Wayanad’s star has walked a difficult path to get to the big stage, and she made it count

Shashank Kishore24-Feb-20242:32

Yastika Bhatia: ‘Sajana is the Kieron Pollard of MI women’s team’

She has a degree in Political Science. She’s featured in a Tamil film as a support artist. She was football captain of Wayanad district in Kerala in her teenage years, and a track-and-field champion in college. And on Friday night, S Sajana announced herself on the cricket field with a sensational first-ball act in the 2024 WPL season opener at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.As Sajana swung powerfully and cleared the long-on boundary with Mumbai Indians needing five runs off the final delivery, Biju George sat in the Delhi Capitals dugout soaking in an emotional moment that may have been bittersweet.Biju, a renowned state coach in Kerala, has seen Sajana travel an arduous path from Wayanad where she once was also a cricket-throws champion. Modelled on shot-put, the competition at her school rewarded those who threw a cricket ball farthest. Sajana impressed local cricket coaches with her athleticism and, in 2013, she was invited to train at Wayanad’s residential women’s academy run by the Kerala Cricket Association, with Biju overseeing the camps. More than a decade later Biju, now the Capitals’ fielding coach, watched Sajana beat his team.Related

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Sajana’s career had been on the upswing until disaster struck in 2018. Only three weeks before the floods in Kerala washed away her home, Sajana had scored the fastest hundred in age-group women’s cricket in India, which earned her a call-up to a women’s NCA camp.The year before, she had led Kerala Under-23 to the inter-state T20 title, leading to a call-up to the senior Kerala team when she trained once again under Biju. She was named KCA’s women’s player of the year two years in a tow.S Sajana roars in delight after slamming her first ball – the last of the innings – for six to take Mumbai Indians home•BCCIBut when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, it set Sajana – like it did many others – back.Sajana’s father, Sanjeevan, an autorickshaw driver in the scenic Wayanad hills didn’t have much of an income due to pandemic restrictions, especially with tourism in the region coming to a standstill. Her mother, Sarada, worked at the municipality in Mananthavady. The lack of a regular income was tough on the family.At this time, Sajana received assistance from Nazir Machan, secretary of the Wayanad District Cricket Association, who let her stay at KCA’s residential facility free of cost so that her cricket training would be unaffected by the pandemic.”Sajana was a natural athlete, so there was never a question of her having to put in more hours on her fitness,” Nazir told ESPNcricinfo. “She only needed guidance, which she got when she joined the KCA academy. She made use of the opportunities to excel even though there were numerous hardships like losing her home.”Ahead of WPL 2024, Sajana trialled with three franchises. Biju had even recommended her to Capitals, who couldn’t bid at the auction because they had exhausted their purse. Sajana had also been to trials with Mumbai and Gujarat Giants, and eventually got bought by Mumbai for INR 15 lakh.Sajana’s first act on the field on Friday night was the stuff of nightmares: she dropped a sitter at point with Alice Capsey on 72. Shabnim Ismail, the bowler, vented her frustration.Her shot at redemption came in the final act of the game. Sajana had no time for sighters. With five to get off the last ball, she swung, and smacked it straight out of the middle.”She’s like the Kieron Pollard of our women’s team,” Yastika Bhatia said after the match. “She has that role [of a finisher]. Credit to her. She has got an inspiring story. She has come from a humble background and we’re very happy and proud. Her family would be really proud she hit that six.”Sajana’s six showcased what the WPL can offer in India. In one ball, Sajana went from being an unknown woman cricketer who’d toiled for a decade to the person who ensured the WPL’s champions began their title defence with a thrilling victory on an evening of high drama and glamour.

In the absence of Harmanpreet and Ismail, the Mumbai Indians allrounder steered the ship well to take down RCB

Ashish Pant03-Mar-20242:15

Takeaways: Win toss, win games? Contrasting days for Devine and Sciver-Brunt

Regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur still not fit? Frontline fast bowler Shabnim Ismail also not available? A packed stadium rooting for the home team? No problem said Nat-Sciver Brunt as she marshalled the Mumbai Indians side with aplomb, silencing the M Chinnaswamy crowd, and on the way seeing her side catapult to the top of the WPL 2024 points table.Long before Amelia Kerr caressed a Georgia Wareham delivery through point to ace Mumbai’s 132-run chase in 15.1 overs, Sciver-Brunt had laid the foundation for the win, through her captaincy and all-round play.Right from the toss which Mumbai won and elected to field, Sciver-Brunt barely put a foot wrong. It couldn’t have been easy. With two of the most prominent names missing from the playing XI, she had a tough initiation to WPL captaincy against UP Warriorz, with Mumbai going down by seven wickets.Related

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Sciver-Brunt didn’t have a lot of time to reflect on the loss – just two days – and with Harmanpreet and Ismail still missing, back she was at the helm. This time though, she looked much more settled and in control from the get-go. Most of the surfaces so far in the WPL have shown a tendency to get better to bat on as the night progresses. Sciver-Brunt knew wickets would be key, so off she went ringing in the changes, in the hopes of preventing the batters from getting into rhythm.Mumbai employed four different bowlers in the first six overs. There were mostly just one-over spells with no one getting more than two at any point in the game. And the plan worked. Issy Wong sent back Smriti Mandhana in the third over with Sciver-Brunt taking a smart catch back-peddling from extra cover. The captain herself trapped S Meghana with an excellent bouncer and by the time the powerplay was done, RCB had already lost three wickets with their run rate below six an over.Barring Ellyse Perry (44) and to an extent Wareham (27), none of the RCB batters looked settled at any stage. And the credit for that should go to how well Sciver-Brunt shuffled the bowlers around and the bowlers themselves for responding to her tactics. She later returned to end the Perry-Wareham stand as well, finishing with 2 for 27 off her four overs as RCB were restricted to 131 for 6.2:38

Amelia Kerr: Nat’s been amazing in ‘incredible’ Harmanpreet’s absence

“You don’t want to bowl too many in a row apart from at the start of the game when a bowler might be swinging it, you don’t want to get lined up too much,” Sciver-Brunt said after the match. “We reviewed the game [that they lost to UP Warriorz] really the other day and put some things right today. That was a pretty complete performance from our side today and we are pretty happy in the camp.”Wong also echoed her captain’s statement about how continuous changes in bowling disrupt a batter’s rhythm.”I feel it is easier as a bowler because you never really get a chance for someone to line you up,” Wong said. “Especially in this short format, we’ve seen people bowl really good first overs, come back and bowl again and it is easier to get lined up having bowled two in a row. I think that definitely helps us bowlers, the batters don’t necessarily have that continuity.”With job done with the ball, it was now time for Sciver-Brunt the batter to shine. She came in at the fall of Yastika Bhatia’s wicket, with Mumbai already off to a flyer. Sciver-Brunt got off the mark with a cheeky reverse paddle past short third before square-driving Sophie Devine past point as Mumbai raced to 60 for 1 in their powerplay.Thereon, it was more about taking her side as close to the finishing line as possible for Sciver-Brunt. She found an ally in Kerr, who found boundaries at regular intervals while the captain was happy to turn the strike over. The duo added 49 off 35 balls for the third wicket and by the time Sciver-Brunt fell for 27, victory was only 14 runs away.Kerr, who finished the chase and ended up with an unbeaten 24-ball 40, was effusive in praise of the way Sciver-Brunt led Mumbai in Harmanpreet’s absence.”Nat has been amazing. Obviously, Harman has been an incredible leader for Mumbai. For Nat to step up the way she has, has been outstanding,” Kerr said. “She has captained England before in games and she has got a great way about it. She is very level and calm and has a good cricket brain.”I thought tonight was exceptional as well. It’s been great. We are obviously looking to having Harman back too. She is key for Mumbai, but Nat has done a great job and I think that is the beauty of this team is that everything is so seamless, and we just get on with it.”Sciver-Brunt was the fulcrum behind Mumbai’s title win in WPL 2023, with runs and wickets aplenty. Now, armed with the added responsibility of being stand-in captain, she remains undeterred. She might not be in as flawless a form as she was last season, but her presence and cricketing smarts will be essential in Mumbai’s quest to add another silverware to their cabinet.

Kolkata Knight Riders put together a near-perfect campaign to win their third IPL title

Sampath Bandarupalli26-May-20242:30

Was this the most commanding title win in IPL history?

3 – IPL titles won by Kolkata Knight Riders, in 2012, 2014 and 2024. Only Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have won more titles – five each.3 – Matches lost by KKR in IPL 2024, the fewest by a team in any IPL season, along with Rajasthan Royals (RR) in 2008.57 – Balls remaining when KKR finished the chase in the IPL 2024 final against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) – the biggest in an IPL playoff game. The previous biggest was KKR’s win with 38 balls in hand in Qualifier 1 against SRH in Ahmedabad.Related

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113 – SRH’s total in the final against KKR is the lowest in an IPL final. The previous lowest was 125 for 9 by CSK against MI in IPL 2013.6 – Matches in which KKR bowled their opponents out this season – the most by a team in a single edition of the IPL. The previous highest was four, by MI in 2008 and 2010.1.17 – The ratio between KKR’s run rate with the bat and economy rate with the ball this season is the highest for any team in an IPL season. They bettered MI, who had a ratio of 1.14 in IPL 2020. KKR’s run rate in IPL 2024 – 10.71 – is the best for any team in an IPL season.1 – Mitchell Starc is the first player to be named Player of the Match twice in the playoffs of an IPL season. He won the award in Qualifier 1 and in the final, both against SRH.1:09

Moody: Difference between KKR and SRH became evident tonight

3 – Number of times Sunil Narine has won the MVP award in the IPL – in 2012, 2018 and 2024. He is the first to win the award three times, surpassing Shane Watson and Andre Russell, who won twice each.24 – Number of balls Venkatesh Iyer took for his fifty, making it the joint-fastest in an IPL final. Suresh Raina against MI in IPL 2010 and David Warner against RCB in IPL 2016 also had 24-ball fifties in the final.4 – Fifty-plus scores for Venkatesh in five IPL playoff matches. Only Raina (seven in 24 innings) has more fifty-plus scores in IPL playoffs.4 – Players with multiple ducks in the playoffs in an IPL edition, including Travis Head in 2024.

The slinger supreme casts an approving eye over Nuwan Thushara and Matheesha Pathirana, two bowlers cast in his image

Andrew Fidel Fernando21-May-2024Lasith Malinga, not renowned for his exuberant joy, is a little bit giddy. Or at least the closest he gets to being giddy.He is reflecting on two young bowlers who modelled their actions on his own crazy roundarm bowling having made Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup squad. He’s been coaching Nuwan Thushara at Mumbai Indians over the past two months; Matheesha Pathirana he’d worked with before.”I can’t tell you how happy it makes me,” he says.And then… oh my… was that a giggle? From ?Related

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“In the T20 format you are always talking about the yorker because that’s the ball that stops sixes from happening. To have two bowlers who can bowl yorkers like the two of them can in the same tournament? That’s crazy. That’s absolutely mad.”Since Malinga made the yorker his signature delivery at the very start of his career, it has long been thought that roundarm bowlers are especially suited to bowling the yorker.The theory goes like this: where conventional bowlers’ higher trajectories mean that if they miss the blockhole, batters can use the depth of the crease to get under the ball, roundarm bowlers and their lower trajectories have a much greater margin of error when bowling full.Right through Malinga’s own career, a low full toss was almost as good a ball for him as his pinpoint yorkers, though this was also because of the reverse swing he often generated at the death.Pathirana: deadly at the death•Matheesha Pathirana/AFP/Getty ImagesSo far this is playing out in Pathirana’s career as well. Since January 2022, his economy rate of 8.13 when bowling yorkers, full tosses or full deliveries is the third best among fast bowlers who have bowled a minimum of 300 deliveries. (Fazalhaq Farooqi and Jasprit Bumrah are Nos. 1 and 2.) Thushara’s economy of 9.57 isn’t quite up there with the best when going full, but it’s not terrible either.”It’s the first time in my life I’m seeing one country have resources like this,” Malinga said. I think [Sri Lanka’s] bowling line-up is the best in the world.”If he’s getting carried away here, it’s not difficult to understand why. No bowler had ever done what he did at the international level, and now two from the country are. Pakistan have Malinga-style bowlers too, Zaman Khan being chief among them. There may be more in the pipeline.”I saw that there was someone at Under-19 level that was bowling like this, as well as a young bowler from Jaffna who was the same. And I’m even getting scolded that too many bowlers like me are coming through,” Malinga laughs.”But if they have the talent to play well at this level, what can I do? I’m so happy if they come through. I’ll teach them everything I know about my art!” “Thushara needs on-field management”
Of the two bowlers, Malinga says, Thushara is the most like him. “He swings the new ball into the left-hander, and swings it nicely away from the right-hander. He’s got a nice slower ball, which doesn’t quite have the dip mine did, but it’s good.Malinga: “I’m even getting scolded that too many bowlers like me are coming through!”•AFP”And in addition to that, he’s got a good yorker. Right now at training, he’s got good control of the wide yorker and the straight yorker.”Thushara has had a decent IPL, in a rough season for bowlers. In seven outings he has taken eight wickets and conceded runs at 9.88 an over. His start to his international career has been better – 11 wickets from eight games. In the last series he played, against Bangladesh, Thushara pulled off that classic Malinga feat – taking a hat-trick, as he collected figures of 5 for 20.”He’s a match-winning bowler, first of all,” Malinga says of Thushara, “But when he goes into the match, he sometimes gets a little confused about how to set his field. It could be because he hasn’t played enough at this level. He’s only played a handful of internationals.”Because of that, when the team is making plans for him, the captain has to be right there with him. The captain needs to know what types of balls he’s trying to bowl, so he can set the field according to that. Even if we as coaches tell him to bowl a certain way, if the captain is not there, it doesn’t work.”A player who doesn’t have a lot of experience is one that hasn’t built up a lot of confidence with his captain. If the captain is there in the meeting – if Wanindu Hasaranga is there, or the wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis is there – then they know what plans he’s made, where’s he’s going to bowl and what field he needs. If that happens, even with an inexperienced player, the captain and the wicketkeeper have the ability to adjust his fields.Thushara, second from left, in the game where he took a hat-trick, and four wickets in two overs. Malinga says the presence of Thushara and Pathirana in the line-up gives Sri Lanka the best bowling attack in the world•AFP/Getty Images”After the sixth over, you have to tell him to bowl three or four yorkers every over. What happens then is that you can’t hit sixes off those deliveries. If they are trying to get a wicket, the main weapon is the slower ball. He can bowl that at a wider line because that’s where the field is. The wicketkeeper, captain, and bowler need to all be on the same page about that.”He’s got the weapons. He’s got a perfect slower ball. He can bowl the slower yorker and the slower length ball, and I’ve helped him hone those. But he doesn’t have the experience yet to use them. If he can get a bit of guidance, he’s a deadly bowler. I’d definitely play him in this team, and give him two powerplay overs, and two at the death.”Pathirana’s “big heart”
Where it’s Thushara’s higher arm action and higher wrist that allow him to get early swing, Pathirana’s arm comes around even lower than Malinga’s, making him better suited to the middle and late overs. This is exactly where Chennai Super Kings have used him across the last two seasons.His improved control – especially when bowling yorkers – and rapid pace (he has frequently breached 150kph this IPL) have made him one of the most penetrative death bowlers in the competition.”Matheesha, without any fears you can bring him in the last stages of an innings,” Malinga says.”Even through the middle overs, if we want to unsettle batters, if we want to bowl short balls, if we want to bowl fast yorkers in the middle in tandem with a spinner – that’s an opportunity too. He doesn’t bowl with the new ball much, so you can use him in the middle for wickets.The math works out: “If in the last four overs one of [Thushara and Pathirana] bowls eight yorkers and the other bowls eight more, that’s 16 balls you can’t hit for six,” Malinga says•Ashwini Bhatia/Associated Press”If you have Wanindu bowling from one side, and Matheesha from the other, both are wicket-taking bowlers. If Wanindu locks up one side, batters know they have to score against Matheesha. Then there’s a big chance of getting batters out”Pathirana was actually among the top wicket-takers in the IPL this year, having taken 13 wickets from six matches, He arrived at the tournament slightly late, and had his season cut short by a hamstring injury. Sri Lanka hope he’ll be fit to start the World Cup.”His biggest weapons are his pace and his yorker, and he had a bit of an injury and he dropped pace a bit, so we’ll have to see how he recovers from that,” Malinga says.”But the biggest thing I see with Matheesha is his big heart. He’s very positive in the match. Those aren’t things we can teach him. Those are things he’s got naturally. Even in the year he first came into the IPL, he didn’t have any fear, or any doubts.”If you tell him this is what we need at this time, he has the ability to do that. He’s got the ability to make a decision. He’s quite clear in his thinking.”Could we see him bowl the death overs in tandem with Thushara?”If you get him set with Nuwan Thushara – it’s the first time in my life that I would see two yorker bowlers like them operating together. If in the last four overs one of them bowls eight yorkers and the other bowls eight more, that’s 16 balls you can’t hit for six. That’s the first time I’ve seen potential like that in my life. I don’t know what the selectors will do.”

Despite these qualities, Sri Lanka are yet to fully realise his ODI potential

Madushka Balasuriya24-Oct-2024Drift, dip and turn, these are the main attributes one would associate with spin bowling. Then at times there is pace, which is added to the mix when variations such as arm balls come into play. West Indies’ Gudakesh Motie, for example, has an excellent quicker one, bursting through flat and straight clocking in at around 100kph. But what do you get when you combine all these?Well, Alick Athanaze might have the answer. It was just his third ball in the second ODI against Sri Lanka – the first he faced from Maheesh Theekshana – but in terms of how he might have dealt with it, it wouldn’t have mattered even if it were the hundredth.Coming from around the wicket, Theekshana tossed it up, pitched it on middle, drew the batter in with the flight and then deceived him with some dip, before ripping it past the forward defence to peg back the off stump. A textbook offspinner’s dismissal – oh except, it was flung down at 96kph. Drift, dip, turn and pace, these are the main attributes, yes, but rarely – if ever – have they been woven together to such devastating effect.Related

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Okay, cards on the table. This Pallekele pitch was primed for spin. This is a genuine caveat in most cases when it comes to spinners wreaking havoc on opposition batters, but to compare this Theekshana effort to, say, Charith Asalanka running roughshod over India earlier in the year would be to do a great disservice.Yes, Theekshana had conditions to his liking, but there are few – if any – other spinners in world cricket that could have exploited them as devastatingly as he so expertly did.Athanaze’s dismissal might have been spectacular enough were it simply a one-off magic delivery, but across the West Indian innings Theekshana time and again got the ball – particularly his offbreak – to turn at speeds touching 100kph.Wanindu Hasaranga and Dunith Wellalage also got turn, but at much slower speeds, while Motie clocked similar velocity without the same level of venom. Theekshana, simply put, was out on his own, one of one.Keacy Carty, his second victim, even had the benefit of a virtual mulligan, though it made little difference. The first was a sharp, turning offbreak at 97kph, one that in this instance owed more to the rough outside the right-hander’s off stump, as it surprised Carty when he was shaping up to cut. Sri Lanka reviewed the lbw shout, but were shot down by virtue of the impact being outside the line. However, the very next delivery – another quick turning offbreak – left Carty looking back at his battered off stump perplexed, unsure how exactly that one had snuck past his back-foot punch.Theekshana’s final scalp was courtesy his trademark carrom ball, as Hayden Walsh Jr’s attempt at a reverse sweep was comfortably countered by one that was quick, flat and straight as Theekshana rattled the stumps for a third time in the game.Theekshana unsurprisingly took home the Player-of-the-Match award for his 3 for 25 from nine overs, but what was surprising was that he was not even supposed to play on Wednesday. His inclusion had been a late one, as rain intervened between the side leaving the hotel and the toss taking place, so his extra pace was deemed more valuable than Jeffrey Vandersay’s more traditional legspin.Perhaps, this oversight is down to the fact that Theekshana himself doesn’t offer the same sort of headline quality of Sri Lanka’s other spin options. His career up-to-date has been far from prolific – 60 wickets in 44 ODIs, and 54 in 55 T20Is – so it’s rare to see him run through a side, or portend to turn a losing game into a winning one. He has instead long been seen as a containment option first and a wicket-taker second.His economy rate speaks quite clearly to this. In ODIs it’s 4.61, in T20Is it’s 6.76, and in this game it was a quite excellent 2.77, with 40 of the 54 deliveries he bowled being dots – the most in the game. But what he also offers is unparalleled utility; in T20Is, it’s not uncommon to see him utilised in the powerplay, in the middle overs, or even at the death – a place where most spinners dare tread. He has even got an LPL Super Over under his belt.Despite these qualities, Sri Lanka have yet to fully realise his ODI potential, leave alone in Tests – with it not unusual to see Theekshana as the odd man out at times.”He is a world-class bowler in the T20 format,” Asalanka had said after Sri Lanka’s win in the second ODI.At 24, Theekshana has already shown a tremendous appetite for improvement – even his batting is coming along – and if this trajectory continues, perhaps that qualifier won’t be necessary in the future.

Series decider will draw curtain on English Test forays in Asia until 2027

Matt Roller22-Oct-2024England’s men do not play another Test in Asia for more than two years after Rawalpindi. It will therefore act as a decider in more ways than one, not only dictating the result of a gripping three-match series in Pakistan, but also informing long-lasting judgement on just how well equipped, or otherwise, Ben Stokes and his team are to compete in the subcontinent.It is a quirk of the schedule that after 17 Tests in Asia over the last four years, England are not due to return in the next two. Their white-ball sides will be back regularly, including for next year’s Champions Trophy and the T20 World Cup in 2026, but their next Test tour is not until February 2027, in the form of a two-match series in Bangladesh.Since Stokes took over as captain two-and-a-half years ago, England’s record in Asia is an even one: five wins and five defeats, with one of those victories coming under Ollie Pope’s leadership. They are not the only team to have struggled in India over the last decade, losing 4-1 earlier this year, but a second successive win in Pakistan would put the shine on their subcontinent record.Related

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Rawalpindi was the scene of one of England’s greatest wins two years ago, when their batters racked up 506 for 4 in 75 overs on the first day of the series, before their bowlers’ skill and Stokes’ ingenuity enabled them to take 20 wickets on a lifeless surface. They are braced for a significantly different challenge this time around, which is reflected in their selection.Their side is radically different to any that they will pick in the next two years: Rehan Ahmed returns as one of three frontline spinners, while Stokes will act as the second seamer alongside Gus Atkinson. Pakistan’s groundstaff have put in every effort to create a turning pitch, with Stokes suggesting on Tuesday that “a few rakes” had been used, along with fans and heaters.”It looks like it will be a pretty decent wicket for the first couple of days,” Stokes said. “There’s not too much grass on it to hold it together, so the reasoning behind three spinners was, as the game progresses, that will probably come into the game… It was just weighing up who we think will be effective as the game goes on.”It’s pretty obvious there’s been a few rakes put across it… I’ve never been a groundsman, but you’d think a rake would assist the spin. You look down it, and we can have a good guess which ends the Pakistan spinners will operate from.” When asked if only one end had been raked, Stokes clarified: “No, both have – but there are certain areas.”While the grass was cut short on the strips either side of the playing surface in the second Test in Multan, there are only three pitches cut across the square in Rawalpindi this week. “With the outfield being like it was, lush and green, and not too much [on the] square to work with, we’ll probably struggle to get reverse-swing,” Stokes conceded.Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum inspect the pitch while the fans do their work•Getty ImagesPakistan’s approach towards pitch preparation in the last two weeks has raised some eyebrows: the decision to recycle the same strip in Multan was unprecedented, and groundstaff have gone to great lengths to tailor the surface in Rawalpindi to suit Sajid Khan and Noman Ali. But Stokes has declined opportunities to complain, delivering a simple verdict on Tuesday: “It’s good, innit?”Brendon McCullum believed that the toss skewed the second Test “65-35” in Pakistan’s favour, and it will be significant again in the third. “The toss, out in the subcontinent, plays a bigger role than anywhere in the world,” Stokes said. “[But] I don’t think we’re going to have as extreme conditions as the game goes on: it will be a day-one wicket when we start, not day six.”Historically, England tend to under-adjust to overseas conditions and find themselves wondering why their medium-pacers are ineffective on pitches without a blade of live grass on them. This year, they have been much more open-minded – as evidenced by Rehan’s inclusion as a wildcard third spin option, who they hope will create chances even if the pitch is flat.”Adding Rehan’s free spirit and desperation to change the game every time he’s got the ball in his hand is a massive bonus for us this week,” Stokes said, while discarding the relevance of his quiet season for Leicestershire. “Legspinners have an amazing ability to break a game open… You’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.”The decider also presents Stokes with a final chance for some time to shift perceptions around his batting in the subcontinent: his batting average in Asia is 27.22, his lowest on any continent, with his single century coming on a Rajkot road eight years ago. In eight innings in Pakistan, he is yet to score a fifty.His farcical dismissal in Multan disguised the fact he top-scored in England’s second innings, and was the only batter to find a successful method by relying almost exclusively on his sweeps and reverses. For all his inspirational leadership, Stokes has not scored a Test century for 16 months: with the series on the line, he will be desperate to end that run.The success of the McCullum-Stokes regime will ultimately be dictated by their results next year against India and Australia, but this third Test will go a long way towards determining their team’s reputation in Asia. When asked how important winning would be, Stokes gave a one-word answer: “Very.” For all that England want to entertain, they have a singular focus this week.

England seamer set to return to Asian Test conditions for first time in eight years

Matt Roller06-Oct-2024It is a phrase that most athletes use as a form of humble-brag, deferring to their impressive statistics to avoid sounding arrogant. Last year, Chris Woakes defied convention: “My away record speaks for itself,” he said, while conceding that his overseas Test career was probably over. With 36 wickets at 51.88 in 20 away Tests, he had a point.Yet 15 months later, Woakes finds himself preparing not only to play in England’s first Test against Pakistan, but to lead their bowling attack. He will have to battle scorching-hot conditions in Multan from Monday, where he will play his first away Test in two-and-a-half years and his first in Asia since 2016.It is a situation that few would have predicted when England last toured Pakistan two years ago, with James Anderson, Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood all thriving and Stuart Broad missing on paternity leave. But Anderson and Broad have retired, Robinson has been sidelined and Wood is injured – leaving Woakes recalled as the unlikely spearhead.Before Woakes travelled to Pakistan, he rowed back on some of his previous self-analysis, telling the that he believed some of the criticism of his overseas record had been unduly harsh in tone. “I know what I’m capable of,” he said. “The fact I’ve been selected suggests I’m pretty good and from a knowledge perspective, I have a wealth of it – more so now than ever in my career.”Related

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England’s rationale for selecting Woakes is multi-faceted. His inclusion is recognition of his performance in their home summer, and comes with the belief – or hope – that he is a more complete bowler than when he last toured. It is also priceless from a team construction perspective: in Ben Stokes’ absence, he is the only viable No. 7 in a team with five bowlers.Perhaps balance is the most relevant consideration. In India earlier this year, Stokes’ availability only as a specialist batter left England in a bind: without a bowling option in their squad who was a realistic option at No. 7, they had to compromise somewhere. Their batter-heavy balance left them so reliant on Joe Root’s offspin early in the series that his output with the bat suffered.Woakes had a lean series with the bat in England’s most recent series against Sri Lanka, averaging 9.20. He is probably one spot higher than ideal at No. 7, but his role is often about partnership batting and allowing the top six to maintain their natural tempo: stands of 106 and 52 with Jamie Smith this summer underlined his value in a hinge position.He will also continue to open the bowling – a role which should suit him much better than the one he has filled in the majority of his away Tests, as a change bowler behind Anderson and Broad. “He’ll get the opportunity with the new ball over here, which is something that he should enjoy a lot more,” Brendon McCullum, England’s coach, said on Sunday.