 from 58 balls. Malan got his chance due to KL Rahul’s untimely bout of appendicitis, which suggests it may not be a one-off. His next few outings could be very instructive, especially given Moeen’s polar opposite approach in a similar role.Chris JordanJordan has had to bide his time for the Kings, but his introduction to the line-up for three matches this week has been a qualified success. He played a low-key but vital role in the Kings’ victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore, serving up his four overs for 31 including a purposeful post-powerplay over that built on an aggressive opening gambit from the seamers, while against KKR, he was the only batter in the entire line-up to strike at above 100, as he thumped 30 from 18 balls from No. 8 in an otherwise flat-lining innings.The four remaining England players at this year’s IPL – Chris Woakes, Sam Billings, Tom Curran and Jason Roy – have spent another week bench-warming, although the one who might be closest to a call-up is Roy, given that Warner is out in the cold for the Sunrisers, and that the temptation to reunite his mighty white-ball partnership with Bairstow must be compelling. Not just yet… Manish Pandey got the gig against the Royals, but watch this space.

Matt Roller intrepidly returns to the stands to sample the unlocked atmosphere

Matt Roller12-Jun-2021Countless column inches have been filled in the last 15 months about the prospect of a ‘new normal’ but at Edgbaston this week it has felt as though the old one has returned.7,000 fans per day returned to Lord’s last week, making the first Test England’s first home fixture played in front of supporters since the 2019 Ashes, but with three-quarters of seats still empty and the others filled primarily by becalmed MCC members, there was something missing in the spectacle.Not so in Birmingham. Around 18,000 people have been allowed into every day of the second Test, meaning the ground is roughly 70% full, and they have made themselves known through beer snakes, giant inflatables, fancy dress and football chants. Matt Henry, the New Zealand seamer, described the notorious Eric Hollies Stand as “electric” at the close on Thursday: “It was some impressive energy,” he added.There are times when the press pack take the benefits of the job for granted but the pandemic has been a welcome reminder of them, not least during England’s bio-secure summer when only a dozen or so reporters were granted access to grounds which were otherwise sealed off. The atmosphere at behind-closed-doors fixtures has been eerie but it is a privileged position to experience it in the first place.And yet… there is nothing quite like leaving your laptop in the hotel and being at live sport as a fan. Saturday was my first time in the stands – rather than the press box – since a midweek trip to Fratton Park for Arsenal’s fifth-round FA Cup tie against Portsmouth last March. A group of nine of us from university had booked our tickets on a whim back in February with no expectation of them being valid four months later, but here we were, filtering in to take our seats in the West Lower alongside a pack of human crayons, a cabal of Egyptian pharaohs and a quartet of Cool Britannia-clad Geri Halliwells.Fans in fancy dress take their seats in the stands•PA Images via Getty ImagesOther than a tremendous thirst, there is only one key requirement for spectators at Edgbaston this week: proof of a negative lateral flow test, taken within 24 hours of their arrival at the ground, which must be shown along with a ticket. With the match serving as a pilot in the government’s Events Research Programme, they were also sent two PCR tests and encouraged to take one on the morning of their attendance, and another five days after.Masks are encouraged when fans leave their seats, though the stewarding has been refreshingly even-handed, and social distancing is not required inside the ground. A consent form, agreeing to participate in the programme, was also required, though Under-16s were deemed unable to provide it and therefore not permitted to attend.Warwickshire have taken welcome steps to improve the fan experience, too: the Edgbaston app has replaced physical ticket stubs and also enables click-and-collect food and drink. With the ground now fully cashless, the only item required throughout the day is a smartphone.Graeme Swann once said that the Edgbaston crowd was “louder than any Premier League game” I’ve been to and they have done their best to maintain a football feel this week, ahead of England’s first Euro 2020 fixture on Sunday. A Gareth Southgate lookalike ran round the Hollies waving a St George’s cross on Friday afternoon, and Baddiel and Skinner’s has echoed throughout. Harry Maguire, the Manchester United centre-back, played cricket as a teenager but could never have guessed a chant about the size of his head (f***ing massive, since you’re asking) would prove so popular at a Test match.Related

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Fielders on the midwicket or cover boundary in front of the Hollies have to contend with relentless ribbing from the crowd. Neil Wagner played along on Thursday, waving on request and grinning back at them, while Will Young – who shares his name with the winner of the inaugural series of – was greeted with a chant of “there’s only one Gareth Gates” (Young’s namesake edged Gates into second place).Not everything has been as good-natured. While it was heartening – not least in light of football fans’ boos when England take a knee before kick-off – to hear warm applause in the ‘moment of unity’ on the first morning, some took pride in singing Ollie Robinson’s name as the investigation into his racist and sexist tweets continued, and the reported that at least two stewards were injured by drunk fans on Friday. The lowlight was a pitch invader during a drinks break – stupid at the best of times, but with the players still living in a ‘secure team environment’, potentially fatal for the series.But the vast majority has been harmless fun, and has felt like a fitting celebration of the reengagement between players and supporters. Newspaper headlines this morning suggested that the Great Unlock, initially pencilled in for June 21, could be pushed back by a full month – which would have a profound effect on the finances of counties, who have sold tickets to England’s white-ball fixtures and the second half of the T20 Blast group stages at full capacity. Further reason, then, to cherish the Birmingham buzz.