A ongoing quad problem flared just as Hardie was putting together a string of promising performances

Tristan Lavalette25-Dec-2024Make no mistake, Aaron Hardie is a genuine allrounder. This can be gleaned by a first-class batting average of almost 40 – having cemented No. 5 for Western Australia in recent Sheffield Shield seasons after starting off at eight – and a bowling average of 28.78.His versatility has been on show to a wider audience during his fledgling international career. Hardie has impressed as a finisher in white-ball cricket, while he claimed a three-wicket haul with his sharp seam bowling in his most recent appearance on the field in last month’s T20I against Pakistan in Hobart.Hardie, 25, has moved up the ranks by dedicating himself to each skillset, practicing them equally, with the hard work paying off for an emerging player favourably compared to his WA team-mate and former junior rival Cameron Green.Related

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He uses his towering 6 foot 4 frame to devastating effect. His long levers make him able to routinely clear the boundary, while with the ball he can produce menacing bounce and probes at a dangerous back of a length. Hardie has sometimes been used as a new ball bowler in Shield cricket.But a nagging quad injury has relegated Hardie to just one Shield match this season and meant he’s had a delayed start to the BBL. He has been on the sidelines since pulling up sore after playing in all six white-ball matches against Pakistan.”I’ve been managing the quad issue for probably the past year or so, it’s had ups and downs,” Hardie told ESPNcricinfo. “Certainly spiked during the latest Pakistan series. Been spending the time off to get on top of it.”Hardie has missed Scorchers’ opening three games of the season, but is set to make his comeback on Boxing Day against defending champions Brisbane Heat at Optus Stadium. He will return as a specialist batter, most likely slotting back to his customary No. 3, with the hope of building up his bowling loads ahead of the finals.”You probably need an extra week or two of building up as a bowler before you can actually bowl,” Hardie said. “Realistically, there might be a few games where you play as a batsman and then the bowling can come a bit later.”With his body starting to show signs of strain, Hardie might be faced with a dilemma that has gnawed at many other allrounders over the years. In an effort to stay on the field, and to prolong his career, he might need to ease his bowling workload and prioritise batting.Aaron Hardie will be limited in his role with the ball•Getty ImagesGiven his relatively youthful age, that decision might not need to be made for a while although, right now, batting will be his focus as he tries to recapture the form of BBL12 where he was the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 460 runs at 41.81 and strike-rate of 141.”It’s difficult to keep going out there and play as an allrounder in all three formats,” Hardie said. “It’s just about using the breaks wisely and hopefully I can recover properly and have another crack at it [being an allrounder].”I try to use these times to my advantage. Just the nature of bowling often means that you can be too fatigued to really knuckle down on batting. I always really love the opportunities I get to have a big focus on batting.”Hardie has become a player of considerable interest for Australia’s hierarchy and he’s already demonstrated his batting flexibility across 24 white-ball games he’s played since debuting last year.He’s batted in every position from opener to No. 8, but has had the most success so far finishing an innings in a role that could be up for grabs amid Tim David’s struggles. He blasted 20 off nine balls in a T20I against England in Cardiff before hitting 28 off 23 against Pakistan in tricky conditions at the SCG. Hardie also made a 26-ball 44 from No. 8 against England in an ODI at Chester-le-Street.

I aspire to put a massive amount of runs and wickets on the board in Shield cricket to really demand selection. When I get a chance to play Shield cricket again, I’m certainly looking forward to being able to push my caseAaron Hardie on being discussed as a Test allrounder

Before stamping himself in the top-order with Scorchers, Hardie started off at No. 7 and often found himself batting with the nerveless Ashton Turner, who has seemingly mastered getting his side out of trouble and powering them over the line.”I think it’s such a specialised position, that lower-order batsman…[the] Tim David, Marcus Stoinis role,” Hardie said. “It’s something I did for the Scorchers in my first couple of years. Fortunate enough to get a bit of experience in that role and learn mentally how to deal with the failures because you’ve got to go out there and hit balls for six straight away.”That experience has put me in good stead for the international games. I love batting at the top of the order as well, but batting down the order is so important and if I’m good in that role then I can provide more options for any team I’m playing for.”With the help of recency bias, having performed well on the white-ball UK tour, Hardie was touted as a possible Test replacement for the injured Green, who was ruled out for the entire summer after suffering a stress fracture in his lower back.He was never seriously in the running, with his quad issues flaring, but Hardie for the first time had to deal with being in the Test selection spotlight. “There was a little bit of speculation, but we’re always pretty busy as cricketers so I didn’t spend too much time thinking about it,” he said.Aaron Hardie can hold his own at the top of the order•Getty Images”There are so many players around and I think Beau Webster has certainly deserved his spot in the squad after what he’s done the past couple of years.”I aspire to put a massive amount of runs and wickets on the board in Shield cricket to really demand selection. When I get a chance to play Shield cricket again, I’m certainly looking forward to being able to push my case.”While he’s started to gain more widespread prominence, Hardie has long been held in extremely high regard in WA and early last season he took over the leadership reins for Scorchers after Turner succumbed to a knee injury. Hardie got the nod over Josh Inglis, who in recent times has captained Australia in ODI and T20I cricket.”I loved it. The tactical side of things, you certainly feel like you’re pulling the strings and to also build those relationships with the other guys was something I enjoyed,” Hardie said. I certainly learned that it takes a lot of your time off-field, with the planning side of things. If I do it again, I’ll certainly wrap my head around that a bit better. I’m looking forward to doing it again, but pretty happy for AT [Turner] to be back in the role.”Hardie presided over a typically strong regular season for Scorchers, but their dreams of a historic hat-trick of titles ended in disappointment after being stunned by Adelaide Strikers in a home elimination final. It’s a defeat that has left the BBL’s most successful franchise with plenty of motivation.”We were pretty honest with ourselves that we didn’t play our best when it mattered the most,” Hardie said. “We’ve learned some lessons and really want to get back to the type of success we’ve had over the years. I’m itching to be part of it.”

Australian cricketers might be well-practised in the art of the verbal duel, but this youthful Indian side was not afraid to give it back at the first available opportunity

Alagappan Muthu26-Nov-2024In a Champions Trophy match in Kenya 24 years ago, right after being pulled to the boundary, Glenn McGrath unleashed his frustrations on Sachin Tendulkar, who hit back with two very simple words: the first one started with an “F” and the next one an “O”.Australia vs India has always been more than just the cricket, which is why this Border-Gavaskar Trophy was originally meant to be such a difficult tour for some of the newer members of the India side. The game here isn’t just restricted to the bat-ball stuff. It spills over.Verbals. Stare downs. Insults (but the clever kind, so they just about skirt the right side of the line). Australia use these things to carve out an edge for themselves and often what they meet in response is either silence – in which case they just keep going – or a little bit of weakness – in which case they go a bit harder.Related

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From Tendulkar, on that day, they got neither, and that’s why on most days, they didn’t bother trifling with him. From India, over the past four days, they got a whole lot more than they ever bargained for.Mitchell Starc tried to spook Harshit Rana into not bowling short balls. “I bowl faster than you. And I have a long memory.” The next day – right after knocking down a short ball with the utmost ease – Yashasvi Jaiswal told Starc, “You’re coming on too slow.” Tendulkar gave it back to Australia after ten years of dominating the sport. Jaiswal did it at the first available opportunity.Mohammed Siraj lobbed his volleys both on the field – where he often extended his follow through to engage with the batter and fire himself up – and off it. “I had a lot of fun. Especially with Marnus [Labuschagne, who made 2 off 52 and 3 off 5 in Perth],” he told the host broadcaster after the Perth win, “He is under so much pressure right now that he is trying to leave the ball as much as possible, not trying to play them. When he defends, he is trying to show that he is confident, but he isn’t.”It isn’t quite the same as the “scared eyes” comment from David Warner (which Warner has since rolled back) during the Mitchell Johnson Ashes, but it’s not nothing either. And though it might have been coming from a place of the high after the victory was sealed, there was plenty of evidence even in the lead-up to the Test that this team, its coaches and its management are not burdened in the way others that have reached these shores have seemed.Ajit Agarkar made five back-to-back ducks here. Gautam Gambhir averaged 22. They know how quickly bad luck and bad form perpetuates when on tour, especially in Australia. Now as chief selector and head coach, respectively, they started from a place where Rohit Sharma, the regular captain, was likely to miss the first Test of the tour and the recovery of Mohammed Shami, a senior fast bowler, was taking longer than expected. They had to adapt on the fly when that list grew to include an injury to Shubman Gill, a key top-order batter, at the last minute. And every call they made has paid off so far.2:50

Jaiswal: ‘I back myself to take brave decisions’

India’s greatest win on these shores – Brisbane 2021 – was built on the back of young, almost-unknown players, but that wasn’t the plan. It simply worked out that way. This one in Perth was entirely deliberate.R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Akash Deep were all available for selection. Tried and tested performers. They were replaced by Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rana. A fingerspinner, who had only just broken a period of three years in Test-match wilderness, and two debutant allrounders with first-class records that were patchy at best. And somehow each of them ran roughshod over Australia.Reddy top scored for India during a difficult first innings. He’d been all keyed up. “I still remember, last practice when we were having, after the practice I had a chat with Gautam sir,” Reddy said, “and he mentioned when you get any bouncers or something like that, sharp spells, you just take onto the shoulders, something like that. Just feel like you are taking a bullet for your country.”Rana went right up to Labuschagne after hitting him on the inside thigh, stared him down for a second or two and, just before turning around, blew him a little kiss. It was his first over in Test cricket.Harshit Rana checks on Mitchell Starc after a blow to the helmet•AFP/Getty ImagesJaiswal went from 95 to 100 with a six, ramped over the wicketkeeper. He actually saw no reason not to. “To be honest, I knew that he [Josh Hazlewood] is going to bowl me a bouncer because the field was set for it and he was trying to bowl [a good line] outside off stump [as a set-up] but I knew that he will do something and I was ready for that ball. So, in my mind, if he is going to bowl me a bouncer, I am going to play that shot, and luckily he did and I played that shot. I enjoyed it.”The much more experienced KL Rahul, who was at the other end when that happened, and who took pains to rein his partner in early in the innings and make sure he played under his eyes and close to the body, didn’t bother stopping Jaiswal this time. If anything, he enabled him, because they had done the hard work and put themselves in a really strong position.Same with Jasprit Bumrah, whose triple-wicket opening spell in the first innings paved the way for Rana to start his work and straightaway feel confident enough to tease the opposition batters. Virat Kohli is another significant influence on the youngsters, both those in the squad and those still coming through. His success and his larger-than-life personality has had a top-down effect. A whole bunch of next-gen players are coming up with the same beard, similar tattoos, and a steadfast never-back-down attitude.1:48

Manjrekar: ‘India’s selection calls made cricketing sense’

The IPL could have had a hand in this as well, connecting the likes of Rana with Starc and Reddy with Pat Cummins, where they have had a chance to get to know the person behind the athlete, which does sometimes help in terms of mindset. You are less likely to be overawed going up against superstars after spending weeks at a time with them in fairly close quarters. Plus there’s India’s rise as a cricketing power. Increased resources mean increased opportunities in rounding the players out and get them used to fight-or-flight situations.The clout also helps. The team was able to train on their terms, with very little disturbance, which isn’t always the case when you’re travelling abroad on the back of a 3-0 defeat at home.Wins like Perth don’t come very often. Right at the start of a 43-day tour in conditions that favour the opposition, with an under-strength side. Adelaide might unfurl entirely differently. Australia are well versed in pink-ball cricket. India are not. They have a few days – and a tour game – to bridge that gap and if they are able to adapt even half as well as they did this week, this series is going to get really, really interesting.

Ten questions about Kohli and Dhoni around RCB vs CSK encounters from the last 18 years

Sreshth Shah and Shubh Agarwal02-May-2025If the quiz does not appear below, disable your ad-blocker and click here to reload the page

They meet United in Qualifier 1, while Qalandars and Kings face off in the Eliminator

Danyal Rasool20-May-2025PSL 2025 is nearing an end, having completed the group stages in Rawalpindi following a brief suspension two weeks ago. The game between Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi was an effective knockout – the most consequential of the four group games since the league’s resumption. The tournament now moves to Lahore, where it will stay till the final on May 25. Quetta Gladiators and Islamabad United kickstart the playoffs with Qualifier 1, while arch-rivals Qalandars and Karachi Kings face off in the Eliminator. ESPNcricinfo looks at how each team’s campaign has unfolded, and what it tells us about the season’s denouement.Quetta GladiatorsThere was a sliding-doors moment for Gladiators two weeks into the tournament. They had played just three games due to a quirk of the scheduling, having lost two convincingly, and were on track to make it three losses in four against Kings. Kings needed 66 runs off the remaining 69 balls with nine wickets in hand when the Gladiators bowlers somehow found a second wind. Gladiators eventually pulled out a five-run win, which forced the Kings captain David Warner to remark that his side had handed the opposition the game.Catalysed, Gladiators have become an unstoppable behemoth since. They won all their remaining completed matches, finishing three points clear of the field at the top of the table. Abrar Ahmed has been arguably the best legspinner this season, second on the wickets charts with an economy rate under 7.50. Mohammad Amir and Khurram Shahzad have each made match-winning contributions, while Faheem Ashraf has rediscovered some of his better all-round form.At the top, captain Saud Shakeel opening the batting is arguably a point of weakness, but there is significant power hitting among Gladiators’ ranks elsewhere. Finn Allen and Rilee Rossouw will return for the playoffs, while local players Hasan Nawaz and Khawaja Nafay can inflict damage in their own right. With two bites at a spot in the final, Gladiators look well-poised for a first final since they won their only title six years ago.United’s Sahibzada Farhan and Alex Hales form arguably the best opening combination this PSL•PCBIslamabad UnitedMaybe what separates United’s genius from their madness is just hindsight. The defending champions were heavily criticised for throwing away their momentum after they appeared to be running away with the league after winning their first five matches. They then rested five players for the sixth game, and duly got pounded by Qalandars. That lightning in a bottle they had captured suddenly gone, United lost four on the bounce, and were in slight danger of missing out on the playoffs altogether.The break, though, has done them good. The old United was back in its full pomp in a dismantling of Kings that saw them claim a place in the qualifier alongside Gladiators. In this kind of form, there is perhaps no side that can truly live with United.Alex Hales showed himself to be the perfect replacement with Colin Munro no longer available, and alongside Sahibzada Farhan, forms arguably the best opening combination in the league. Shadab Khan is having another excellent all-round season, while no bowler with as many wickets as Imad Wasim is nearly as economical as his 7.06. With Ben Dwarshuis, Tymal Mills and Salman Irshad as the frontline quicks, United’s weakness perhaps lies in the absence of a truly premium fast bowler, but they have plenty of cover elsewhere to compensate. United are a team that can blow hot and cold, though Monday, when they thumped 251 batting first against Kings, suggests, ominously for the league, that there will be more of the former than the latter.Kings captain David Warner has taken to the PSL with surprising enthusiasm, while James Vince is the second-highest run-scorer this season•PCBKarachi KingsKings missed out on each of the last three playoffs, so there’s progress already. It has been something of a stop-start season as Kings alternated between wins and losses for the first six games, before doing just enough to secure passage to the playoffs ahead of the league’s temporary suspension. The hammering at United’s hands, though, was a reminder of the gap that exists between Kings’ average performances and the very best at the top of the league.Kings have never truly managed to build up a head of steam this season, and just as they strung three wins together, they found themselves railroaded into the Eliminator by United. Their top three is as imposing as any in the league, with Warner, who has taken to the PSL and this Kings project, with surprising enthusiasm. Tim Seifert and James Vince, the second-highest run-scorer this season, flank him. Mohammad Nabi is the most economical spinner, while Abbas Afridi is the highest wicket-taker, and Hasan Ali is not far behind, even if they have tended to be expensive.It is Kings’ domestic core in the middle order, though, that may expose a soft underbelly. Khushdil Shah has exploded into life from time to time, but there is an air of vulnerability beyond the top three which Kings haven’t quite shaken off. It is what led to that infamous collapse against Gladiators early in the season, and, on Monday against United, Kings lost seven wickets for 34 runs – they went from 80 for 1 to 114 for 8 – to seal their fate.Fakhar Zaman has a strike rate of 155.04 in PSL 2025Lahore QalandarsQalandars came within one match of exiting in the first round for the seventh time in ten years, but produced a clutch performance in a rain-shortened game to ward off that fate. Much like Kings, Qalandars’ season has waxed and waned. Consistency has proved elusive, but enough individuals in their squad have come up with performances when points on the board were needed.Qalandars remain heavily dependent on the timeless Fakhar Zaman, the third-highest run-scorer in the league; he has a superior strike rate to the top two. After an uncertain start, his opening partner Mohammad Naeem’s flashes of brilliance give Qalandars firepower up top without needing to turn to overseas players. Rounding off the domestic top three is Abdullah Shafique, who also ranks among the top eight for runs. Throw in a strike rate of 147.15, and flying powerplay starts are almost guaranteed.Qalandars’ major worry lies at the other end. Their charge to successive PSL titles came courtesy of a world-class bowling attack in Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan and Rashid Khan. They still have three of those four, but none has proved remotely as effective. Haris’ economy is a staggering 10.66, the highest of all specialist bowlers in the tournament.Qalandars have also been most affected by player departures. Daryl Mitchell, Sam Billings and Sikandar Raza, all key contributors at various stages, will not be available during the playoffs, and though the Qalandars have drafted in Kusal Perera, Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Shakib al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, it remains to be seen whether those shoes have been filled.

And who has played the most Tests without ever taking a catch?

Steven Lynch19-Aug-2025Bob Simpson, who died recently, had a ten-year gap in his Test career – was this the longest for Australia, or indeed anybody? asked David McCormack from Australia
Bob Simpson, who sadly died last week at the age of 89, had played 52 Tests when he originally retired, aged only 31, after the 1967-68 Australian season. But he returned to captain them again in 1977-78, when several first-choice players were unavailable as they had joined Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Simpson was 41, but scored two centuries against India before captaining in the West Indies (which he had done before, in 1964-65). In all he played 62 Tests, scoring 4869 runs at 46.81. The highest of his ten centuries was his first, 311 against England at Old Trafford in 1964.There was a gap of nine years and 305 days between Simpson’s 52nd Test (against India in Sydney in January 1968) and his 53rd (also against India, in Brisbane in December 1977). That’s the longest such gap for Australia in Tests, but leaves him quite a way down the overall list.The offspinner John Traicos tops the list: he went 22 years 222 days between playing for South Africa in March 1970 and appearing in Zimbabwe’s inaugural Test, against India in Harare in October 1992. George Gunn of England and Pakistan’s Younis Ahmed both went more than 17 years between Test appearances.Simpson missed 71 Test matches during his absence, and lies third on that particular list for Australia, behind Brad Hogg and Tim Paine, who both missed 78. The overall list is headed by the England offspinner Gareth Batty, who was not selected in 142 successive Tests between June 2005 and October 2016.Who has played the most Test matches without ever taking a catch? And what’s the record for ODIs and T20Is? asked Zaheer Ahmed from the United States
I’ve answered this before, but not for a while I think, and it’s worth doing again as Zimbabwe’s Tendai Chatara has (possibly temporarily) joined four other men who have played ten Tests without ever taking a catch. The others are Australia’s Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, Imran Khan of Pakistan (the recent bowler, not the famous captain), India’s Abey Kuruvilla and Jayananda Warnaweera of Sri Lanka.In ODIs, the Pakistan seamer Ata-ur-Rehman played no fewer than 30 matches without ever holding on to a catch: he’s well clear of the next man, Zimbabwe’s Piet Rinke with 18.In T20 internationals, Chirag Suri of UAE has played 31 matches so far without taking a catch, while Hungary’s Ali Farasat has drawn a blank in 22. Australia’s Billy Stanlake has played 19 T20Is without a catch, as has Rwanda’s Yvan Mitari.For the women, Pakistan’s Sharmeen Khan played 26 ODIs without taking a catch and Jiska Howard of Netherlands 21. In T20Is, the Singapore offspinner Haresh Dhavina has so far played no fewer than 49 matches without a catch, and Harjivan Bhullar 43 for Austria.Has any captain ever done less than Mitchell Santner in the second Test against Zimbabwe? He only bowled one over and didn’t bat… at least he took a few catches! asked Christopher McKenna from New Zealand
I don’t suppose Mitchell Santner was too bothered by his slim pickings in Bulawayo, since his side won by an innings and he ended up with two wins out of two as captain! He wasn’t required to bat, bowled one over for four runs, but did take three catches.There are 18 instances of a captain not batting or bowling in a Test, most of them rain-affected matches – it includes successive games for England’s Arthur Carr during the 1926 Ashes, and rival captains Tom Lowry (New Zealand) and Harold Gilligan (England) in a soggy match in Auckland in February 1930. The previous two instances were both in 2023, by Ben Stokes for England against Ireland at Lord’s in June, and the injured Temba Bavuma for South Africa vs India in Centurion in December.There’s one other instance of a captain not batting but bowling just one over in the Test, by Jackie Grant in West Indies’ innings victory over England in Kingston in 1935.Ben Stokes neither batted nor bowled but did take one catch when he captained England to a ten-wicket win against Ireland at Lord’s in 2023•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesOn his Test debut in 2019, George Linde scored the most runs in the match and also took the most wickets for South Africa. Has anyone else done this on debut? asked James King from South Africa
South Africa’s George Linde scored 37 and 27, and also took 4 for 133, on his debut against India in Ranchi in 2019.He was only the second man to make the most runs and take more wickets than any other team-mate on his Test debut, after Roger Blunt, who scored 52 runs and also took five wickets with his legbreaks against England in Christchurch in 1930, in New Zealand’s first-ever Test match.Two other players scored the most runs, and were the equal-top wicket-taker in their first Test: Tinashe Panyangara, with 50 runs (from No. 11) and three wickets for Zimbabwe against Sri Lanka in Harare in 2004 (Blessing Mahwire also took three wickets), and Alick Athanaze, who top-scored in both innings with 47 and 28 and also took a wicket for West Indies vs India in Roseau (Dominica) in 2023. Athanaze was one of five West Indian bowlers who took a solitary wicket in that match.As a follow-up to last week’s question about Brendan Taylor, did Zimbabwe have the oldest average age for any Test team? asked Anandh Subramanian from India
The team in Bulawayo was Zimbabwe’s oldest in a Test, with an average age of 32 years 111 days: apart from the nearly-40s, most of the others were relatively young. Zimbabwe’s previous-oldest team was against England at Trent Bridge earlier in the year, with an average age of 31 years 133 days (Taylor wasn’t in that one).Buit it’s a long way down the overall list of the oldest teams: there have actually been 156 XIs with a higher average age. The top four places are occupied by England in the four Tests in the West Indies in 1929-30, when their side included two 50-year-olds in Wilfred Rhodes (who was actually 52) and George Gunn, two fortysomethings in Nigel Haig and Patsy Hendren, and 39-year-old Andy Sandham, who scored Test cricket’s first triple-century in the final Test in Kingston, when the team’s average age was 37 years 188 days.The oldest in the current century was Australia’s team in the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June 2025, which had an average age of 33 years 156 days – only Cameron Green was under 30.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

With his double-ton in the Duleep Trophy, the 21-year-old Vidarbha batter has nine fifty-plus scores in 16 innings

Himanshu Agrawal29-Aug-2025Danish Malewar is soft-spoken. So his bat does the talking for him. For a 21-year-old who is just ten first-class matches into his career, there is immense clarity and versatility. And runs too. Big runs. He hit a double-century in the Duleep Trophy quarter-final for Central Zone and the North EastMalewar loves hitting boundaries but knows the importance of the defensive game as well. He feels his strength is playing off the front foot, but one look at his batting would tell us how solid he is with the punch and the pull shots off the back foot as well.All of that and more were on display at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Malewar amassed 198 runs on the opening day of the domestic season, and duly went on to complete his maiden double-century in first-class cricket on Friday morning. The landmark came up with an assured cut shot for four through cover. Malewar’s words after the second day’s play, when he retired out on 203 after walking out to bat in the third over of the match, spoke of a young man who knows his stuff.”There was some moisture on the pitch when I started batting. I just saw the new ball through, and the wicket had started to settle after lunch [on day one],” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I was confident enough given the practice I had had.”Danish Malewar scored his maiden first class double-century on Friday•Himanshu Agrawal/ESPNcricinfo LtdMalewar made his first-class debut for Vidarbha in last season’s Ranji Trophy, and averages 61.62 after 16 innings. Nine times he has passed fifty, and three of those, he has converted into hundreds. Malewar thumped 150 runs in boundaries during his career-best knock, albeit against an inexperienced North East attack, and batted at a strike rate of 91.44.With 783 runs in nine matches, he was Vidarbha’s third-highest run-getter in their title-winning Ranji season. Malewar looks up to and admires the work ethic of Yash Rathod, one of the two team-mates who got more runs than him in 2024-25.Related

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“I’ve been watching and following Yash for a long time,” he said. “I’ve learnt from him how to defend a ball right at the stumps. I also practice with him at the nets, and watch how he leaves the deliveries outside off stump as well as how he drives at the ball. I think we have a similar batting style too.”Karun Nair, the other batter who scored more than Malewar, returned to Karnataka ahead of this domestic season. So there is a bit of slack that needs picking up at Vidarbha.”I did well last year,” Malewar said. “I think I fit well at No. 3. [Nair’s absence] does mean more responsibility, and as a top-order batter, I need to lay a solid base for those coming in to bat after me. It’s my job to see off the new ball, and to bat for as long as possible.”No wonder then that he has faced a hundred or more deliveries in eight of his 16 innings so far. Malewar wants to develop his own style of batting, and says he likes to play all the shots in the book – the drive, the flick, and the sweep. He has three idols, and, like his batting, is sorted about what to ask whom.”Sachin [Tendulkar] sir, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul are my favourites. I’ve seen Sachin sir from a distance, but have never got the chance to meet him. I know what I’m going to ask the three batters whenever I get to have a chat with them: I’m going to ask Sachin sir about how to play the drive well, KL Rahul about my overall batting, and Virat about mental toughness. I’m going to prepare well before going to meet them!”Talk about clarity, clear-headedness and goals. Talk about young Danish Malewar.

With just a few days to go until the start of the Ashes in Perth, Alan Gardner hears from Vithushan Ehantharajah and Alex Malcolm about the teams’ final preparations

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2025After months of talking, the Ashes are almost upon us. But there’s still time to do a bit more talking, as the teams assemble in Perth ahead of the first Test. On this week’s Switch Hit, Alan Gardner is joined by Vithushan Ehantharajah and Alex Malcolm to get all the latest from both camps, including news on Mark Wood’s fitness, a potential debut for Jake Weatherald, and whether England are a genuine chance of pulling off an upset.

The left hander was marked out from a young age as a player of huge talent, which brought with it pressure and expectation

Cameron Ponsonby31-Oct-2025Rachin Ravindra loves cricket.”You know CricHQ?” Ravindra asks, confirming his audience is on the same cricket tragic path that he is. “The scoring website thing. We’d get a game up from back in the day, let’s say Tendulkar, Desert Storm in Sharjah. And you’d have to get 106 or whatever, not out, to win the game.”For hours at any one time, Ravindra and friends would play out full-blown ODI run-chases or Test classics in the indoor nets at Lower Hutt in Wellington. Cones were put down to mark fielders, crash pads were lined up for men under the lid and if Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were batting at Eden Gardens, spin mats were put down as well.”That was the most fun I’ve ever had training,” Ravindra reminisces.Related

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Ravindra grew up around cricket. At home, his dad, a handy club player, would have cricket on the telly, the radio, the PlayStation and up on YouTube. While at school, Ravindra was part of an XI that won the National Championships when he was in Year 11. Ben Sears, his now international team-mate, was his opening partner, while Otago batter Troy Johnson was his captain at No. 3.”His first 1XI game at school was as a 13-year-old,” Johnson remembers. “He told me all the bowlers were too slow and that’s why he was early on every shot.”He’s probably not the most talented player in the history of the game, but he works way, way harder than anyone I’ve ever seen.”From the age of seven, Ravindra had a training schedule synced with his calendar. He’d be up before his dad and would drag him to the indoor nets at Lower Hutt before school, as well as after.Ravindra’s game was built on imitation. Watching highlights, he’d see a shot he liked and ask his dad to clip it. Over time, Ravindra had a DVD of supercut, super highlights featuring Kumar Sangakkara cover drives, Matthew Hayden pick-ups over midwicket, Ricky Ponting pull shots and Brian Lara cut shots.”Then I’d go to the nets and practice,” Ravindra explains. “20 good ones exactly like Sangakkara did.”Two Tendulkar straight drives made the cut as well. “That little punchy thing he did,” Ravindra recalls. “I tried that heaps. But he also hit a full follow-through one as well.”Speaking to ESPNcricinfo back in 2018, his father, Ravi Krishnamurthy, concluded, “I tried to get my daughter into cricket and she didn’t. With Rachin, I didn’t try, and he did.”The 2023 ODI World Cup is where Rachin Ravindra really went global•AFP/Getty ImagesFor Ravindra, the prodigy tag has been attached to him for as long as he can remember. That school debut at 13, becoming the leading wicket taker in the school’s history by the time he was 15, the youngest member of the New Zealand Under-19 squad at 16. His first-class debut came for New Zealand A as a 19-year-old. Life for any professional athlete-to-be is unusual. Life for a prodigy is unique. And in truth, bizarre. Being told you will be the best at something before you’ve even…”Achieved that much?”, says Ravindra, cutting off the question. “I know exactly what you mean. It’s interesting. From a youngish age you sort of get labelled as whatever. But for me it comes down to why I play. Obviously, I love playing cricket because the fans get to watch me and I find that amazing.”But at the end of the day, it’s because I enjoy it. I want to get better at it. So it’s almost irrelevant about me trying to prove my ability to other people. I love playing for a team. I’m playing and I’m trying to win games for that team. So that, for me, drives me.”Ravindra’s first crack at international cricket was a failure. On the biggest stage, it was the first time he had rolled the dice and landed on a snake rather than a ladder. In six T20Is he averaged nine and in three Test matches he averaged 15 facing India and Bangladesh.

I was just thinking, this…is…ridiculous. It’s the moments you dream of as a kid. I guess I’m lucky my name’s closeRachin Ravindra on hearing his name chanted during the 2023 World Cup

“You get given an opportunity at a young age, potentially in a role you’re not necessarily ready for,” he says, “And you want to impress and think this is my journey and this is how it’s supposed to go. And then it doesn’t work out and you sit back and think, ‘wow’.”Eighteen months on the sidelines followed where he returned to Wellington and averaged a good-but-not-great 37. Despite the so-so returns, Ravindra describes the time as a “eureka moment” where he learned to ride the waves of failure.”I’d been trying so hard to be this player that I’m not,” he says. “And, the classic, I’d been putting myself under too much pressure and not realising that failure teaches us so many things. And if you don’t realise that early enough you get surrounded by it and it eats you up.”Ultimately, his concluding thoughts towards cricket were the same as the rest of ours.”It sucks,” Ravindra says. “But it’s also – like – great.”Rachin Ravindra on India test series: “I think about that India tour, and every day we were like ‘oh my god, what is going on here? We can win this thing.'”•AFP/Getty ImagesIt was chance, rather than planning, that led him to the 2023 World Cup where his star rose and his reputation was made. Initially not picked in the squad, he was a late call-up after Michael Bracewell was injured. And the day before the England match, even with Kane Williamson out injured, he was not scheduled to be in the XI. Only when Lockie Ferguson pulled out late with a hamstring issue was Ravindra given the nod. Not, as had been the case so far in his career, in the middle-order, but at No. 3.”I knew I was a better player,” Ravindra recalls of whether the nerves were greater the second time around. “I had a better mindset, I’d done more research and worked on a few things I felt like I needed. I guess I was lucky that the timing worked out to be leading up to the World Cup.”123 unbeaten runs later and Ravindra’s potential was realised. That was further confirmed with another century against Australia in Dharamsala, where the Indian crowd took to him and chants of “Rachin, Rachin” echoed around the ground.”I almost did,” Ravindra laughs when asked if a tear or two rolled down his cheek. “I was just thinking, this…is…ridiculous. It’s the moments you dream of as a kid. I guess I’m lucky my name’s close.”From imitating Tendulkar as a child to having an imitation of the legend’s chant delivered to him. Disney movies would scrap such an ending for being too on the nose.It was the start of what’s become a love affair with playing on the subcontinent. Six of his eight international centuries have come either in India or Pakistan. He scored a Test hundred in Bengaluru, the hometown of his parents, during New Zealand’s miraculous whitewash of India in 2024, before putting together a prolific Champions Trophy run in 2025 to take New Zealand to the final.Rachin Ravindra alongside Kane Williamson, one of his idols•ICC/Getty Images”I’ve had special moments around the world,” Ravindra recalls of his highlights reel. “But I think the most special have been in Test cricket. I think about that India tour, and every day we were like ‘oh my god, what is going on here? We can win this thing.'”Ravindra’s reward has been to be elevated to the next level of prodigy status. That of the generational player. Michael Atherton said it a year ago, Stuart Broad and Jos Buttler said it a few weeks ago.”It’s a pinch yourself moment when people say that,” Ravindra explains. “And knowing I’ve played with Jos at Manchester Originals and seeing the way he bats. To hear that, it’s really cool.”It’s relevant that in the story of a child prodigy who’s now earning millions of dollars a year, that Ravindra is known for being, well, really nice. “One of the all-time greats,” was one message I received ahead of the interview. Multiple people spoke of how lightly he wears his reputation and international standing in the game.In an off-the-record conversation with a player a year ago, unprompted, they announced Ravindra to be one of their favourite people they’ve met in the game. But not because he was nice. That would be weird. But because he was a kind, down-to-earth person, with the edge required to make it at the top.”I was obsessed with it,” Ravindra said of his early experiences in cricket. “Obviously Dad got me into it first, but then it was ‘I want to go do this. I want to go do that.’ I’d cry when I got out in the nets.”The relationship was led by Ravindra Jnr, and facilitated by Ravindra Snr.Rachin Ravindra will be a key part of New Zealand’s batting for years to come•ICC/Getty Images”It always can be quite tough having your dad as coach,” Ravindra says. “There were some serious times where we bickered. It’s not his fault. I cared about it so much and I wanted to do well. But because of everything we did when I was young, he’s one of my best mates. And mum was also around the whole time too. She’d wake me up, have everything ready for the day.”Ravindra is the fan who made it to the top. In a modern environment where coffee and golf leave cricket a distant third in professionals’ favourite hobbies, it is refreshing to hear a player talk so openly about their love of the game compared to how often the sport seems to drive players to distraction, and sometimes bitterness, when it becomes a job.For Ravindra though, the novelty of rubbing shoulders with his heroes is yet to wear off, even if those he once counted as idols are now his peers.”I remember Michael Hussey was our batting coach at CSK,” Ravindra recalls, “and I was talking to him about his books and he was like, ‘….mate.'”
Batting with Kane Williamson remains top of the pile in his catalogue of fan-to-player experiences, with Virat Kohli giving him a bit of a spray the first time he played against him making the shortlist as well.His dad remains heavily involved in the sport, too. When Ravindra was a kid, his father created a local club known as the Hutt Hawks that played extra matches around the country and even went on annual tours to India. It is hard not to connect Ravindra’s success on the subcontinent with such early exposure to conditions in the country. The club is still going, and thriving.”They’ve got four or five teams in each age-group now,” Ravindra says with a smile. “It obviously helped me, but countless other cricketers as well. You look down the Wellington Firebirds list and even across the country, how many people have done that trip and there’s been so many.”New Zealand’s Test whitewash of India 2024. Masterminded by the Hutt Hawks – sort of. Tom Blundell was the other member of the national team who went on a tour as well.”I guess there’s no secret, right?” Ravindra concludes of his route to success. “You look at guys like Steve Smith, Kohli, Kane, Root and they hit a number of balls. It’s got to be purposeful, and you can feel like it can drag on, but that’s the thing that you pride yourself on.”Ahead of Christmas, there’s a new cricket game coming out on the PlayStation. As a child, Ravindra grew up watching his dad play Cricket ’04 in the living room. This time, he’ll be in the game himself. Sometimes the presents choose themselves.

Their warring fans have united and are now railing together against the team management, while we wait, series on series, to see if they can make it to the 2027 ODI World Cup

Sidharth Monga17-Oct-20252:16

What to expect from Rohit, Kohli in this phase of their careers?

If you are the type that follows cricket for cricket’s sake, you have surely missed them. If, on the other hand, you fiendishly go looking for cricketers’ holiday photos or training photos or reassurance that they matter, you have had your fix.Actually, for once, forget social media, forget the smattering of promotional “content” reminding you how they are getting ready for the “2027 World Cup”. Forget anything that makes you cynical. This is bigger than all the cynicism and PR and pettiness and fan wars.Seven months after they last played international cricket, nearly five months after they were seen playing in the IPL, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are coming back to do what we love them for, in their best format, now their only format for India, against a team that provided the highest purpose in their working lives, in a country that proved to be the scene of their last Tests. It is hard not to be emotional.Related

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There will be so much going through our minds and hearts during these three ODIs against Australia in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. It is a chance to watch again two of the greatest ODI batters of all time. The effortless, almost risk-free accumulation of Kohli, and the joyful explosiveness of Rohit in the back half. Okay, let’s not give in to nostalgia too much. For about three years now, Kohli has been taking risks but with the same efficiency, and Rohit has taken on such high-risk starts that he rarely ever bats into the back half.We will be looking for changes in their appearance, in their fitness, in their games to imagine what they have been up to all this time. For more than a decade, they never went away for this long except during Covid. For more than a decade, our times have been shared. We have given them our hours, they have given us theirs.Now time is what they are running out of. Not just we, but the selectors and the team management will be looking for signs to see if they can last till the 2027 ODI World Cup.Not long ago, these two were making such decisions for others.Neither, arguably, had to make such big calls.Just imagine, Kohli tweets something that is not an ad and news channels end up doing shows deciphering the meaning and significance of the tweet only for him to reveal that it was a teaser for an ad. This happened on Thursday.5:49

Agarkar on Kohli-Rohit: ‘Too early to think about 2027 ODI World Cup’

These are huge names. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Ro-Ko is how this series is being sold everywhere. At some point, without us noticing, these two supposedly bitter rivals became hyphenated. At first, it was just a media creation, but look at them now. One gets selected for the T20 World Cup because the other is the captain and you can’t drop just one of them. They end up winning the title, and retiring together. Their Test career ends in the same series. Now their “fan armies” are united in their hatred for the team management.A part of that team management is a young man, who has already benefitted immensely from these two. Kohli has always been a barometer for Shubman Gill, somebody whose scores at the same age the kid Shubman used to check to measure up to. Rohit’s new incarnation of a fiery opener has allowed Gill the ODI opener the time to be able to play a more sedate role and accumulate relatively risk-free runs.Now Gill has to be part of the decision on whether his trusted Test opener Yashasvi Jaiswal will serve him better than Rohit. Not just in this series and the next, but two years down the line. He has to decide whether the hyphen is fair on Kohli, who might have arguably benefitted from it in T20Is.We will watch not knowing if any given series could be the last for one or both of them. We will wait for every ODI series selection. For now, though, we will savour the three full ODIs. For we have missed them. And there the hyphen is okay.