How Qalandars used out-of-the-box T20 thinking to engage their core and engineer a turnaround

Umar Farooq15-Mar-2023From being one of the least successful sides to winning the league to becoming one of its stronger teams now, how have Lahore Qalandars’ fortunes turned around?

When I joined in the second year of this franchise, I looked around hoping to find players available to replace what wasn’t working. We had Azhar Ali as captain… that was the choice we had back then. It was new back then and nobody had an idea what was happening and how to handle this. And then we brought in Brendon McCullum as captain, and his thought process now has started to reflect in his coaching of England.Brendon did try to bring in that fearless element here, but to translate that any human being needs time. The biggest challenge in franchise cricket is that you have everything but time to understand and coach. There are players who land and play the next day like we had Sam Billings, who landed one morning and was playing the next day. So it takes time and we knew things were bad, we were criticised, but also knew we can’t do much about it mid-season. So we started the PDP (player development programme) and decided to make our own players.The biggest challenge is the selection in the draft, where you have to control your feelings, resist big, attractive properties, and focus on what are your requirements and team composition. We deliberately wanted to make the best bowling unit, where everyone else is after the best hitters. What is the counter to the best hitter? The best bowling. And what we have, nobody in the world has it.

“We had to tone down the temptation of big T20 names and invested our time in making a core largely based on getting reliable local players”

Qalandars were the poorest team in the first few years – how were those issues rectified?
You have four foreign players and you can’t play more than that. So the focus has always been on seven local players and we haven’t had a big pool available in our earlier seasons. Even now, there isn’t a big pool coming out of domestic cricket, so we have to develop our own through the PDP. It’s really hard to find the quality that is required at this level. You actually know those gaps and you have to search for the right player, bring them in, and get them ready for the role.There has been a temptation to go after big names, and we did get the best in the world, but over the years [we] learned that it doesn’t help if your local core isn’t as good. So we had to tone down the temptation of [going after] big T20 names and invested our time in making a core largely based on getting reliable local players.We took time when we were ridiculed a lot for losing in earlier seasons. But we were working behind the scenes. We were building our core quietly. We found Haris Rauf from these dusty grounds, we contributed to the growth of Shaheen [Shah Afridi] and made him captain, persisted with Fakhar Zaman through thick and thin, trusted David Wiese, let Mohammad Hafeez go and brought Sikandar Raza in. Rashid Khan became an integral part of the side, Zaman Khan is a new emerging talent, so overall we managed our core smartly. That’s the only difference from being the worst side to one of the best sides. Now we have a reliable core.How did you put the bowling attack together?

The idea was to recreate what Pakistan had in the ’90s. In our cricket, the impact of the two Ws [Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis] is never forgotten. People don’t want to forget the era. We can’t have them back, but we can make another one for people to see and enjoy. So I had the vision to see Shaheen as a left-arm pacer, Haris Rauf with his deadly pace, and then we were looking for a new-ball bowler and we found Zaman Khan. Does that remind you of something? That takes you back to the ’90s and that’s what I wanted to see. Six overs upfront and the remaining six in death, so this combination today is the most lethal in the world. One moment of brilliance from a batter can win you a game, but bowling units win you tournaments.People underrate Zaman and don’t really see him as a prospect. The kind of performance he gave last season, he was ignored and he returned to repeat it. His skill-set and the confidence he has make him probably Pakistan’s fourth automatic-choice fast bowler. After Shaheen, Haris, and Naseem Shah, he is the one that comes in the line. He has the control, has the variations, and a quality slinger action so I will be surprised if he doesn’t play for Pakistan very soon.

“We say, if you want to win, come compete with us; but then you have to hit six bowlers at ten an over. If you manage to hit 40 each off Shaheen, Rashid, Haris, David, Zaman and Sikandar, then you deserve to win”

You’ve seen Rashid Khan up close now for a while – what makes him so special?

We had a debate the other day, talking about what he has that others don’t. We agreed it is the pressure. If he is in any team, the kind of pressure he puts on the opponent makes a difference. His skills, the accuracy, and the level of control he has over his game. He has such control in his hands that he strikes at will. You feel nervous facing him because he brings that pressure and in four overs you don’t have a chance.So is it fair to say that Qalandars have gone from being a conventional T20 batting side to a bowling-oriented team and that has changed their fortunes?

What do we produce the best? Bowlers, right? I acted with the kind of bowlers we produce, to use that as leverage. This wasn’t built overnight. We made it and I am extremely proud to form this attack.In T20 thinking, you get wickets from the new ball and we have Shaheen, who is the best in the world and at the end, you have to defend the total. You need a death bowler and nobody is better than Haris Rauf. From two seasons, the way Zaman merged into this pack as a death bowler and even with the new ball, this composition is the best in the world. Then, in the middle overs, you have the privilege of Rashid and the kind of impact he brings to any side. This season, a masterstroke gift we found from the draft was Sikandar Raza. You look at our journey from Hafeez to Sikandar – isn’t it one of the best moves? It is.Related

• Pollard and Cottrell blow Lahore Qalandars away

• Miller: 'I've really enjoyed challenging myself against the PSL death bowlers'

• PSL – a success story and a welcome distraction for its people

• Qalandars rebuild around Afridi; Sultans retain core

• Billings: 'I've run drinks for eight years. I just want to play'

David [Wiese] – people don’t rate him much, they think of him as a retired cricketer who used to play for South Africa and possibly a bowler they think they can use his overs as an opportunity. But it’s an illusion. He has the highest number of five-wicket hauls in T20 cricket in the world. People look at him as a soft target and want to attack him, but he is very smart and uses variations depending on the situation. So, we say, if you want to win, come compete with us; but then you have to hit six bowlers at ten an over. If you manage to hit 40 each off Shaheen, Rashid, Haris, David, Zaman and Sikandar then you deserve to win. If any two bowlers go under 30 and others over [30] then the maximum you can get is 160 or 170.Last year, Multan Sultans looked invincible, only to lose in the final. You are looking unbeatable right now – how do you guard against a similar fate as Multan Sultans?

It depends on the environment. Sometimes emotions drive you and take you to the skies. When you are on a winning streak everyone is a winner, even a coach or a masseur, the support staff feels like a winner even if they are not on the field. We keep on reminding ourselves to resist the temptation inside, and that excitement needs to find a balance. You lose someday and you could get really down or with a good win your excitement gets out of control. These are the kind of things we talk about in the dressing room, to understand failure and winning and finding the right balance between them.There will be times when you lose. We lost against Karachi [Kings] and got into trouble against Quetta Gladiators, but when you learn to deal with the emotions then you’re less likely to have accidents in the field. So a few losses in the group stage came at the right time to bring us back, to make us realise that it’s not over yet.Qalandars is a vibrant sort of franchise – loud, colourful, in the limelight. Is that a distraction at all?

Problems start when there is too much talk about the game, and everyone’s throwing in their opinions, and a lot of elements that could take away your focus. We didn’t make a team with a random bunch of players coming from different backgrounds, we made an environment and a good environment can change a lot of things. Everyone is treated the same and everyone is given importance. We are Qalandars from the heart, which gives us stability and gives us the freedom to focus on the game rather than managing egos. This team is not dependent on any one player. It’s about composition, and every player has his own importance. There is no one superstar but everyone is a star.We know our limitations, we know our strengths, and in cricket that one moment always comes to you where things can go either way. You can lose on a given day and it’s not like you are invincible. For instance, it came on Sikandar Raza when he scored 71 when the team was reeling at 50 for 7, and he swung the game away and we ended up winning the game. He told us that when he went in he didn’t feel that there was any such pressure on him, when to the outside it would look like there was.Why did he feel that way? Because we have created an environment where you have to accept that in your mind that if you get out it’s okay, it’s not the end of the world. You can lose and your life doesn’t end there. We just tell them that you should enjoy the game, recall why they started playing cricket in their childhood and never forget that. At times, I see so many people get involved at different levels, they make it like war and families open up the praying mats and start praying. Suddenly it feels like you need help from the divine to play this game. It’s unnecessary pressure on you when you stop trusting your skills. All you have to do is enjoy the game and at the end of the day it’s a game and you compete with skill. So keep it simple it’s a game.Aqib Javed, second from right, sits with some of his bowlers – [L to R] Tahir Baig, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Zaman Khan•Lahore QalandarsIt’s a belief that Qalandars don’t believe in data – is that true?

I don’t know where this came from. We, in fact, at one stage had three data analysts including AR Srikkanth from KKR, one of the most renowned guys in the business. So we do use data support as well. It’s not something we boast about. It’s basically a support, available at all times for players if they want to take it. We believe in players’ skills, their abilities and developing leadership. We don’t believe in sending messages from outside the rope. There is Rashid, Wiese, Fakhar, Shaheen inside and we have faith in them, believing in their collective intelligence and knowledge. If they together can’t do it then they don’t deserve to be in.We as coaches developed them for every scenario they could face in and what to expect, what to do and how to respond. They are there because we trust them and if you don’t know what to do, then what the hell are you doing inside? We don’t confuse players with a lot of numbers, we train them to compete but every player has a different level of absorbing information. We have support available all the time and if you want it you can take it. We are not denying it but we are careful not to put too much pressure on them. You can easily scare the player off with it and could slow him down.So where and how do you use data?

It is the coach’s job to absorb the numbers and transform them into a language a player can easily understand. It works differently with every player; some players don’t have time to watch cricket and we have to feed them with information about the opponent. Some players go with instincts and adjust within the field after watching a few balls. But our primary success is that we have a support staff working all year. If you look at other teams, they have coaching staff going in and out moving from IPL to PSL to Hundred to T10, and the window is always shutting down and opening to join teams a few days before the event.We have a set support staff and our vision is to make competitive cricketers and back their skills so that they don’t have to look back in the dressing room when they don’t have ideas. We prepared them for being on the ground with all the support when you are outside the rope but when you are on the ground you should know what to do. It’s the preparation that speaks on the ground. Our job ends when players go inside the rope. That is when their job starts and we take a back seat.

Their fast-bowling or math tests, what would you rather face before you’ve even rubbed the sleep from your eyes?

Osman Samiuddin09-Jun-2023Good morning.Here is a postcard from hell.Hell is morning. Nothing good ever came from mornings. Bodies, slow, minds slower. Probably children somewhere, not being slow or mindful, the very accessories of hell.The day before this Test began Rohit Sharma arrived at a press conference at The Oval and, no lie, it took him a minute to begin to even compose a response to the first question. It was 9:15am. I’m pretty sure as the question began, Rohit was still in REM sleep. If we can ever know anything for certain about Rohit Sharma without knowing anything about him, it is that he is not a morning person. And no man should be attending to formal duties at this hour, let alone having to face questions from journalists.Related

Ajinkya Rahane, India's quiet hero

Australia still on top but Rahane and Thakur lead India's resistance

Steven Smith adds new chapter to his Oval love affair

Seamers build on Steven Smith's ton to give Australia control

Steven Smith on David Warner's new batting guard: 'I nearly fell into it'

This Test has been starting earlier than usual for England. At 11am, we’re on the border between morning and afternoon, waiting to cross into noon. But at 10:30am, we’re rubbing the sleep from our eyes.But you know who else, apart from children, likes mornings? Fast bowlers.If children are the accessories to hell fast bowlers are the furniture. They love mornings. The rest of us are trying to string a two-word sentence together and failing, trying not to be like when the audio and video of your screen is all out of sync; meanwhile these heroes are catwalking in from 30 yards, bodies loose and lean, joints and limbs and muscles in biological harmony, hurling stuff at you at 90mph.First thing in the morning, Scott Boland. I mean. That’s like waking up straight into a math exam.Whatever else hell might be, ChatGPT will be there. And what is Scott Boland if not the ChatGPT response to the question of who is the perfect fast-medium bowler? Boland does fast-medium bowling exactly as it has been prescribed, except he does it so exactly that it can’t be real. It must be a likeness of real, that’s how good it is.Who bowls the ball he bowled second up this morning? KS Bharat is waking up, we’re all waking up really, and here’s Boland asking him to disprove the Riemann Hypothesis.”You what? Wait, what’s that sound? Is that my stumps?”It’s a ball you might not be able to keep out at 2pm, 5pm, 9pm or any pm. At 10:32am? No chance in hell.Next ball he raps Shardul Thakur on the gloves. This is a sign. Pain is incoming. Having brought balls back thus far, the last one holds its line and Thakur edges it, just beyond the slips. This is also a sign because fortune is also incoming. If fast-medium bowling as we’ve known it (Stuart Clark, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Abbas) is hell, then in the high 80s for speeds, Boland’s is Hell+.How can anyone who looks that good be so bad for you?•Getty ImagesThe greatest trick hell ever pulled is, of course, Pat Cummins, who’s up next. How can anyone who looks that good be so bad for you? How can anyone look that good this early in the morning? How can anyone be so considered and considerate, so full of empathy, and yet also be trying to crack your body open at least 120 times a day?First ball he’s in. Can’t drive it. Can’t not play at it. Can’t play it even when you can’t not play at it. It’s seaming away from Ajinkya Rahane. What coffee do they serve in hell? Cummins keeps pulling his length fractionally backwards or forwards of good length, allowing the variation in bounce in the surface to come in play for the rest of the over. Then, at the end, having fed Thakur all this heat, he throws him the illusion of a cold wet towel. A full ball. Outside off. Drive it. Seek relief. Thakur can’t see it from all the sweat in his eyes and misses.Boland got hit for his first six in Tests on Thursday. On Friday, he bowls his first ever bad delivery in Tests, four wides way down legside. India celebrate the runs. Humanity celebrates a glitch in the ChatGPT algorithm: there’s hope for all of us. Hold your horses though. Other than that ball, Boland’s over seams in, then holds, seams in, then holds again, then seams in. Thakur edges, but it scoots along the field past slips for four.Pat Cummins hit Shardul Thakur in the right forearm two balls in a row•AFP/Getty ImagesThe next over from Cummins has so many medical personnel on the field, it’s like a scene from Grey’s Anatomy which, of course, is the same thing as a scene from hell. Thakur is struck twice in two balls, on the exact same spot on his forearm, off two exact same deliveries. Not short but quick, bouncing but also seaming away. Hell is a life lived over. At the non-striker’s end, another truth bomb has struck Rahane. Hell is other people.Hell is also not over. Thakur pops a pill, puts on an extra arm guard (although at this precise moment, Tony Stark’s latest armour isn’t going to help him any) and gets hit on the glove, high up on the bat handle next ball. The last ball of the over is a conventional legbreak. At nearly 90mph.Rahane plays out an over from Boland which feels like, I dunno, maybe having a cigarette in hell. He takes six runs by opening the face of his bat but is beaten in between by one that jags away from very close to off. Smoking’s not good for your health. But it’s less bad for your health than hell.Thakur is dropped by Cameron Green at gully off Cummins. It is a dolly. He’s hit high on the pads the next ball and then in the midriff the ball after. It’s a no-ball too, so an extra ball to face. One nips in, almost rolls on to the stumps off Thakur’s bottom edge. At this point, the drop seems cruel and unfair on Thakur. ESPNcricinfo records his control percentage as 40%. It seems a lot on the high side.Boland is still going because AI never sleeps. Rahane defends solidly, then plays a nice off-drive and it might be that he’s getting the hang of this. Duly he drives, duly the ball shapes away and duly the edge falls just short of gully.It’s past 11 now, so creeping into non-morning territory. It might be that someone’s turned the AC on in hell, or at least turned the heat down. Rahane first gets lucky, jabbing at and edging a wideish length ball from Cummins for four. Rahane then gets classy, hooking the next ball, high and long for six and nearly, very nearly out of hell.There’s still time for Boland to have a whole over of fun with Thakur. Back of length, fuller, in, out, shake it all about. It leaves Thakur requiring more treatment, this time on his thumb. He may need to talk to someone about what his mind and soul have just been put through.But he’s gotten through it. It’s 11:22am. It’s not even been a full hour but my watch is telling me it’s been eternity. Morning has ended and as Mitchell Starc comes on, so too has hell.

The Blast’s leading run-scorer since 2020 is eyeing an overdue Hundred contract in Thursday’s draft

Matt Roller21-Mar-2023Stevie Eskinazi has dyed his hair peroxide blond, and no wonder. He has been ignored by the Hundred throughout its first two editions and with the 2023 draft taking place on Thursday evening, he will do just about anything to get himself noticed.Across the last three seasons, nobody has scored as many runs in the Vitality Blast, the counties’ T20 competition, as Eskinazi. He has been playing for – and last season, captaining – the second-worst team in the country, Middlesex, but has churned out runs with remarkable consistency while scoring at a strike rate of 147.Yet in the Hundred, England’s new, premier short-form tournament which is played in the height of summer, he has been unwanted. In the competition’s first draft, back in 2019, that was understandable: he was relatively new to white-ball cricket, and had never managed more than 57 in a T20 innings.In 2021, after the Hundred’s first season was deferred by the pandemic, Eskinazi entered the re-draft as the second-highest run-scorer from the previous Blast season, but again went unpicked. Last year, after another strong Blast in 2021, he was overlooked again.He seemed a safe bet for selection as a ‘wildcard’ or a replacement player after taking his strike rate to new heights, past 150, in the 2022 Blast, but the phone call he hoped for never came. In the 50-over Royal London Cup, which runs parallel to the Hundred, he hit 146, 182 and 135 in three consecutive innings, then watched on with incredulity as batters with a handful of professional T20 appearances won replacement deals ahead of him.Performing with some success in Australia – he averaged 26.75 with a strike rate of 131.28 in his nine games for the Scorchers – and a pair of 50-over half-centuries for England Lions last summer have reinforced Eskinazi’s belief in his own ability. “It does spur you on a little bit,” he says.”I feel like I’m in a good position to try and capitalise on being a miles-better player now than I was at the age of 25. I’ve definitely tried to keep up with modern trends at the top of the order; put simply, it’s just go bloody hard, and don’t stop going hard.” At 28, he is approaching his peak as a batter, and retains hope of winning an England cap one day.But first, he has his sights set on Thursday’s draft. “I don’t reckon I could be sitting in front of the TV having done too much more than I have done in the last 11 months or so,” he reflects. “I’ll probably have my family around – and might have a beer or two, to either celebrate or commiserate.”He believes he has improved his game against spin over the winter after working with Adam Voges in Perth, and with Mark Ramprakash during Middlesex’s pre-season training, and hopes that providing a wicketkeeping option – “I’m not saying I’m Jack Russell, but I did a lot of keeping earlier in my career” – can finally secure him a deal.Yet counterintuitively, being overlooked repeatedly might just have made Eskinazi a better cricketer. At the time of the Hundred’s first draft in 2019, he averaged 30.95 in T20 cricket with a strike rate of 130.40; in the three-and-a-half years since, he has averaged 36.42 while striking at 144.25.”There’s been a bit of that ‘I’ll show them’ mentality,” he reflects. “Particularly last year, I was going out feeling a bit like me against the world: ‘these guys don’t think I’m good enough – I want to give them absolutely no reason not to select me next year.'”I’m enjoying going out and trying to entertain people by pushing the boundaries of my own capabilities, playing shots that I never thought I could, and just seeing how much fun I can have giving it an absolute whack, basically.”Whether that is good enough to merit a Hundred contract will become clear on Thursday evening.

The two quicks are wired differently but can be equally lethal and, alongside Rashid Khan, give Gujarat Titans the cushion of an all-weather attack

Shashank Kishore05-Apr-20232:29

Moody: Alzarri Joseph varies pace like Andy Roberts

Three weeks ago, Mohammed Shami saw deliveries repeatedly scoot low to the wicketkeeper from the good-length areas that he hit consistently at Feroz Shah Kotla. Such a prospect in the very first over of a Test can be deflating. But Shami still bounded in to pick up four wickets to skittle Australia in the first innings.Last night, Shami was in for a surprise upon his return to Delhi. The ball was zipping around, there was lateral movement, and the carry was largely consistent. All he needed to do was to land it on good length like he does, with a bolt upright seam, and let nature take its course. After all, it’s a method that’s brought him rich rewards in the powerplay since last year.In Ahmedabad, at the IPL’s opening game, he picked up the season’s first wicket with a Test-match dismissal of Devon Conway, bowling him through the gate with a sharp in-ducker. And the early evidence in Delhi seemed to suggest he wanted to have fun, even if it meant conceding a few extra runs in search of that perfect delivery.Related

• Does Shikhar Dhawan need to free himself of the shackles of batting long?

• Time for the IPL to start keeping time better

• Sai Sudharsan sees Titans home after their quicks restrict Delhi Capitals

• Dasun Shanaka replaces Williamson in Gujarat Titans squad

Especially after seeing how the ball behaved after a pearler of a first delivery to David Warner, the ball leaving him late to kiss the stumps only for the bails to remain intact. Shami just wanted to let it rip. And the short square boundaries weren’t going to dissuade him.Prithvi Shaw was in the firing line and was roughed up by a short delivery as he spooned a catch to mid-on. Shami, the joint-highest powerplay wicket-taker for the Titans during their march to the title last year, had struck again.This Test-match length would have its second victim in Mitch Marsh in his next over when Shami had him play on. The opening spell was a spectacle, even if it wasn’t quite as thrilling as Shami flattening the stumps, like he did to Conway. But it set the tone for the Titans.It gave their attack markers on a surface where captains can often opt for the insurance of a score to defend. Hardik Pandya, though, was having none of it. Titans have been chasing well, and this surface was right up their ally. It took all of two overs for Shami to justify his decision to bowl.If Shami set the scene, Alzarri Joseph truly owned it. Five nights ago, he was in Jo’burg, delivering a telling T20I spell for West Indies on surfaces where 435 runs were smashed for fun. And he’s carried on doing the same at the IPL, where he’s got some unfinished business.Alzarri Joseph struck twice in two balls•BCCIIn 2019, he arrived as a replacement and ended up with the tournament’s best bowling figures with his 6 for 12 for Mumbai Indians against Sunrisers Hyderabad. He had made 136 seem 180 and beyond that night. But an injury soon had him missing the remainder of the season. It wasn’t until he was signed by Titans last year that he started getting games regularly.There’s some fire in his bowling that can be deceptive, because he doesn’t make an outward effort to bowl fast. His bowling is just so naturally wired and in sync that he can let them rip without seemingly meaning to. In the first game, he was largely responsible for Super Kings’ slowdown after they threatened to make 220 at one stage. Here, again, he went short of a length on a deck that offered to be his ally. And he found success.When Titans assembled a squad that was ridiculed by some last year, they did so knowing they weren’t going to play at home immediately. On red-soil decks with decent bounce and carry, they knew they needed fast bowlers. It perhaps explains why they got Shami and Joseph, among others.Here, Joseph had a batter of Warner’s calibre hanging back more often than not. Warner is as much of a white-ball destroyer as anyone can be but brought with him the inherent risk of playing back to a full ball, and was snuffed out after being late on the shot to a ball angling away.Joseph then went on a sustained short-ball barrage that had Sarfaraz Khan ducking and weaving under them uncomfortably until one pinged him on the helmet. Debutant Abishek Porel also copped one on the helmet in trying to pull. But the ball he bowled to Rilee Rossouw summed up his spell. It reared up from short of a length and ballooned off the shoulder of the bat to point.Joseph had combined seam movement, up-and-down bounce and “inconsistent pace” to have the night of his life. Two for 29 to boot, alongside Shami’s top spell that felled Shaw and Marsh, gave Titans the advantage.

“This is a name that is well back in the archives, but the great West Indian fast bowler Andy Roberts was like that. Different in stature to Alzarri Joseph but … he’s got that great change of pace, and has now got control of his line. He’s a weapon.”Tom Moody on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time:Out

“He’s a gun,” former Australia allrounder Tom Moody gushed of Joseph on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time:Out. “He bowls genuinely quick, and what I like about him is he’s unpredictable with his pace. And that’s intentional. So he’s either bowling one in the high 140s or he’s bowling in high 130s. And that’s why he’s hitting people in the head, because of that inconsistency.”This is a name that is well back in the archives, but the great West Indian fast bowler Andy Roberts was like that. Different in stature to Alzarri Joseph but you talk to some of the greats like Ian Chappell, who have played a lot against Roberts, and they will say you put the pull shot or hook shot away because he’s got two bouncers and you never know which one it is. So, he’s got that great change of pace, and has now got control of his line. He’s a weapon.”This variety that Shami and Joseph bring, along with Josh Little’s left-arm angle and Hardik Pandya’s seam-ups give them the luxury of using Rashid Khan in the second half, when teams don’t have the option of playing him out. Rashid had never been introduced as late as he was here – in the 13th over – in the IPL, and it needed all of two balls for him to strike.That nipped in the bud a flourishing stand between Sarfaraz and Porel that could’ve yet given Capitals 180. Rashid would walk away with three wickets in the end, benefiting from the work done by the fast bowlers on a surface that was as fast-bowler friendly as Kotla could get.The treat of two fast bowlers, wired differently but operating on a same wavelength, and a gun legspinner bamboozling batters with a modus operandi that can’t be novelty anymore brought thrills. And it gives Titans more than just an edge. It gives them the comfort of being an all-weather IPL attack.

Afghanistan had their chances in all three games of the series but couldn’t capitalise against Pakistan

Andrew Fidel Fernando27-Aug-2023

Are Pakistan getting a middle order together?

Pakistan’s top three is outstanding, and the attack is potentially great, but the hole in the donut has been numbers four through seven. In this series, there have been mild awakenings in that area, however. No. 7 Shadab Khan has done the most to provide some heft through the middle – hitting a 39 off 50 as Pakistan were seriously ailing in the first ODI, before making a rousing 48 off 35 in the second match, as they chased 301 (he left the crease early at the start of the last over and as such, left the finishing to Naseem Shah, but his innings was vital). In the last match, Agha Salman provided an important 38 not out off 31, and even more importantly, Mohammad Rizwan made 67 off 79.Are Pakistan still top-three dependent? Probably. But they do seem to have ended the series with more middle-order grit than they began it with.

Afghanistan have endured a (minor) humbling

Picking off lone wins against more-established opposition is not something the Afghanistan men’s team is happy with any longer. As such, losing 3-0 to Pakistan will leave a bruise.There were moments in all three matches where they would have felt as if they were dominating. In the first ODI, they’d had Pakistan at 62 for 4, then bowled them out for 201 – a target they would have felt was well within their grasp, had Haris Rauf not ripped their batting open.In the second match Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s superb run-a-ball 151 propelled Afghanistan to 300 for 5 (it probably should have been more), which is generally a hugely defendable total on Sri Lankan tracks.Even in the third game, they kept Pakistan within reach by restricting them to 268 for 8, but the frailty of their own top order let them down.In their previous ODI series, Afghanistan had defeated Bangladesh 2-1 in Chattogram. They’ve also won two of their last five completed matches against Sri Lanka.The signs are there that the Afghanistan men’s team is on the cusp of something. But this series was a serious disappointment.Afghanistan had their chances in all three matches against Pakistan, but couldn’t convert them•AFP/Getty Images

Babar Azam is coming in hot

In the final wash-up of Babar Azam’s career, scores of 53 off 66 and 60 off 86 will not be cause for serious reflection. But they are proof that he is putting in the work. Babar has spent most of the last two months batting on Sri Lankan decks, first in the Test series in June, then in the Lankan Premier League (in which he hit the only century and finished as second-highest run-getter), before these three matches. Although he will return to Pakistan to play some of his Asia Cup matches, there is no foreign player with as much recent form on Sri Lankan decks as he. Is he building to a crescendo? You wouldn’t count against it in the Asia Cup.

Can Gurbaz make the difference for Afghanistan?

Afghanistan’s big problem is the top order. Their only good total in this series was when Gurbaz fired. Like Babar, Gurbaz has plenty of experience on Sri Lankan decks, having played all four LPL seasons. As the Afghanistan men’s team are in a difficult group in the Asia Cup, with Bangladesh as well as Sri Lanka in the first stage, it’s worth mentioning that Gurbaz averages 58.6 in six innings against Bangladesh. Is he ready to take the next step in his career? Perhaps he could carry the Afghanistan top order with him.

The white ball has swung prodigiously in the men’s competition, and openers have struggled to counter it

Matt Roller21-Aug-2023Ask any batter around the world where the best place to bat is in T20 cricket and they will give you the same answer: the top of the order. The field is up, with only two men outside the ring, and the new ball’s hardness means that you get better value for your shots than at any other stage of the innings.Yet something strange is happening. For years, openers have had the best records of any batting positions, leading the way in terms of both average and strike rate. But in the men’s Hundred, openers are struggling. They are scoring more slowly than No. 3s, and averaging nearly 10% less than them. It invites the question: what is going on?Openers themselves believe that the reason they are struggling is due to the ball. “The Hundred ball seems to be swinging a bit more than the T20 ball,” Alex Hales said last week. “The ball is slightly different,” explained Will Jacks. “We’ve found consistently that they swing more in the first few sets.”