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ESPNcricinfo speaks to three of the world’s biggest cricket tour operators to find out how they’re coping with this unprecedented delay

Nagraj Gollapudi and Shashank Kishore26-Jun-2023On Tuesday, the ICC will announce the schedule for the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup. That is exactly 100 days from the start of the 10-team marquee event which will be played in India. It is an unprecedented delay in terms of the announcement of the schedule, which was prepared by the BCCI, the hosting board.With just about three months before the World Cup gets underway on October 5, how do fans look at this extreme delay in the schedule coming out? We posed that and other concerning questions to three of the biggest tour operators in the game from around the world.Chris Millard is the managing director of the Barmy Army. Rakesh Patel is the founder of the Bharat Army. Luke Gillian has been following the Australian men’s team all around the world since 1995 and runs Australian Cricket Tours.

What is the biggest challenge of the schedule being released so late?

Rakesh Patel: For a travelling fan, if you’re planning a holiday, you normally plan months in advance. Now, in this situation, it’s difficult to do that because you don’t know where the matches are and can’t book any flights or hotels; you don’t even know when your international flights to come into India will be.We’ve tried to advise our members to not pre-empt and book anything based on speculation because the scheduling has been fluid over the last few months. We know so many fans who have already lost money because they thought certain matches would be at certain locations and booked hotels and flights and are now very concerned that those matches won’t be played there. That has created a bit of a challenge for those fans because they’re trying to get the best deals. Some of them don’t buy refundable hotels because that’s how you get the cheapest rates.Our head office [in India] is in Ahmedabad, so we have quite a few hotels blocked in Ahmedabad through our travel program. We also know, recently, a lot of fans who had booked rooms at Hyatt and ITC [in Ahmedabad], their reservation has been cancelled. Because maybe the teams will be staying there, so they block out the entire hotel. Those are some of the other challenges, where the BCCI or ICC block them for the teams. The fans don’t know which are the team hotels.Chris Millard: The biggest challenge for us is to create packages that people want to go and visit the country. When you have to take into account the short time and logistics involved with the World Cup, it is very frustrating. England are the defending champions, and a lot of people are interested in going, but the more the time goes, ultimately less people will go because they will book different holidays. They may choose to go to visit the West Indies or come to India next year (2024) when England travel there to play the Test series.The big problem for tour operators is the planning involved. We are now trying to get flights and hotel rooms when a lot of them might have been already taken, but also what you are looking for may not be available and you might have to search for alternatives.Chris Millard of the Barmy Army suggests some England fans may give the World Cup a miss and travel to India next year when England tour for a Test series•Getty ImagesLuke Gillian: Cost of travel to India and getting the necessary time off work. That’s always been the crux of my issues over the last 25 years. We know that Australia will be playing India in 2027, but why do we need to wait four weeks before the tour to get a schedule? Why would people want to go because they wouldn’t get the time off work. It is not just BCCI, several other boards wait until the last minute to announce the schedule – it’s plain ignorance.With regards to ticketing, the challenge for me as a licensed tour operator is: if I request say 100 tickets from ICC, and, I get them, but with the schedule being announced this close to the tournament, fans might not get time off work, so I am hamstrung.As far as hotels go, the price can get out of control as soon as the schedule is released. I can give an example: recently (February-March) I was in India taking a tour group during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and secured a hotel in Indore for AUD 200 [per night]. Two days later that price had risen to AUD 400. The Test match had just been shifted at the last minute from Dharamsala to Indore. So from a price point, the closer the event, travelling becomes inaccessible for many.

In the past when you travelled for tournaments, how soon was the schedule out, and how did that help?

Millard: The 2022 T20 World Cup was a big success for England. The Barmy Army fans travelled in big numbers, but the schedule was in hand significantly earlier than three months. Australia, like India, is a big country and a lot of timing is involved.Gillian: I have never taken a group for world events, but personally I have attended World Cups – the last one was the 2019 World Cup in England. The schedule was announced a year in advance (in 2018), which allowed me to marry that up with the 2019 Ashes. India are playing Australia in white-ball [cricket] immediately after the World Cup (5 T20Is), so if the BCCI could have announced the schedule well in advance, many [Australian] fans could have thought about travelling.The biggest issue for a fan is time: if given more time to prepare, more people would travel to watch cricket around the world.

Who should take responsibility: BCCI, the host board, the ICC, or both?

Gillian: Ultimately the ICC. It’s their event.Patel: ICC can’t tell us anything [even though the Bharat Army is one of their partners] until they official announce the schedule. From a general allocation perspective, for every ICC tournament over the past 10 years, cricket boards have always recognised the Bharat Army as a fan club and given us allocation for tickets. For example, during the WTC final [in June at the Oval], Surrey Cricket gave us two big blocks of tickets to sell to our members on general capacity. We also sold travel packages for fans travelling from abroad. We have that for every ICC tournament. For this tournament, we have the official travel program license from the ICC, but right now we don’t have anything from BCCI. Which is a shame, right? Because we are an Indian fan group, you’d hope that in your home World Cup, you’d get an allocation of tickets.Millard: I don’t have the intricate details and who should be blamed. We have worked with ICC in the past for many tournaments and they know what the Barmy Army brings to the game. I am looking forward to a better relationship with BCCI moving forward because England are going to be in India a lot. The Barmy Army play a massive role in making all forms of cricket a spectacle for everyone to watch – whether you are at home or in the stands.Luke Gillian will be at the World Cup, but he doesn’t yet know if he’ll be leading a tour group to the tournament•Getty Images

Fans are the biggest stakeholders, or at least should be. Are they being taken for granted?

Patel: The general feeling is, ‘Why does this happen in India?’ In 2011, there were last-minute changes which spoilt the experience. Many people were booked to Kolkata for India vs England but it was changed to Bangalore last-minute. In 2016 [T20 World Cup], we’d nearly booked for 400-450 people to go to Dharamsala for India vs Pakistan but the game was moved to Kolkata. Now in 2023, we’re in a situation where we have issues around the tournament. The general feeling is: It doesn’t happen anywhere else, so why does it happen in our country?The tie-ups we have with travel companies, hotels etc don’t allow us to factor in late cancellations or changes. Having to manage 1000 people and making late changes – some people want to change, some won’t – that creates a lot of confusion.We have known this tournament was happening in India for many, many years, but why have we got to a point that three months out we’re still having to have a negotiation on where these matches are going to be taking place? Why hasn’t this been sorted out months ago? Ultimately the stakeholders who suffer the most are the fans. There’s a sense that the fans are the lowest common denominator in this situation, but we also know come tournament time the stadiums will be full [for the India games, certainly].Millard: Unfortunately, as fans, we normally fall towards the bottom of the pecking order. And what we saw during Covid was how important fans are to cricket. When you are looking at the volume of finance that comes with TV rights deals, it pales into insignificance whether or not stadiums are sold out and whether people are travelling or not. But ultimately TV rights holders do want full stadiums so it is within their best interest to try and make it possible.

How can fans ensure this doesn’t happen again?

Gillian: They can’t. It will happen again.

Will you still go … have some fans have already dropped out?

Millard: Fans are still excited to travel, but undoubtedly the delay has caused some bother to people travelling. People have not directly dropped out, but some are saying they might look to travel to India next year during the Test series. If they have been waiting this long for the tournament schedule, they will continue to wait because it is a World Cup, because it is in India, because England are the world champions. I do think they will wait. We would expect bonkers numbers for the World Cup.We have absolutely not started making any bookings. We have searched for accommodation with regards to planning to ensure making the trip as big and good as possible for our members. We have got ideas based on the rough schedule we have seen in the media.Gillian: Yes, I am booked to fly in to India for the World Cup. What I don’t know is if I am leading a tour group.

Which match are you most excited to watch?

Gillian Pakistan vs India. I want to be part of a world record 130,000 [crowd in Ahmedabad]Millard England will be in the final. England vs India will be a fabulous experience.

As an ever-aggressive opener, he has given his side an advantage to capitalise on more often than not

Ian Chappell17-Dec-2023Yet again David Warner, by amassing a scintillating century, has proved his immense worth to the Australian cricket team as an aggressive match-winning opener. He will be sorely missed by the Australian Test team when he retires after the SCG match of this series.There are varying opinions on him announcing his preference for an SCG send-off. I prefer the former great Australian allrounder Keith Miller’s version. Miller wanted to retire while people asked “Why did you?” rather than “Why don’t you?”Warner could have been following the example set by Steve Waugh in 2003-04 of having a season-long send-off. Protracted farewells like that can make cricket decisions difficult for members of the players’ own team. Damien Martyn found that out in the Gabba Test in that 2003-04 series against India, sacrificing his wicket when a mix-up led to the prospect of Waugh being run-out. It can also test the resolve of the selectors if the upcoming retiree endures a bad start to the season.Related

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Or Warner might have been following the example set by Greg Chappell in 1983-84. Chappell announced before the final Test against Pakistan at the SCGNot only does an aggressive opener make life easier for his side, the opposing captain is also wary against him, particularly with field placings

However, Warner’s value to his team doesn’t just start and finish with his aggressive batting. As we saw in Australia’s recently achieved 50-over World Cup victory, his brilliant outfielding is an enormous asset in a team’s success.There is also his catching. He’s not the best slip fielder at Test level, as Australia are fortunate to have had a number of brilliant specialists, but he’s competent.All of that says why Warner will be a hard man to replace in Australia’s Test side. The selectors’ choice will be difficult and currently there is no one on the horizon who is even close to Warner’s value to the team.Warner has been a polarising figure in the Australian side and much of the love-hate relationship stems from the part he played in the controversial 2018 sandpaper affair in Cape Town. If he does expose his version of events in a book following his ultimate retirement, it will make for extremely interesting reading. It also ensures there will be a lot of very nervous people around Australian cricket awaiting any revelations.Whether you love or hate Warner, you should never underestimate his value to Australian cricket. Warner is a rare gem and Australia have been lucky to have his services in a long and distinguished career.

Chelmsford new boy talks about his busy winter, learning from the best and adding a “fourth string” to his bow

Andrew Miller02-Apr-2024What does it take to build a career in professional cricket’s modern, itinerant era? In this fragmenting landscape, the days of biding one’s time and awaiting that international call are receding, and in their place a new generation of go-getter cricketer is emerging, with a restless curiosity and an increasingly clear understanding of how to cash in on their athletic prime.Players such as Jordan Cox, for instance, a 23-year-old whose seemingly inevitable England debut remains, for now, just beyond his reach, but who isn’t about to let that circumstantial setback restrict his career progression.Midway through last summer, Cox secured a high-profile and not-uncontroversial move from Kent to Essex, a club he describes as being “best suited for what I want at this moment in time”, which hardly smacks of the fulfilment of a lifelong dream.Related

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And little wonder, given the winter he’s just had. With apologies to his new county, and with no sense whatsoever that he’ll be stinting on his efforts as Essex’s season begins, next week’s County Championship opener against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge will be Cox’s fifth professional debut of the past five months.His string of new beginnings began back in November, when Cox stepped out for Bangla Tigers in the Abu Dhabi T10, where his six matches produced 265 runs, two half-centuries and a strike-rate of 232, including a ferocious 90 not out from 36 balls against the eventual finalists, Deccan Gladiators.By the time that final took place, however, Cox had already swapped continents for what became a four-match stint with Melbourne Renegades in Australia’s Big Bash League, which then gave way to a return to the UAE in January to play for Gulf Giants in the ILT20.And, having previously sampled the SA20 and the Lanka Premier League in the 2022-23 winter, Cox then capped this year’s travels by making his first appearances in the Pakistan Super League, with six matches for Islamabad United in February and March prior to his link-up with his newest new squad for Essex’s pre-season in Abu Dhabi.”I left on November 10, and I was back 10 days ago, so I’ve been aware a fair chunk,” Cox says during Essex’s pre-season media day in Chelmsford. “I love it. I went to private school, I was a boarder. So my parents were like, ‘have fun at school, see you at Easter holidays, see you at Christmas’. So I’d only go home like three times a year, so I’m pretty used to being away from home.”That sense of adventure is palpable as Cox lifts the curtain on the touring lifestyle to reveal a glimpse of what this new world is really like. The SA20, he says, is “carnage … the flights are full on … fly, rest day, game, everywhere.” The ILT20, by contrast, was just 40-minute bus rides between Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. “It was the first time I’ve ever unpacked in a franchise environment.”The Eagle has landed: Cox arrived in Chelmsford after a busy winter on the franchise circuit•Getty ImagesAs for the PSL, on one extended break between matches, Cox and his Islamabad team-mate Alex Hales took a leaf out of England’s book from their recent tour of India, and decamped to Abu Dhabi for “99 holes of golf”. “People think that’s crazy,” he says. “But for us, that’s actually paradise.”Hales is just one of a host of world-class contemporaries with whom Cox has been rubbing shoulders all winter long, be it team-mates at his various franchises, such as David Miller, Aaron Finch and Shimron Hetmyer or opponents such as Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell and Faf du Plessis from whom he’s eager to soak up as much knowledge as possible.”It’s a lot better than sitting in the indoor school practising skills,” Cox says. “Watching Andre Russell hitting a cricket ball is fascinating. I was keeping in one of the practice T10 games, and he hit this monster six. And I was like, ‘cor, that’s a big hit’, and he was like, ‘I didn’t even catch that’.”It’s so interesting watching Faf too, he has a different technique, but he still scores runs. Even if you’re not playing, you learn to learn off the people that have done it for years. If you train hard, you realise that you don’t have to be like someone else, you be yourself and you’ll naturally score runs.”Quite apart from his ball-striking abilities, however, Cox is making quite the name for himself as an explosive boundary-riding fielder. This was perhaps best epitomised in the T20 Blast final at Edgbaston in 2021, when he stretched over the rope at midwicket to palm back a crucial relay catch off Somerset’s Lewis Gregory, as Kent surged to their first silverware for 12 years.Since then, he’s become quite the fixture in the outfield for his various franchises, becoming something of a cult figure during his PSL stint in particular.Cox was in fine touch for Oval Invincibles in 2023 until a broken finger ended his season•ECB via Getty Images”I think once you do those catches over the ropes, you learn different things like where you think your stride is going to be,” he says. “You work on it, so that when you see the ball come in, you look at the boundary rope and know roughly [where it is].”I’ve always been lucky in the fielding sense, I seem to read the play pretty well. When batters are trying to run two, you know roughly where the ball’s going to be, so I’m looking at them before the ball comes, and then I zone back in on the ball. It’s about not being lazy, and making sure that every single ball that comes to you, you’re going to make an impact.”Quite apart from his desire to be as involved in the action as possible, there’s a quiet pragmatism at play in Cox’s attempts to make himself more valuable to the teams that are bidding for his services, not least because, at Kent, his wicketkeeping opportunities were restricted by the presence of both Sam Billings and Ollie Robinson.”I think my batting gets in most [franchises] because I can bat one to six in T20 cricket,” he says. “The only problem with that is, if you don’t do as well, you’re the first one to get dropped because you’re not an allrounder, you’re just a batter. So there’s definitely downsides to it. But to have strings to your bow should definitely help you.”It’s quite handy for owners if you’re able to keep and field. They don’t go, ‘he’s a liability’, instead it’s ‘let’s get him in because he’s got those three strings’. I do work pretty hard at my fielding, probably harder than I do with my keeping. Because I know that, in T20 cricket, I can change the game. When you come to the ground I’ll be the last person out catching balls, trying different things, being stupid in a way. But no, that’s definitely not luck.”

“If I’m learning to bowl, that’s four strings to my bow. Why wouldn’t a team want me? It’s tough because I’ll have to show people I’m good enough to bowl but hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to hold an end in T20 cricket”

But why stop at three strings? Cox is already working on a fourth, “farting about” as he puts it with Azhar Mahmood, his bowling coach at Islamabad and with Oval Invincibles in the Hundred, to develop a range of cutters, spinners and carrom balls that could one way offer another cutting edge to his game.”Why can’t I be like Glenn Phillips?” Cox says, recalling how New Zealand’s unlikely allrounder went from keeping wicket in the early months of his international career to playing a pivotal role with the ball across formats. “Everyone thought three years ago, ‘what is this?’ Now he’s got a Test five-for!”I’m giving it the Liam Livingstone-style, off-spin to left-handers, leg-spin to righties, and I’m trying this new carrom ball which is tough … in Pakistan, [Azhar said to get] a tennis ball, I was flicking it against the wall, and in one of the games, you’d have seen me bowling 20 sets from one end.”But why not? If I’m learning to bowl now and practising these stupid little balls, that’s four strings to my bow,” he adds. “Why wouldn’t a team want me? It’s tough because I’ll have to show people I’m good enough to bowl but hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to hold an end in T20 cricket.”It was also in Pakistan two winters ago that Cox had his first taste of the international lifestyle, as an unused squad member during England’s T20I tour. Since then, he suffered an untimely finger injury that arguably denied him a home debut against New Zealand last summer, but his hunger to get the recognition he feels he deserves is undeniable.”I’ve thought about [Pakistan] plenty of times. I was picked for England when I was 20. I’m 23 now, I still haven’t played for England, what am I doing wrong? But actually if you think about it, my finger put me out for 14 weeks – though for a finger I’d rather just chop it off and carry on, you know? But I can’t see why I won’t get any more [chances].”But seriously, add those strings to your bow. It’s good for franchise cricket, it’s good for Test cricket. If they need an allrounder, and then potentially a back-up keeper. It’s like okay, well, I can do that.”

Jones played the unexpected hero on the night with great flair, throwing the spotlight on himself and – the hope remains – on cricket in the USA

Cameron Ponsonby02-Jun-2024It worked. The rain stayed away. The tickets were sold. And USA won. American cricket needed this.It was only four days ago that USA Cricket announced an “exclusive ticketing opportunity” where members could buy up to six tickets for 25% off. The game wasn’t a sell-out, clearly, and they were keenly trying to offload tickets to everyone and anyone.And when ticketing was not the issue, it was the weather. Storms and flash-flood warnings have been ever-present this week in Dallas. Six hours before kick-off, another storm rolled through. Fears of cricket’s big opening night in America being remembered as the evening an empty stadium got rained on were manifesting.Then Aaron Jones came along.The hero of the evening, his remarkable career-best innings catapulted the USA to victory from a position where it looked unlikely at best and impossible at worst. From 42 for 2 in the seventh over, Jones and Andries Gous put on 131 runs in 58 balls to ice the chase in the most relentless and brutal of fashions.Related

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Jones’ 94 not out off 40 deliveries was entirely out of keeping with his career. Arriving at the crease, he had a T20 career strike rate of 104, with 13 sixes in 24 innings. His highest score was 50, his only half-century in the format. But less than an hour later, he left having struck 10 sixes in a match-winning, legacy-defining, innings of history.Now is the time for hyperbole. The context of this World Cup is whether cricket can work in America. And as Jones smashed sixes on a raucous crowd of 6000 people at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, and celebrated each one with increasingly dramatic fist pumps, the answer was a resounding yes.”Sometimes when you play an innings like this,” Jones said after the match. “You go home, you sleep, and then you wake up and go ‘woah, I don’t even know how I batted like that’. It’s happened to me two or three times in the past and I think tomorrow is going to be like that as well.”When Jones launched Nikhil Dutta into the stands for the match-winning six, he sunk to his knees in celebration and lifted his arms above his head. It was a spectacle almost as remarkable as the innings itself.”To be honest with you, from young I’ve always been put in positions where I needed to be the man. To save the team and to help the team win. I think it brings out the best in me.USA fans cheer their team with flags•ICC/Getty Images”I also wanted especially [to win] because America is not really a ‘cricketing country’, I wanted to win for our fans…and really show the world that the USA has great cricketers here.”Jones went undrafted in the recent draft for Major League Cricket. His place in the T20I side has also been questioned. But he has been a mainstay for the USA over the past five years and made his maiden List-A century against Namibia in 2019, an innings that helped USA earn ODI status. He is a fitting hero for the occasion.Although the official attendance is yet to be released, the figure announced is expected to be above 6000. Truth be told, given the stadium holds 7200 and there was a notable number of empty seats, that feels a little punchy. Over the course of the match, the stadium transformed from half-empty to half-full. The game started six minutes late after the opening ceremony overran. The national anthems started while the mascots were still lining up in front of the players.It wasn’t a sell-out, and that irks, but as one colleague described it, the place felt “half-full, but heaving.” Those in attendance were treated to a wonderful, high-scoring match where the home team came back from the brink. The TV director wasn’t having to focus on shots of the same group in the crowd making up the “atmosphere” for the rest, but panning across a range of people from different backgrounds, ages and genders who were enjoying a high-octane sporting event.

“I also wanted especially [to win] because America is not really a ‘cricketing country’, I wanted to win for our fans… and really show the world that the USA has great cricketers here.”Aaron Jones

Canada played their part as well. These two teams played a five-match series less than two months ago, which the USA won 4-nil. But a fine batting performance threatened to ruin the American dream.As it happened, Canada’s total of 195, which was 26 more than the USA’s highest-ever previous chase, made it all the more exciting.The 131-run partnership between Jones and Gous came at 14.29 runs per over, the highest run-rate of any century partnership in T20 World Cup history. They took one Dutta over for 19 and another Jeremy Gordon over for 33. An over which included the dismissal of Gous only for it to be revealed that Gordon had overstepped.That Gous reprieve was immediately punished as he struck two of his following three deliveries to the boundary. Shots that were given the full Jones-fist-pump treatment from the non-striker’s end.”It’s just a bit of emotion where we have a plan and we execute it,” Jones said “If he [Gous] hit a six or a four, it’s just emotions coming out.”In total, between Gous and Jones, there were 24 occasions for Jones’ emotions to come out. His celebrations throughout America’s innings varied from the calmness of a golfer sinking birdies on the back nine, to the striker who’d scored a 90th-minute winner. Far from a man refusing to celebrate as the job wasn’t finished, Jones was a man basking in the knowledge that his time was now. The hope will be that not only was this Jones’ moment in history, but also cricket in America’s.

The proliferation of multi-skilled players reflects a growing trend in the shortest format

Matt Roller12-Sep-2024A half-strength England team going down to Australia on a bitterly cold night at Hampshire’s Utilita Bowl: this was not a T20 international which will live long in the memory. Travis Head, the game’s top-scorer, was dismissed inside the powerplay. No batter faced as many as 30 balls, while Liam Livingstone and Sean Abbott were the only bowlers to take three wickets.Yet it was a night that taught us something about T20 cricket and its evolution, as the format enters its third decade at the professional level. The two teams selected were remarkable: 21 of the 22 players selected could either bowl or keep wicket, with England’s Jamie Overton – an allrounder picked as a specialist batter due to a back injury – the only exception.There were 13 bowlers used – seven by England, six by Australia – and all 22 players batted, with both sides bowled out for the first time in a men’s T20 international in England. It was not a game which required much of an attention span: on average, there was a boundary every over (one per 5.7 balls) and a wicket every second over (one per 11.7 balls).Related

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Is this T20’s future? The trend across the format’s history has been that runs have been scored and wickets have been taken at a faster rate with every passing year. With most teams preaching a homogenous message about their approach – giving batters freedom to attack, and prioritising wickets over economy with the ball – there is no obvious sign of that changing soon.The proliferation of multi-skilled players on display reflected the pattern. If wickets fall more regularly, there is greater expectation that lower-order players should be able to bat; and if top-order batters are facing a smaller proportion of balls, they need to find another way to contribute, whether that it is with the ball, gloves or in the outfield.”It’s been a real trend of all T20 teams over the last little period of time,” Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s captain, said. “The more options you can have from a bowling perspective, as a captain and as a team, is really beneficial, bouncing in and out of different bowling options. The more we can develop our young allrounders, that better that will be for us.”Marcus Trescothick, England’s interim coach, believes that national teams simply “go through phases” when they have an abundance of allrounders. “It’s really beneficial when you get groups that have seven or eight people who could bowl, and you’ve got a side who can bat all the way down to No. 10 or 11, that’s when you’re blessed – but that’s not always the case.”But it looks like a permanent shift in England’s case, with the vast majority of players in their pathway now multi-skilled. Take Wednesday night’s other debutants: Jacob Bethell describes himself as a batting allrounder, while Jordan Cox is England’s nearest equivalent to Glenn Phillips: an occasional wicketkeeper and an electric outfielder, he has even started to dabble with part-time spin. Will Smeed, another highly-talented T20 hitter who retired from first-class cricket at 21, has ambitions to improve his own offbreaks to give himself another string to his bow.England’s swathe of allrounders in this series owes in part to circumstance. Harry Brook, who has not bowled a ball in his 54 limited-overs internationals, is recuperating after their Test series against Sri Lanka; so too is Ben Duckett, who has only kept wicket once in the last three years. On Wednesday, they looked at least one batter light, with Jofra Archer at No. 8.But the fact that so many players have a secondary skill is a clear reflection of market forces during this franchise boom. Among the overseas players in this year’s IPL, Rajasthan Royals’ Shimron Hetmyer was the best-paid specialist batter; including batters who bowl and wicketkeepers, there were nine overseas allrounders who earned more.The trend is particularly heightened in England and Australia, where players compete for contracts in foreign leagues during their lengthy off-seasons. Having a secondary skill which an agent can push to franchises can be the difference between a well-paid deal to play T20 overseas, and a winter training in the indoor school.The main counterpoint to this trend comes from the format’s world champions. India have often struggled to balance their T20 side: not many of their bowlers contribute with the bat, and vice versa. The introduction of the Impact Player rule in the IPL – which allows teams to pick an extra specialist for each innings – is widely thought to have exacerbated that.And yet, India’s victory over South Africa in June might come to be seen as the end of that era. Only three of their players that day neither bowl regularly nor keep wicket: two of them, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, immediately retired from T20Is; the third, Suryakumar Yadav, took his first T20I wickets in July, taking a game against Sri Lanka into an improbable Super Over.If Wednesday night’s match in Southampton highlighted the abundance of secondary skills among modern players, it was also a reminder that T20 is at its best when specialists thrive.The decisive moment in England’s chase came when Josh Hazlewood – who has scored 29 runs in 52 T20Is – bowled Liam Livingstone an 85mph/137kph ball which he disguised as a slower ball, briefly showing Livingstone the back of his hand on release. It was a moment of ingenuity which underlined that for all the importance of allrounders, quality always wins out.

Having established himself in the Delhi Capitals top order, the keeper-batter from Chandannagar is poised to play a major role for Bengal in the 2024-25 season

Himanshu Agrawal13-Aug-2024Arguments over the merits and demerits of the Impact Player rule have raged ever since its introduction during IPL 2023, but Abishek Porel is unlikely to be drawn into them. He owes his IPL breakthrough to this rule.At the start of IPL 2024, it seemed unlikely he would get much game time. With Rishabh Pant back as wicketkeeper and captain, Porel was fighting with Kumar Kushagra, for whom Delhi Capitals broke the bank with an INR 7.2 crore winning bid, to be the team’s second wicketkeeper. DC also had Tristan Stubbs.But when they were in dire need of momentum in their tournament-opener at 138 for 7 against Punjab Kings, Porel got his chance. He came off the subs bench and blitzed an unbeaten 32 off 10 balls to take DC to 174. That cameo made such an impression that Porel ended up playing all 14 games, and DC’s then head coach Ricky Ponting went on to call him a “very special talent”.Related

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“Ponting said, ‘Just believe in yourself.’ When a legend like him motivates you, then obviously you are moved,” Porel tells ESPNcricinfo. “Pant also told me, ‘ [You can do it]’. Personally, I also felt like I just had to perform this time.”It wasn’t Porel’s first brush with the IPL. He had been part of DC’s squad in 2023 too, having been picked out of a trial in which the franchise looked at six other keepers. Porel remembers being intimidated just being around the coaching staff when he arrived for his first training session.”I was definitely nervous seeing Ponting,” Porel says. “But he was a down-to-earth person, and helped me understand [things] well. Moreover, once I was in Delhi, Ponting, Sourav [Ganguly, director of cricket] sir and Shane Watson [assistant coach] were guiding us nicely, and treating me like one of their own. If there is anyone who knows me today, it is because of DC and Sourav sir.”Porel finished IPL 2024 with 327 runs including two match-winning half-centuries and a number of useful cameos. He struck his runs at 159.51, which put him behind only Jake Fraser-McGurk and Stubbs, and ahead of Pant, among the DC batters who scored at least 200 runs.”I was just prepared for the opportunity,” Porel says when asked if the prospect of fighting for a spot with three other wicketkeepers was intimidating. “The fight was always with myself, because it is me who is my competitor. I knew that if I performed well, I would be able to keep my place.”He particularly enjoyed batting with Australia’s rising star Fraser-McGurk, with the two adding 176 runs in three first-wicket partnerships. Their run rate of 14.46 was the best of any opening pair with at least 175 runs that season.”He seemed to have that magic bat from (a Bollywood movie from 2007),” Porel says with a laugh. “He was swinging it in all directions, and I kept turning my neck to watch the ball fly on both sides of the ground!”Abishek Porel is likely to play as a specialist batter for Bengal this season, with Wriddhiman Saha back in the fold•PTI As a left-hand batter from Bengal, there’s little doubt who Porel idolises. “I obviously want to be like Sourav sir,” he says. “If I end up achieving even a percentage of what he did, then that would be massive. I really like his debut Test hundred; I have watched highlights of it multiple times.”The Porel of 2024 is confident and clear about what he can offer. This sets him up nicely for the upcoming season, where it’s likely he’ll play as a specialist batter for Bengal with Wriddhiman Saha back in the fold after two years away at Tripura.Porel broke through in 2022 only because of Saha’s departure. And like Saha, whose journey from Siliguri to Kolkata is well documented, Porel has walked a long road too, from Chandannagar, a quiet city in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, to Kolkata and beyond.That Porel is firmly established as one of Bengal’s rising stars is a source of extra delight for his extended family, with first cousin Ishan a key fast bowler in the team’s attack alongside India Test players Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep.”It was when (big brother, here referring to Ishan) was representing Bengal Under-14 and Under-16 that I also started getting interested in the game,” Porel says. “He took me to the National Sporting Club in Chandannagar, where I met my childhood coach for the first time.”Barely 11 then, Porel did not have it easy at first. Sometimes he’d have to wait until sunset, when other, older batters would finish, to get an opportunity. He would unfailingly grab his chance.He was “a step ahead of his peers”, according to Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee, who was Porel’s coach when he played for the Bengal Under-23s. But long before that, Bhattacharjee had been impressed by his ability as a puny teenager, when he captained Porel at the Bhowanipore Club.”Abishek could play some terrific shots,” Bhattacharjee says. “People at that age are usually defensive, but he was always gutsy. He was dominating even the senior bowlers, never giving the impression that he had come over from Under-16s.”In 2021-22, as Bengal’s captain in the Cooch Behar Trophy, Porel smashed 716 runs at an average of 89.50 and a strike rate of 82.11 in six games, including three hundreds.It led to his name doing the rounds among the junior selectors, and when five players from the Under-19 World Cup squad contracted Covid-19 in the Caribbean, Porel was called up as a reserve.Porel believes he can break into the India squad if he breaches the 1000-run mark in consecutive first-class seasons•PTI “I was really upset when I hadn’t got the call-up for the original squad,” he says. A chance in the playing XI eluded him, but he took away quite a lot from the experience. “I understood what it means to tour, and got a feeling of what it means to represent the country.”Upon his return, circumstances helped Porel break through in the Ranji Trophy. Saha had left, and Shreevats Goswami wasn’t in the scheme of things anymore. Porel’s first-class debut was a baptism by fire. Bengal were shot out for 88 on a Cuttack greentop by Baroda, but Porel made 21 off 19 balls.Then, in the second innings, Bengal were 242 for 6 chasing 349 when Porel joined Shahbaz Ahmed. They added an unbroken 108, of which Abishek scored an unbeaten 53 off 70, as Bengal sealed victory in what remains his “favourite match”.”We won, and to score runs in that situation – and that too on debut – was special,” Porel says. Bengal made the semi-finals, and Porel scored 303 runs at an average of 33.66 that season, including three fifties, to repay the faith shown by Bhattacharjee, who was then part of Bengal’s senior selection committee.”[Arun] Lal ji was the coach then, and even he told me that he had rarely seen such stroke-making and fearlessness at that age,” Bhattacharjee says.That match was also memorable for other reasons. On the first morning, Porel teamed up with his cousin as “c Porel b Porel” made its first appearance on a first-class scoresheet.Porel made enough of an impact in that first season to earn a Duleep Trophy call-up – he scored an unbeaten 50 against North Zone in his only game – but he hasn’t yet translated his promise into consistent big scores at the first-class level. He currently averages 33.50, and has scored just the one hundred in 23 games.It’s early days still, of course, with Porel only turning 22 in October, but it’s possible he may not enjoy the standing he has today without that opening as an impact sub in IPL 2024. “Life has certainly taken a jump,” he says. “People in Chandannagar have started recognising me.”How is Porel preparing for the new season and the prospect of teaming up with Saha again? “Now that Wriddhi is back, I can chat with him [about my game],” Porel says. “He is like my own , and a guide to me. Even during the IPL, he tells me I can speak to him if I face any problem.”I aim to play all three formats for India – and play regularly. If I get 1000 runs in first-class cricket for two seasons in a row, and hit 500-600 runs in the IPL, I believe a door will certainly open for me.”

As a dispiriting tour plumbs new depths, lessons need to be learned if England are to move on

Valkerie Baynes25-Jan-2025Amid England’s 2019 Ashes capitulation, Clare Connor, the ECB’s then managing director of women’s cricket, announced a wide-ranging review looking at preparation, selection and player development.The funds poured into the women’s game, and crowed about by the organisation after that 12-4 drubbing at the hands of Australia, have done wonders for the sport, and yet here we are.England are 12-0 down and staring down the very real prospect of losing 16-0 after next week’s Test and failing to register a point for the first time since the Ashes became a multi-format series in 2013.It took a while for things to change after 2019 but they did, for a time. The post-pandemic return series in Australia was beset by quarantine restrictions and bad weather which did little for the touring side’s morale as they again lost 12-4.But in 2023, under new coach Jon Lewis, England fought back from 6-0 down to draw 8-8 at home and Australia retained the Ashes by the barest of means. And that may just be England’s problem now.For all the controversy over England’s perceived fitness levels, much of their downfall appears to be to do with mental matters. There is little evidence that they have eradicated the fielding errors that contributed to their T20 World Cup exit in October, where they fell apart against West Indies in the group stage.Poor shot selection has been a running theme throughout this Ashes for a batting line-up which slumped to England’s second-lowest T20I total when they were bowled out for 90 and Australia romped to a 72-run victory in the third T20I on Saturday.After the result at Adelaide Oval, Lewis also said his bowlers had been “sloppy” in terms of line and length up to that point, when England’s spinners in particular restricted Australia to what he believed was a par score of 162 for 5.But Lewis didn’t believe that England’s ability to push Australia 18 months ago had made them over-confident heading into this series.”I think it may have raised expectation outside of the group,” he said. “I definitely don’t think it gave us too much confidence. It gave us some confidence. We were incredibly aware of how strong Australia are in this part of the world and everywhere else in the world.”They’re a really good cricket team. We knew that when we came in, we knew this was going to be a really hard-fought competition but also a really hard competition for us to come out on top in.”What I would say is I think our performance in England last time probably stimulated the Australians into making some decisions about how they wanted to play and they’ve come out and they’ve showed some changes in how they’ve approached their cricket and they’ve been really impressive. They’ve played better cricket than us and we are in this position for a reason.”Fielding errors persisted in Adelaide, alongside familiar batting errors•Getty ImagesEngland’s mantra under Lewis has been to “inspire and entertain”, so is it not reasonable that the public would expect a lot of their team, who in the aftermath of that 2019 failure have become a better resourced, highly professionalised outfit? Unlike Australia, who have responded to their 2023 wake-up call by coming up with all the answers before England have even thought of the questions, it seems their visitors aren’t learning their lessons.”There isn’t a lot of time between games to go away and think and work and make a change,” Lewis said. “We have pretty honest conversations behind closed doors. The players are really honest with how they’re going.”One of the things that stood out for me across this tour is actually we’ve practised really, really well but we haven’t played very well. So the bit that we’re missing is the bit when we cross the line as to how we go and perform.”We’ve got some really good players and we haven’t been able to transfer that onto the field, which is a great shame. There’s a great opportunity for us to show what a good cricket team we are and we haven’t been able to do that.”Lewis had expressed concern ahead of the tour about the tight schedule, but it is the same for both sides. Not being able to execute in pressure situations has only been an issue for one and all of the above speaks to mental over physical shortcomings.And while you’ll struggle to find a fitter side than Australia, you won’t find one tougher above the shoulders. Yes, they stumbled in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup, and at the last Ashes, and yet here we are. Australia have learned, improved and then pulverised their opposition.”I feel like there’s been moments in those games where if we pushed home our advantage at certain points in the match we could have come away some points in probably the first three or four games,” Lewis said. “In fact the first five games I think we’ve been at times in positions to take some points.”But I feel like in the critical moments in the games the Australians have used their experience and their understanding of the conditions to play in a way that’s been able to get them across the line and you have to take your hat off to them. They understand how to win and we disrupted them a little bit over in England last time out and we came here with confidence that we could do the same here but they haven’t let us do it.”Related

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Australia have done so with captain Alyssa Healy and star allrounder Ash Gardner both out injured for all three T20s, which has only emphasised their depth. Beth Mooney has kept wicket with distinction in Healy’s absence and dominated the batting, her unbeaten 94 on a slow Adelaide Oval wicket the pinnacle.But England aren’t without depth. In Adelaide, they brought Alice Capsey in for Maia Bouchier, moving Sophia Dunkley to the top of the order with Capsey at No.3 as well as adding effectively to the spin-bowling ranks. They had quick Lauren Filer at the ready when Lauren Bell succumbed to a migraine and dropped legspinner Sarah Glenn for left-armer Linsey Smith to maintain their preferred line-up of three frontline spin-bowlers.But again Australia did better with only captain Heather Knight and Danni Wyatt-Hodge reaching double figures as each of the home side’s six bowlers took wickets, led by legspinner Georgia Wareham’s career-best 3 for 11.Lewis’s contention that the 2023 Ashes spurred Australia on to greater heights isn’t in dispute. Mooney said in her post-match press conference that after that tour and their T20 World Cup disappointment, “we probably just had been letting ourselves down a little bit in different areas of the game” and “we wanted to really put a marker out there and keep moving the women’s game forward”.The question now is, can this Ashes spur his side on in the same way?

With the ODI World Cup around the corner, a formidable batting line-up is taking shape

Srinidhi Ramanujam11-May-2025With the conclusion of the women’s tri-nation series in Colombo, it seems like India have reached a moment of clarity. It’s something that the captain Harmanpreet Kaur and the head coach, Amol Muzumdar, have been working towards for a while. A year ago, India weren’t entirely sure of the make-up of their batting line-up. Now, just as a home ODI World Cup is around the corner, their top seven is locked.Colombo has arguably been the most challenging venue for India in the last six months, where batters’ temperament and endurance were tested in the extreme heat. But they responded remarkably in this tri-series against Sri Lanka and South Africa. India posted at least 275 runs four out of five times, and that includes the 342 for 7 in the final. They are showing signs that they are no longer dependent on Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet for the bulk of their runs.”Definitely proud of the entire team, the way we played today,” Harmanpreet said. “Especially our batters, they played good cricket and that’s what we discussed in the beginning that if we won the toss, we will bat and we will look for a really good total on the board and really happy the way we batted today.””A lot of positives, especially the other batters the way they have batted, in the last game Jemimah [Rodrigues] had a knock of hundred, and Harleen [Deol] kept batting for the team and Pratika [Rawal] too and Deepti [Sharma]’s all-round performance and Sneh Rana’s bowling efforts.”Over the past two weeks, India have shown the ability to ride out tough periods with the bat and make their moments of supremacy matter.
The 3-0 loss to Australia in Mumbai last December might have been the wake-up call. Since then, India have played 11 ODIs and lost only one. This run has been built on a batting line-up that is pushing itself to new heights. In six out of the eight matches that they’ve had to set a total, they’ve made over 300.Pratika Rawal averages 63.80 after her first 11 ODIs•SLCIn the series opener against Sri Lanka, when India were asked to chase a target of 148, they did so with nine wickets and nearly 10 overs to spare. Rawal scored an unbeaten fifty, and would go on to score another, continuing her extraordinary run of form since making her debut last December. She is averaging 63.80 after 11 ODIs.Is this the way forward for India, without Shafali Verma? Maybe. Despite a strong showing at the Women’s Premier League (WPL) earlier this year, Shafali was left out of the tri-series. She has also churned out runs with remarkable consistency in domestic cricket since being dropped from the India squad last November. But, for now, India are happy to let Rawal have her run.There was a bond of trust when Rodrigues was handed a role in the middle order. It’s the sort of trust that has survived setbacks.She started her ODI career as a top-order batter, but two years ago, India needed something different from her. They knew Rodrigues, a player of talent and maturity, was capable of batting at any position. But she struggled to find her feet in this new position and had a forgettable 2024: she could muster only 329 runs in 12 innings, only one fifty-plus score.Jemimah Rodrigues on her success in 2025: It’s just the confidence I have and more than that, just me understanding my game•SLCThe new year brought a new Rodrigues. She notched up her maiden ODI hundred against Ireland in January and followed it up with 245 runs in this tri-series – India’s second-most productive batter behind Mandhana. Overall in 2025, she has 360 runs in seven innings. It is evident that she has worked on her strike rate (up to 115 this year from 91 last year) and fitness in the process.”I just want to keep going. The main target is the World Cup,” Rodrigues would say after her second ODI century, against South Africa, a few days ago. She went on to explain that “it’s just the confidence I have and more than that, just me understanding my game. Usually, I used to play 4-5 dot balls, get panicked and throw my wicket. But now, I think that sense of calmness is there and you know, I can make [it] up. And at the same time, a lot of T20 cricket has helped me play in different leagues, in different conditions. It has helped me and given me a belief and a trust in myself. I know that in any condition and any situation, I am well able to deliver what the team requires.”Rodrigues is becoming India’s rock in the middle order.As far as the finishers are concerned, the team has been banking on Richa Ghosh, but they will be more than pleased with Deepti’s 93 against South Africa earlier in this series. It was her first fifty-plus score in ODIs since her unbeaten 68 against England at Lord’s in 2022, and India would be hoping that the senior allrounder carries this form forward.Harleen Deol has helped India find stability•BCCIThe next big box that was ticked is India’s No.3. After trying out Ghosh, Yastika Bhatia, Priya Punia, and D Hemalatha, Deol was slotted in at one-down during the home series against Australia last December. Since her comeback, she has played 14 innings and has done fairly well – 511 runs at an average of 39.30 including a match-winning century against West Indies. In this tri-series, Deol’s top score of 47 came in Sunday’s final against Sri Lanka.Through all this, Mandhana kept doing Mandhana things, which doesn’t come as a surprise anymore. Perhaps it’s even underappreciated because of her mind-boggling consistency. Her 11th ODI century on Sunday propelled India to 342 for 7 in the title clash, which was too much for Sri Lanka as they eventually lost by a margin of 97 runs. She has accumulated 1260 ODI runs in 21 innings since the start of 2024, the most for a batter in this period. This includes six centuries and five fifties. The second best on this list is Hayley Matthews, with 851 runs.Five different India batters made a score of fifty or more over the course of the tri-series. It is a welcome development for a team facing some more big tests.India’s next assignment will be a long tour of England in June-July where they are scheduled to play five T20Is and three ODIs in vastly different conditions compared to Colombo. But for now, they will be content having ticked a lot of boxes in the batting.

There was no question of the significance this innings had for his England career

Matt Roller21-Jun-2025

Ollie Pope’s ton led England’s strong response•Getty Images

Ollie Pope has celebrated eight previous Test hundreds but never with such fervour. Pope scampered through for a single after inside-edging Jasprit Bumrah to the leg side, roaring “come on!” with fists clenched, and then punched the air with the jab of a welterweight boxer. There was no question of the significance this innings had for his England career.Marquee Test series demand substance over style, and Pope showed his mettle; this was not a chanceless hundred, with two significant let-offs, but it was a timely one under huge pressure. He looked drained – mentally, physically, emotionally – as he walked off unbeaten at the close, after spending a single over off the field across the first two days’ play.Athletes try to ignore the “outside noise” created by the media but only deafness could have blocked out the scrutiny on Pope. Jacob Bethell’s emergence as a potential superstar left his place at No. 3 under genuine pressure, and an unusually sparse schedule – with no Tests for five months at the start of this year – left him powerless to respond to speculation.Related

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Even his 171 against Zimbabwe last month was easily discounted, not least after Ben Stokes created an inadvertent media storm. England are at the start of a defining ten-Test run against India and Australia; Pope had reached 50 only twice in his previous 35 innings against those opponents, his 196 in Hyderabad resembling a freak outlier.But this was vital supporting evidence. “He probably couldn’t walk out in tougher conditions, with Jasprit running down the hill with the lights on,” Ben Duckett said. Pope flicked his first ball, from Mohammed Siraj, off his pads for four; so often a nervous starter, he had a calm poise when punishing width off India’s seamers.Pope scored heavily – 48 of his round 100 – behind square on the off side, thanks to the steep bounce that Headingley offers and occasional fortunate moments: a Bumrah misfield at deep point, and two chancy steers through gaps in the slip cordon. His best shot – a perfectly placed pull off Prasidh Krishna over leg gully which beat long leg to his right – took him to 90.Ollie Pope played some delectable drives•Getty ImagesHe also had an umpiring decision and a drop to thank. When Pope had 34, Chris Gaffaney turned down an lbw appeal from Siraj; if he had given it out, it would not have been overturned; when he had 60, Yashasvi Jaiswal put him down at third slip off the relentless Bumrah, whose first few spells of the series were irresistible.Yet, those reprieves are merely details in Pope’s bigger picture. Stokes has consistently reassured him of his place over the past month and Duckett insisted there was never any doubt in the dressing room that Pope would bat at No. 3, but his response to reaching three figures confirmed the extent to which he had felt Bethell breathing down his neck.”The way Popey’s dealt with it has been superb and just sums up and proves why he’s England’s No. 3,” Duckett said. “Scoring a hundred against that attack, coming out in the first over at 4 for 1, you could just see it in the way that he celebrated. It didn’t just mean a lot to him; it meant a huge amount in the dressing room as well.”It is almost inevitable that Bethell will win another chance in England’s batting line-up before long. Cricket obsesses over selection debates more than any other sport, but injuries and other absences have invariably deprived England of at least one member of their first-choice top seven for at least one Test in seven of their last eight Test series.2:22

Duckett: Bumrah the best in the world

But Pope ensured on Saturday that he will not be left out any time soon; it is the sign of a strong batting line-up that a player of Bethell’s evident quality cannot get into the side. Pope has bought himself the rest of the summer at No. 3 and must now prove he is a far better, hungrier player than a Test average in the mid-30s might suggest; aged 27, he should be approaching his prime.It was Pope’s tempo that was most impressive: his early boundaries in partnership with Duckett prompted Shubman Gill to set defensive fields to stem the flow of runs, at one stage five boundary-riders to Ravindra Jadeja. With the field spread, Pope slipped down a gear: his second fifty (61 balls) was quicker than his first (65) but contained only five fours compared to eight.That manipulation of oppositions’ plans has been a central tenet of England’s aggression with the bat over the last three years: Duckett has embodied their strategy, going hard against the new ball and then milking singles when captains feel forced to react, and Pope’s release shot – a dab past gully – built on the same premise.Pope’s challenge now is to back his century up, and to dispel the notion that he is a feast-or-famine player; he spoke before the series about his desire to emulate Joe Root by scoring “hundred, hundred, hundred” and proving his consistency. But such thoughts can wait for next week, as he basks in the satisfaction of his most determined innings yet.

England’s batting line-up no longer resembles a side playing with a single-minded purpose and utter conviction in their approach

Matt Roller08-Dec-20250:53

Finch: ‘England’s shot selection has been horrible’

It was like being offered a mouthful of the meal you wish you had ordered.Ben Stokes and Will Jacks’ tenacious – if ultimately futile – resistance on the fourth day at the Gabba served only to underline just how wrong England had already got it, a bite of someone else’s steak that left them wondering how they had ended up with nothing more than a bowl of soggy chips.Stokes and Jacks’ partnership for the seventh wicket was worth 96 in 221 balls, the longest stand of the series on either side, and felt like England’s captain directly rebuking his batters for their shot selection during a collapse of 5 for 38 on the third evening. They hit six boundaries between them, one every half-hour: “I just wanted us to fight,” Stokes said.Throughout his captaincy, Stokes has seen batting as an opportunity to make a point to his team-mates. In his first summer in the job, he would start in fifth gear and rarely change back down, scoring at a strike rate of 73.45; in 2025, he has slammed the brakes on, highlighting the need for some middle-order ballast with his strike rate dipping to 47.67.Related

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• Pope runs out of rope as Bazball's poster-boy turns fall-guy

“I said last night, ‘we are where we are’. We talked about taking the scoreboard out of the equation,” Stokes said. “Nothing’s guaranteed in life, and nothing’s guaranteed in sport, but as long as you walk out there and think in your head, ‘I’m going to fight all the way to the end here’, that’s all you can focus on.”What you saw from me and Will Jacks was me saying, ‘anyone who’s got responsibility left in this game, just show fight’. Sometimes, that doesn’t show in the output of what you’re trying to do. It’s all in the mind.”For all that conditions were easier – the ball had gone soft, and there were no visibility issues in the daytime – it provided a stark contrast to England’s approach the night before. The return catch that Zak Crawley chipped back to Michael Neser had summed up the ineptitude, a carbon copy of Ollie Pope’s dismissal, which showed a total failure to learn from others’ mistakes.0:50

Stokes: ‘If we lose hope, we might as well not turn up’

Jacks had a few sketchy moments during his innings of 41, most notably when Australia attacked him with the short ball. He may well have faced more bumpers on Sunday afternoon than in his 54 first-class appearances for Surrey but, after a handful of plays-and-misses, developed a method as he gradually grew in confidence. Put simply, he learned on the job.Yet, far too many of his more experienced team-mates seem incapable of doing so: Crawley and Pope most obviously, who are both still making the same mistakes after more than 60 Tests each, but so too Harry Brook, whose decision to play a booming drive at the first pink ball he had ever faced from Mitchell Starc under lights was indefensible.But the most galling aspect of England’s struggles is that their batting line-up no longer resembles a side playing with a single-minded purpose and utter conviction in their approach. Brook aside, most of their dismissals in Brisbane came from half-hearted shots ill-suited to the Gabba’s pace and bounce.

“We are a much better team at applying it than we are at absorbing it at the moment”Ben Stokes

Australia have outperformed England across every main batting metric in the first two Tests: they have lost a wicket every 50.3 balls to England’s 32.9; they have averaged 38.20 runs per wicket to England’s 22.77; and they have even outscored England, going at 4.55 per over to England’s 4.15. Really, this is barely even Bazball Lite.Pope inadvertently summed up the confusion that has crept into the England dressing room two days out from the Test, providing a barely comprehensible answer when asked about their approach. The thrust was that “complete clarity” as to whether to attack or defend was vital, but he batted as though totally unclear – particularly in his skittish second innings.Stokes and Brendon McCullum have attempted to “refine” their set-up – in terms of both method and personnel – over the past 18 months, an admission that beating the best Test teams demands nuance and nous. But the most notable effect appears to have been to dull England’s attacking strength without improving at all on their shortcomings.6:09

‘Australia have sat back, waited for England and pushed them over’

It was a theme that Stokes himself acknowledged after England’s defeat, looking physically and emotionally drained after four gruelling days. Stokes said that he was “definitely not doubting” England’s approach but made an unusually candid admission that his team has lacked the resilience and character to withstand pressure in this series.”I remember my first team chat with Baz. It was, ‘our blueprint is about applying pressure to the opposition, but also understanding that we do need to absorb that at moments’. I will agree, and say that we are a much better team at applying it than we are at absorbing it at the moment.”You’ll always see us chase the ball hard to the boundary, and you’ll always see people leave everything out there on the field. That is the blueprint of this team. And we can definitely look to improve on the moments where we need to absorb [pressure], and just understanding a lot better what that looks like.”The fear is that it is too little, too late. England are already 2-0 down in the series, a deficit that has only once been overturned to win the urn in Ashes history. Stokes has a four-night stay in a Noosa resort and three training sessions in Adelaide to ensure that the message he tried to send has got across to his batters, but is it the right one?With every passing week, England’s early success under Stokes and McCullum – the heady run of 13 wins in their first 18 Tests, including the intoxicating comeback from 2-0 down in the 2023 Ashes – looks increasingly like a cricketing equivalent of football’s new-manager bounce. Since then, they have been a coin-flip team who have lost as many Tests as they have won.