All posts by csb10.top

Likely first XI

Ajinkya Rahane, Mayank Agarwal, Faf du Plessis, Steven Smith (capt), Ben Stokes, MS Dhoni (wk), Rajat Bhatia, Shardul Thakur, Ankit Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Imran Tahir

Reserves

Batsmen – Usman Khawaja, B Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Manoj TiwaryBowlers – Ishwar Pandey, Saurabh Kumar, Adam Zampa, Jaskaran Singh, Deepak Chahar, Jaydev Unadkat, Lockie Ferguson, Rahul ChaharAllrounders – Dan Christian, Rahul Tripathi, Milind Tandon

Strengths

They have arguably the best batsman in the world, the best finisher, and the best allrounder. Smith, Dhoni and Stokes form the crux of a robust middle order that is capable of blitzing targets as well as accumulating scores. Then there is the legspinner Tahir, the current No. 1 bowler in T20 cricket, who was rather surprisingly overlooked at the auction in February. Zampa was the surprise package in IPL 2016, peeling off 12 wickets in five matches at an economy rate of 6.76, and he enters this season with an enhanced reputation after productive stints with the Australian team and Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL. He could even jostle Tahir out of the playing XI should Supergiant opt to play just one spinner.

Weaknesses

No less than six Supergiant players – du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen, Smith, Mitchell Marsh, M Ashwin and Deepak Chahar – suffered injuries in 2016 with all four overseas names pulling out midway through the last season. They have now lost R Ashwin and Marsh even before the start of this season. Sports hernia has stripped Supergiant of their only frontline offspinner while their two left-arm fingerspinners, Ankit and Saurabh, lack T20 experience – the latter is yet to play an IPL match. Supergiant’s worries extend to their seam attack too. Thakur, who was acquired from Kings XI Punjab, might feel the aftereffects of a long domestic season as the IPL wears on: he bowled 417.3 overs across formats – the second-most by a seamer. Unadkat and Pandey are similar bowlers to RP Singh and Ishant Sharma, who were released from the squad.Dan Christian was on fire at the BBL but will he be able to overturn an otherwise lacklustre IPL career with a new franchise?•Getty Images

Where they finished in 2016, and what’s different this year?

Seventh. They were the first side to be knocked out last season.For starters, the management has changed the team’s name from Rising Pune Supergiants to Rising Pune Supergiant, and made Smith captain in place of Dhoni on the eve of the auction. Having released Thisara Perera, Albie Morkel and Irfan Pathan from the squad, Supergiant then splurged INR 14.5 crore (approximately USD 2.16 million) on Stokes, making him the most expensive overseas player ever bought at an IPL auction. They also spent a crore on Victoria and Hobart Hurricanes allrounder Dan Christian, who might be thrust into the spotlight when Stokes takes up national duty. That Supergiant shelled out millions for just two players meant they could not bid more aggressively for fast bowlers like T Natarajan and Basil Thampi. As a result, the seam attack remains largely unchanged. The top order, though, has been bolstered by the acquisition of Agarwal from Delhi Daredevils.

What have their players been up to?

• Stokes was distraught after being hit for four successive sixes in final in Kolkata last year, but a brutal fifty and the wicket of Virat Kohli, which helped England sew up a high-scoring thriller this year, came as a soothing balm. His hit-the-deck bustle challenged India in the limited-overs series before he showed innings-building skills while scoring a fifty against West Indies in Antigua.
• Christian had a fruitful BBL season with the Hurricanes, performing the dual role of taking wickets and curbing the run rate. He claimed nine wickets, including 5 for 14, the third-best figures in the history of the BBL. His batting wasn’t as sparkly in the tournament, but when Christian hits the ball, it stays hit. Case in point: this 117m monster at – or – the Gabba in 2015. On the flip side, Christian has struggled in the IPL, managing only 341 runs in 22 innings for Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore at a strike rate of 116.78.
• Dhoni smashed a half-century in his most recent T20I, then led Jharkhand to the semi-final of the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy. He finished as his state’s second-highest scorer with 330 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of nearly 100.

Overseas-player availability

Stokes will be available to the franchise for the entire group stage, before returning to England on May 14 to prepare for three ODIs against South Africa in late May that serve as a warm-up for the Champions Trophy. Tearaway quick Lockie Ferguson will be with Supergiant until May 10, before linking up with New Zealand for a tri-series against hosts Ireland and Bangladesh.

Home and away record in 2016

Supergiant fared equally badly both at home and on the road. They were swept clean at the MCA Stadium in Pune, before they won two out of three games in their second home in Visakhapatnam and avoided a bottom-place finish. They also won three away matches, all while chasing.

Poll

The South African management is eyeing a semi-final finish or better for their women’s team, who qualified for the World Cup with victory over Sri Lanka on Friday. South Africa missed out on automatic entry into the tournament after finishing outside the top four in the ICC Women’s Championship but secured their spots through the qualifier, with a game to play, and are getting stronger as the showpiece event looms.”We have the players to be in the top four. It is just about being consistent as a team and as individual players,” Vincent Barnes, CSA High Performance Manager, who works with the men’s, women’s, A side and age-group teams told ESPNcricinfo. “If you look at teams like Australia or England, they have three or four match-winners in their side and those players will perform in three or four out of every five games. We need to develop that as well.”South Africa are currently ranked sixth in the ICC Team Rankings and lost recent series against New Zealand and Australia, which did not allow them to proceed straight to the World Cup. But they put their underperformance down to not having their best players available for all of those matches, either through injury or suspension. Pace spearhead Shabnim Ismail and wicket-keeper batsman Trisha Chetty were left out for disciplinary breaches – for which they underwent counseling – while Ayabonga Khaka and Laura Wolvaardt missed parts of the two series with niggles. Having all four back has made a big difference. “We’ve been able to put our best squad out there and we can see how well they have combined,” Barnes said.While Ismail and Chetty are experienced players whose quality is well-known, Khaka and Wolvaardt have made particularly crucial impressions now – Khaka for her aggressive bowling and 17-year-old Wolvaardt, who is the head girl at her school, for her composure opening the batting. But there have also been strategic changes to the way South Africa play. Lizelle Lee and Sune Luus have been moved up the order and Mignon du Preez handed the captaincy over to Dane van Niekerk, which has allowed both of them to blossom.”Captaincy is still new to Dane but she is extremely knowledgable about the game. Dane is very focused, very hard on herself,” Barnes said. “And it has allowed Mignon to concentrate on her batting because we always thought she could offer a bit more.”Since October, when du Preez effectively stood down, she has scored four half-centuries in 20 ODI innings. In the same time period, van Niekerk’s has soared – she has been batting an average of 49.90 as captain, compared to 32.75 overall and has contributed with the ball. Doubtless, van Niekerk’s experience at the Women’s BBL has also had some effect on her performances and Barnes hopes more South African players will get opportunities in overseas leagues. “We want them to experience competitive environments because it really does wonders for them.”As women’s cricket continues to grow and offer players more commercial opportunities, Cricket South Africa are doing what they can to keep up. Two years ago, they upped their contracts for female cricketers from six to 14 players and they have also moved women’s cricket to the high performance division. That means the players have specialised camps at one of the world’s best facilities at the University of Pretoria and there is also a women’s academy intake who are trained there. The aim is to ensure there is a steady pipeline of quality women’s players, who can join and ultimately take over from the current crop.”What happens is that when the women graduate to international cricket, there is a big step up from domestic game, that gap is widening all the time. At the high performance centre, our job is to close that gap,” Barnes said. “It’s similar to the structure of international teams – you have a strong top eight and then the rest.”That top eight will compete at the World Cup, for which South Africa have one more series in preparation. They will host India, Ireland and Zimbabwe for a quadrangular rubber in Potchefstroom in May before traveling to the UK 10 days before the World Cup starts.

Match facts

Thursday, January 26, 2017
Start time 1630 local (1100 GMT)Amit Mishra will lead India’s spinners in R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s absence•BCCI

Big picture

England finally found reasons to grin when Chris Woakes owned the last four balls of his final over in Kolkata, sealing their first win since November. The tension, pressure, dejection and relief were all palpable in the closing overs. On India’s Republic Day, the teams now move to a format where those emotions last for the game’s entirety, and four well-executed yorkers mean nothing until you can “finish an over”.New limited-overs captain Virat Kohli hasn’t led India in a T20 but he is familiar with the nuances of the role, having captained Royal Challengers Bangalore since 2011. Besides, as was visible in the ODI series, he has MS Dhoni to guide him along. What either of them won’t have is the assurance of Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin, who were rested for the T20s. With a healthy mix of veterans – Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Amit Mishra – and uninhibited youth (Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya) in India’s squad, will experience or exuberance dominate?England’s T20 set-up is largely the same as their ODI team, a compliment to how seamlessly they can make the transition from one format to another. Despite not being “near their best”, they could have whitewashed India 3-0 in the ODIs had they won clutch moments. England’s batting explosiveness, from nos. 1 to 11, will keep them in the contest, and if the bowlers can find their end-overs rhythm, the visitors will be hard to get past.

Form guide

India LWWLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
England LWLWW

In the spotlight

Amit Mishra will take over as India’s leading spinner for the T20s, with Jadeja and Ashwin rested. Historically, England have had their share of woes against spin. A wristspinner, like Mishra, will extract more than a fingerspinner with the increased number of revolutions imparted on the ball. Despite his unwillingness to use the googly in the Test series against England, Mishra will be a handful even if England’s batsmen can read his variations.England posted scores of 350, 366 and 321 despite the absence of Jos Buttler‘s pyrotechnics through the middle overs. He scored just 52 runs in three innings. Armed with a variety of reverse-sweeps and scoops, Buttler is plausibly England’s most destructive ball-striker.

Team news

India have plenty of batsmen – both fresh and experienced – to choose from. Virat Kohli said he was open to the idea of opening if that added balance to the squad. It might be the best way to accommodate Suresh Raina at No. 3, followed by Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. It is unlikely they will field two legpsinners, increasing Parvez Rasool’s chances and, if the quick bowlers are to be picked on form, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will have an edge over Jasprit Bumrah.India (probable) 1 KL Rahul/Mandeep Singh, 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Manish Pandey, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Parvez Rasool, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Jasprit BumrahEoin Morgan confirmed Joe Root was fit after recovering from his niggle, whereas David Willey, who joined the squad on Tuesday morning from Kolkata after scans, was not available for selection. With Woakes not in the T20 squad, England may bring in Sussex team-mates Chris Jordan and speedster Tymal Mills for early wickets. They might want to stick with four quicks and leave Adil Rashid out as they did in the last two ODIs.England (probable) 1 Sam Billings, 2 Jason Roy, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Liam Plunkett, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Tymal Mills, 11 Jake Ball

Pitch and conditions

Back to small grounds and flat pitches then, after a grassy Eden Gardens. With dew playing a bigger role in north India, the first T20 will start at 4.30pm to make it a more even contest. Temperatures are expected to be in the early 20s when the match starts and dip a little later.

Stats and trivia

• The last time India lost while chasing in a T20I despite Virat Kohli making a fifty was against England at Edgbaston in 2014, also the previous encounter between these two teams. Since then, Kohli has struck four fifty-plus scores in successful T20I chases
• Yuvraj Singh has won two Man-of-the-Match awards against England in T20Is
• Of the 206 T20s Kohli has played, he has captained in 72 of them. He has not led India though

Quotes

“At the moment the guys are feeling a lot more confident than they were maybe after game two. They did a lot of hard work but didn’t get a win under their belt, Looking forward to a three-match series potentially could be very exciting.”
“I have only opened once or maybe twice for India, but I have experience opening in the IPL. If need be then I could or I might not depending on the balance of the side. There are all kinds of possibilities.”

Dale Steyn is targeting June 2017 for a comeback, which could mean he will only turn out for South Africa during their tour to England next year. Steyn, who is five away from overtaking Shaun Pollock as South Africa’s top Test wicket-taker, was ruled out for at least six months after breaking a bone in his right shoulder during the second day of the Perth Test last month and hopes to begin light activity by February.”The first two to three months is just the healing phase so by the end of February I will start to be able to do things like light bowling, start swimming and all that kind of stuff,” Steyn said, during the match between the national cricket and rugby teams in Newlands last week.Steyn all but ruled himself out of the domestic season and the IPL but left the door open for participation in the Champions Trophy which begins on June 1. South Africa will play three ODIs in England before that, followed by three T20s at the end of June and four Tests in July and August. Doubtless, Steyn will need some game time before June but he insisted he will not rush his way back, as he has done before.”June is realistic for South Africa. I haven’t had a long break like this in a good few years and every season I go into it with something wrong, whether it be a little hammie or whatever. It will be nice to go into a season, starting in June, and confidently know that I am really strong and in a good place,” he said.Steyn was particularly satisfied that he left South Africa’s attack in solid hands and was impressed with the way they stood up in his absence in Australia. “We definitely out-bowled Australia and that’s why we ended up winning. Our batters all contributed in parts but at the end of the day, I think it was our bowlers that won it.”He admitted to having “itchy feet already” and will have one eye on the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka, which he has tipped South Africa to win convincingly. “Sri Lanka are a good side but in South Africa – nothing against them – we should win,” he said, even hazarding a guess at the scoreline. “Two-nil, with one possibly washed out with rain.”Every member of the pack got a special mention from Steyn, who called their collective performance “unreal” and expects them to take that form into the Sri Lanka Tests. “I was sitting at home during the Hobart Test and I knew [Kyle] Abbott was always going to bowl well. He is one of those guys who bowls top of off stump all the time, he’s got a skiddy bouncer and that’s all you need in Test cricket. In Hobart, there was a little bit of assistance, so when you’ve got a bowler like that with skills like he does, you are going to do well. It’s obviously difficult to do it but he does it really well.”But then KG (Kagiso Rabada), he just ran in and bowled quick all day. That’s all you want from him and he strikes every now and again. And then Vernon [Philander] is quality, that’s why he got the Man of the Series, he can bat and we all know he can bowl. He hasn’t disappointed in four or five years of playing. The way we are playing, with our bowlers doing well, quietly, confidently, we should beat Sri Lanka.”

The Queens Sports Club has witnessed a tie, and a one-run defeat, but still no cigar for West Indies. For the second time in two matches, they went into the final over of a chase with a chance to win. But yet again, they fell just short. Captain Jason Holder put their shortcoming against Sri Lanka on Wednesday down to the relative greenness of this squad.”I think it’s inexperience,” Holder said. “There’s obviously situations that we’re not accustomed to being in. We’re still a relatively young side. Everybody’s trying to make their mark. And I think it boils down to inexperience, and having that know-how at the end to get us across the line. We had set up the game nicely, and Evin Lewis played an exceptional knock to put us in the situation that we were in.”Lewis, playing in just his fourth ODI, brought up a maiden fifty in the 12th over, and then reached a 91-ball century, with 12 fours and a six, to leave West Indies well placed at 177 for 3. This was the first time he had opened on the tour, and it seemed to have paid off.”He’s one of those guys that likes the ball coming on, so we just felt that with 330 on the board we needed to get off well in the Powerplay and make use of that first up,” Holder explained. “Him and Johnson Charles did a great job there and put the Sri Lankan bowlers under pressure, capitalising on every bad ball that was bowled.”He wasn’t done there, opening up to smite three more sixes as wickets fell around him, and he reached 148 (second only to Chris Gayle’s 153 not out for the highest ODI score by a West Indian in Zimbabwe), battling cramps in the latter stages of his innings. “He was there out in the field for 50 overs fielding, and then came back to bat through most of the overs,” Holder said. “It was a bit of cramp, and I don’t think it was anything too serious.”Lewis was eventually run-out after a horrible mix-up with his captain. It was the third run-out of the innings, and left West Indies needing 69 off 57. In the company of Carlos Brathwaite, Holder took the game into the last three overs with his side still within touching distance of the asking rate. With 10 needed from the final over, Holder could only manage a single off the first ball to put No. 10 Sulieman Benn on strike. Holder would not see the strike again until the final ball, when three were needed but a pinpoint, 144kph yorker from Nuwan Pradeep secured Sri Lanka’s win.”I was just trying to get on strike, but credit must also be given to the Sri Lankan bowlers,” Holder said. “I thought they hit their yorkers really well, and the ball was also tailing in to the right-hander. Benn did a tremendous job to hit the six that he did, to bring the game back closer, but unfortunately he got out afterwards. The last ball was a very good ball.”The defeat means West Indies face a must-win game against Zimbabwe on Friday if they are to reach the final. They may have to play that game without their opening bowler, after discomfort in his hamstring meant Shannon Gabriel could only bowl five overs today.”We’re managing some niggles, and Shannon wasn’t able to finish his overs today, so we’re waiting to see if he’s good to go for the next game,” Holder said. “We’ll see in the next few days.”

ScorecardAlex Lees gave Yorkshire a strong platform at Headingley•Getty Images

Do it for Dizzy is not yet emblazoned across Headingley, but it seems an appropriate exhortation as the Championship season reaches its climax. Jason Gillespie is heading back to Australia at the end of the season and Yorkshire would love nothing better than to send him on his way with a hat-trick of Championship titles. He has become as popular as a coach as his fellow Australian, and good mate, Darren Lehmann was as a player and that is an achievement indeed.With three games remaining, Middlesex ahead by four points, and a potential winner-takes all finale between the two sides at Lord’s, Yorkshire’s minimal task is to match them over the next two games if that third title is to come to pass. Alex Lees sustained them during a tricky opening day against Durham with a season’s best 132, passing 1000 first-class runs in the process. Yorkshire’s 341 for 5 was a decent return in testing conditions against a Durham side that nevertheless looked over-reliant on its opening attack of Graham Onions and Chris Rushworth.Lees’ reputation as an England opener-in-waiting weakened during an unsuccessful 2015 so here was another innings that suggested his career is back on track, if with a disturbing tendency to jump the rails on occasions. He believes the experience has made his game tougher and given him “nuggets of information” that will help him through when the bad times return.”Everybody has down times,” he said, and to illustrate that fact he only had to look 22 yards away for the first half of the day as he shared an assertive second-wicket stand of 163 in 43 overs with Gary Ballance, one which scotched Durham’s hopes of making use of favourable bowling conditions.Lees finally fell driving a low full toss back to the offspinner Ryan Pringle. He retains his admirers, but as much as his wish to transfer pressure back to the bowlers is in keeping with the current crop of young openers, there have been too many ungainly moments, and rushes of blood, along the way to be mentioned in England despatches just yet. It is across the Pennines where England’s attention now resides with strong indications that they are prepared to take a punt on the admirable Haseeb Hameed for the Test tours of Bangladesh and India.Lees has only 81 fewer first-class runs, but he averages 43 as opposed to Hameed’s 53 and whereas Hameed’s defences seems to have been designed on principles drawn up by the North Korean border police, Lees can be a little bit too Green Channel for his own good. He played one headstrong wipe at Onions early in his innings that would have had Hameed consigning himself to a month’s solitary confinement in self-admonishment.That Lees is finishing the season strongly, however, asserts that here is a cricketer of strength of character. He was not yet 23 when he was awarded the Yorkshire captaincy in one-day cricket. Considering that tradition in the Broad Acres once had it that you were not old enough to be allowed a word in edgeways until you were at least 30, he has coped remarkably well. Imagine the pressure of explaining a fielding change to a member only to be told: “Speak when tha’s spoken to lad.”That captaincy brought promise, but no trophy – or as they prefer to describe it in Yorkshire: “Two lots of the treble messed up so far.” Under his leadership, Yorkshire suddenly discovered how to play Twenty20, got to Finals Day but lost in the semi-finals. A home semi-final over 50 overs provided another disappointment when Surrey outplayed them at Headingley in front of a lower crowd than expected. There were letters in the complaining their one-day cricket was still a mess, which suggests that many counties must be living in considerable depravity.For Yorkshire to find consolation in a third successive Championship, they will have to manage without their England duo of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, who have been told to rest out the last three games in the Championship season. There were so many low-level grumbles around Headingley that one might have imagined the boilers were on the blink, but Root is a multi-format player with a bad back and, in particular, would benefit from a prolonged rest. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that there was an idealism in the grumbles because the commitment of Yorkshire – and others – to the Championship is keeping English cricket alive.Root, if he needs rest, should also be allowed to skip England’s one-day series in Bangladesh, although that decision would no doubt be influenced by politics as much as cricketing logic. With the tour surrounded by safety concerns, there will be a reluctance within the ECB to be accused of favouritism to certain players. The approved Yorkshire response to that, incidentally, would be to trust to cricketing logic and bugger what the rest of them think. England should follow that course.It was a sultry morning, but Yorkshire lost only one wicket to the new ball, Adam Lyth fending Onions to Keaton Jennings at gully, before Lees and Ballance took the game by the scruff. Ballance’s innings smacked of a game returning to good order ahead of the winter tour selections. It ended when he edged back to a length ball from Barry McCarthy and was caught at the wicket.The wicketkeeper was Paul Collingwood, who was forced to deputise because of a dislocated finger suffered by Michael Richardson. Richardson has only recently relinquished the gloves in a successful attempt to regain his batting form, but he had to take them when Stuart Poynter reported ill. Is there an outside chance that Phil Mustard could yet be summoned back from a loan spell at Gloucestershire for an end-of-season hero’s farewell? Some in Durham would love nothing better. As for Collingwood, it would be no surprise to learn that during the close season he has also been tasked with fixing the plumbing and painting the sightscreens.When Andrew Gale was bowled around his legs by Onions, there was a possibility that Yorkshire, at 190 for 3, could fritter away a dominant position. But Lees wore his responsibilities maturely, taking an hour to negotiate the 90s, a phase of the game in which he did not get much strike. He flicked a long hop from Pringle to the square leg boards to secure his third Championship hundred of the season – his first at Headingley since he also took one off Durham two years ago – before Jake Lehmann, with a half-century in his first appearance on a ground graced so often by his father, helped him restore Yorkshire’s superiority.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBarbados Tridents’ 20-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran smashed a career-best 81 off 39 balls to propel his side to 173 and set up a comfortable 25-run win over St Lucia Zouks in Bridgetown.The hosts needed impetus at 51 for 2 in the ninth over, after openers Kyle Hope and Shoaib Malik were dismissed within seven balls of each other. Pooran provided that during a third-wicket partnership of 68 off 40 with AB de Villiers.After de Villiers departed in the 16th over – miscuing a Jerome Taylor slower ball to deep midwicket – Pooran took complete charge of the innings. He hit a four and a six off Kyle Mayers in the 17th over, and followed that with three fours and a six off Shane Watson’s 18th.Zouks never got going in the run chase. Ravi Rampaul knocked over Shane Watson for a duck and kept Andre Fletcher to 20, which ended up the top score of the innings along with the extras. When captain Darren Sammy played onto his stumps off left-arm seamer Raymon Reifer in the first ball of the 14th over, Zouks were reduced to 84 for 6. A double-strike from Wayne Parnell, the South African left-arm quick, in the 17th over left Zouks in danger of being bowled out but they just about managed to prevent that.Tridents registered their third win of the season, out of six matches, while Zouks languish at the bottom of the points table with one win out of four.

Mark Stoneman, Durham’s highly rated opening batsman, will join Surrey at the end of the season after turning down the offer of a new contract. The decision is a blow to Durham, with Stoneman having come through the club’s academy to captain the side in limited-overs cricket.Stoneman will link up with former Durham team-mate Mark Di Venuto, who is now Surrey’s head coach. He could be followed by more high-profile departures due to the straitened financial circumstances at Durham, with Scott Borthwick, Mark Wood and Keaton Jennings among the most high-profile players out of contract at the end of the season.Both Stoneman and Borthwick have featured in recent discussions for England selection and the county would benefit from ECB payments for their development even if they were to be called up after switching clubs.Despite traditionally tough batting surfaces at Chester-le-Street, Stoneman has flourished over the last few years, passing 1000 first-class runs in each season since 2013. His first-class average is just 32.11 but he has been mentioned as a possible Test opening partner for Alastair Cook. In List A cricket, Stoneman averages 40.17 and led Durham to victory in the Royal London Cup two years ago.The 29-year-old indicated that a desire to win over the England selectors contributed to his decision to move south, despite being offered a two-year deal by Durham.”Joining Surrey under the guidance of long-time mentor Michael Di Venuto and Alec Stewart will provide the platform to reach new levels with my batting,” Stoneman said. “It is a fantastic opportunity to join a young and exciting squad. I am very excited for the years ahead at the Kia Oval which is a great Test match venue and I hope my experience can contribute to a period of success for Surrey CCC.”The desire to play for England is as strong as it has ever been and I feel that now is the right time to accept a new challenge in an environment which will hopefully see me fulfil the dream of playing for England.”Durham have also allowed Phil Mustard to leave, with his contract up at the end of the season, but Paul Collingwood will continue to play on. Collingwood, captain of the Championship side, has agreed another one-year extension, which will take him into his 22nd year as a professional.Collingwood, 40, is currently averaging 50.66 in the Championship and saw Durham move up to second in the Division One table after a hard-fought victory over Lancashire at Southport last week.”I am so proud to still be playing for my home county who have given me the perfect environment to fulfil all of my cricketing dreams,” Collingwood said. “I feel that I can continue to contribute to the team and I really want to help develop the next generation of Durham cricketers.”I know that this club still has so much to offer English cricket and I continue to be excited by the young talent coming through the ranks.”Mustard, who is in his benefit year, will join Gloucestershire on loan until the end of the season, meaning he is likely to miss out on a farewell T20 appearance at Chester-le-Street. The 33-year-old lost his place in the Championship team last year, briefly joining Lancashire on loan, and although he has continued to be a leading limted-overs performer, Durham have been unable to afford a new deal for him.He joins Gloucestershire as cover for Gareth Roderick, who suffered a finger dislocation that required surgery and is expected to be out for six weeks.

On Wednesday, MS Dhoni captained India for the 324th time in international cricket, and joined Ricky Ponting on top of the global list. That is a of experience, and Sanjay Bangar, India’s interim head coach, has said Dhoni went out of the way to share it with his young and inexperienced squad over the course of this Zimbabwe tour.”I definitely felt that he opened up quite a bit,” Bangar said, after India won the third T20I by three runs to wrap up the series 2-1. “He had a lot of interactions with the players. He made that effort to go out and mingle with them, he probably invited them for dinners and they [spent time] over Playstations together.”He went out of the way to make them comfortable, shared his experience with the younger guys, probably emphasised on the value of how to handle pressure, under match situations what are the things that are required to be done. So I think those were enormous learnings.”What he also did fantastically was he passed on the tradition of Indian cricket, because these younger lot are the future of Indian cricket, and the way he shared his experience was very, very similar to how the earlier generation used to pass on the knowledge and the experience and just make a younger player comfortable in the dressing room, so he made all that effort and it was great to see.”India batted first for the first time on the tour, and were tested by Zimbabwe’s bowlers on a slow, low Harare surface. They eventually posted 138, thanks in large part to Kedar Jadhav’s maiden T20I half-century. Bangar was pleased with how Jadhav – who only got to bat twice in six matches on this tour – has grabbed his opportunities, mentioning his ODI century on India’s previous visit in 2015 as another example.”The last time he played for India, probably it was again a year ago, he got a hundred in the series,” Bangar said. “He didn’t get too many opportunities in this series, this was only the second time that he could go out and bat, and he played an amazing innings, because he was having some issues.”As he went in, he wasn’t feeling too good, but he hung in and fought through, and the kind of innings he produced on a difficult wicket, I felt that showed the quality of the player, so he’s doing all that he can in the opportunities that he’s getting.At 31, Jadhav is the second-oldest player in India’s squad behind Dhoni, but Bangar felt that shouldn’t prevent him from having a sizeable international career.”Age doesn’t really matter because, nowadays, most of the guys are keeping themselves very fit, they have fantastic work discipline,” he said. “It’s just a matter of some individual getting a couple of opportunities simultaneously, and consecutively, so that he feels comfortable in match situations. These are quality players and they’re bound to come good.”Bangar made special mention of Axar Patel for his consistency with the ball and also his finishing skills down the order. Axar was India’s most economical bowler in the ODI series, conceding only 2.32 runs an over in three matches, and his left-arm spin was just as frugal in the T20Is, as his economy rate of 4.91 suggested. He only got to bat twice on the tour, both times in the T20I series, and scored 38 runs off just 20 balls. He played a key role in India’s narrow win in the third T20I, scoring an unbeaten 20 off 11 balls and conceding only 18 in his four overs while dismissing Hamilton Masakadza.”I think not only today, but throughout the series, he kept the pressure on,” Bangar said. “Probably, he was our most economical bowler. I don’t really know the exact stat, but he was very, very consistent. He maintained that pressure throughout, and not only his bowling, but generally, the way he fielded, a couple of catches that he took, and the way he finishes the innings. He got an opportunity in two T20s, the first and the third game, and he is proving to be a very good developing player at No. 7 or No. 8, who is capable of hitting the big shots. That’s really encouraging for Indian cricket.”

‘I’ve got to get away from cricket, or else it captures my whole life’Pat Cummins: I can only speak for myself but it’s hugely important for me. With cricket, being on tour, it isn’t just individual tours, it’s basically our life. We spend 10-11 months of the year on the road, so when I’m touring I’ve got to get away from cricket, or else it captures my whole life. When I can get little breaks I do, and those four weeks were great for me to step away from cricket, not really watch cricket, just live a normal life, have a normal routine, because I don’t think I could do it for 10-15 years just with 12 months of the year all focused on cricket. Other guys might be different, they may play a little bit more, a little bit less. But for me as important as being really focused at training and games is trying to switch off and change my focus to something else every now and then.The last 12 months JL’s been really good at trying to identify breaks where we can. I’ve heard him say a few times ‘I wish I could give you guys a longer break but we’ll have to delay that’. It’s a general conversation. For me the priority’s obviously international cricket and I want to maximise as much international cricket as I can. We try to look through the diary between JL, the support staff and myself and try and map out a plan. But the priority after the Ashes, the non-negotiable, was to have a few weeks off bowling and then the conversation’s around ‘okay, how does that look in terms of games I’m going to miss, how long can we extend that break, can we get it out to four weeks’, so it’s a general conversation between all of us.Steven Smith: I think that’s something that we’re getting a lot better at. Communication with the coach, relevant people that are involved who we can have those honest conversations with about how we’re tracking. It is a pretty hectic schedule nowadays. It’s bloody tough to sustain it for long periods of time, particularly I think for the fast bowlers. It’s extremely difficult what they put themselves through. It’s great that those conversations are happening and we’re trying to keep guys as mentally and physically fresh as they can be.Tim Paine chats with Justin Langer•Getty Images

‘The biggest improvement since I started is the amount of support’Smith We fill out daily how we’re feeling, how we slept … the sleep gets a big red every now and again. We fill out a wellness thing every day. The coach and psych and head of team performance look at our markers daily and it’s upon us to be honest in the way we go about that as well. They can see how we’re tracking and if there’s a change in behaviour, if you’re feeling ill or not sleeping well or feeling a bit off, they’re aware of it. That can sort of start a conversation. Why’s your sleep bad? What’s going on? Why are you feeling a bit off today? It’s good that they do that. It’s good for guys’ mental health and wellbeing.Cummins Lloydy [Australian team psychologist Michael Lloyd] has just about been full-time on tour for the last few years. Lloydy’s brilliant, I’ve known him since 17 or 18 years old and he’s always on tour, if he isn’t he might be away for a week or two, but there’s definitely times where I pick up the phone and speak to him about different things. We’ve got great staff, through the ACA, the player development officers around the states, everyone’s got good contacts with them.That’s probably the biggest improvement I’ve seen since I first started was the amount of support you have around. It’s still up to the player sometimes to pick up the phone and pick up that conversation, but we’re lucky how many resources we have and always trying to optimise that. We get asked about it a lot, how we want it to look like and how we can make improvements. I think if it’s three or four negative things, it goes [from the wellness app] to a group of people and that might have the physios, coaches, mental health, psychologists, and whatever it is, that normally instigates a conversation with the player.ALSO READ: ‘Shows incredible courage to talk about mental health’‘The only opinions who matter are the ones close to me and the team’Mitchell Starc: I got off social media. Getting older and going through all that the last 12 to 18 months I have been mindful about being pretty level. In terms of opinions, the only ones who matter are the ones close to me and the team. Going in and out of the team early in my career and going through that as a young cricketer [helped me]. The game has changed since I started. Social media stuff comes into it. We have two broadcasters now so there are more demands on the players. Guys are reading and taking note of more opinions now as well. I can only speak for myself but that is what helped me most over the past 18 months was not caring what people think and not reading it and taking that away from my lifestyle and it’s been a lot clearer and a lot more positive.Pat Cummins claims another scalp•Getty Images

‘Having something else in my life it would have alleviated some of the pressure I put on myself’Tim Paine: It can be difficult [to have perspective] and I think it comes as well with experience. I think it’s something you do need to go through at times to come out of it with that knowledge and know-how. I look now at that period of time where I was out injured or I was really struggling now as a real positive in my life, not only in my career. I think it’s made me a much better person. I think obviously going back to when I was 16 or 17 I wish I knew what I knew now and I would have been a lot better at school, because I think having something else in my life it would have alleviated some of the pressure I put on myself to perform. It would have allowed me to go out and play a little bit more fearlessly which I would have loved to be able to do but I’ve never allowed myself to do because I’ve always had all my eggs in one basket. It was a difficult time, but in the end it’s turned out to be a real positive. Cummins: It was really difficult [battling injuries at a young age]. Probably looking back I now realise how much more difficult it was than when I was going through it for the first time – I was a little bit naive. The most obvious example was that every single summer of my life I’d played cricket and suddenly I was a professional cricketer but I was spending my summers not playing cricket, and I just wanted to do what I love doing. I try to keep realising that while I wasn’t playing, I was hanging out with my mates, I was going to the cricket ground and training, so there was a life as a cricketer I was still able to have and Cricket Australia were brilliant with New South Wales, the support staff especially who were my main contact in cricket. They were the ones who kept me motivated and instilled patience in me for those couple of years.‘Health is much more important than another game of cricket’Justin Langer: I’ve learned a lot over however long I’ve been coaching. I’m dealing with young men all the time, so hopefully I’ve got a pretty good feel for how guys are going. But it’s a complex issue – it’s like concussion. There’s a really clear protocol on concussion now and I’m really hopeful, in a really complex matter of mental health, that we can get to a point where there’s really clear protocols and there’s no stresses about it, there’s no indignity in saying ‘I’m not okay’.And then we work out how guys can return to play, whether it’s in the shorter term or in the longer term. I’m sure that’s what we’re all searching for, to make sure that we get that protocol right. I said it one of our players today, at the end of the day the health of our players and the wellbeing is much more important to me than another game of cricket. We saw it with Steve Smith – we would have loved Steve Smith to play the third Test of the Ashes, of course. But it was so clear that he wasn’t right, it was an easy decision. We lost a tough game but it was a no-brainer, and I hope we can get to that point with mental health as well.