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In a very Kane Williamson sort of way he made sure nothing less than the perfect play would catch him out at the pivotal moment of the Christchurch Test

Andrew Fidel Fernando13-Mar-2023Kane Williamson is scrambling.At his best, this is an imperious batter. Compact, assured, supremely accomplished. Not a player in the vein of a Babar Azam, or even a Rohit Sharma, who both bat as if born into an obscene inheritance of talent. There are gifts for Williamson too; they are quickened by something else.But, last ball of a Test, the shadow of the Hagley Oval pavilion darkening a surface that still offers bounce and movement for the bowler, who is operating with a ball that is 70 overs old and as such has long since lost its shine, there Williamson is. He has attempted to hook this head-high ball (he might fairly contend it passed higher than his head), and he has missed.So now, he has to go to Plan B. And everyone knows what Plan B is.Before he has even left his crease, batting partner Neil Wagner is halfway down the pitch. Wagner is nursing a hamstring tear and a bulging disc in his spine. But this is Wagner, who is a cricketer powered so completely by willpower that the physical details of what his body can realistically achieve fade into insignificance. Wagner desperately wants to be halfway down the pitch at this moment. So, it ends up not mattering what the nerves near his spine, or his hamstring, are telling him. (“Dear God, what is your problem?” “We’ve had enough.” “Please stop, you f****ng madman.” – Some of the things his body would be saying, if we had to hazard a guess.)Related

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Williamson is still on the crease while Wagner is halfway down, because the bowler Asitha Fernando is playing the situation perfectly. He has bowled a bouncer, which Williamson has to put his weight on his back foot to play. Because he is going back, it means he has to reverse his momentum to attempt the single that New Zealand require to win the game. In such situations, run outs are frequently the most likely dismissal – the bowler beating the bat, the keeper with one glove off throwing down the stumps closest to them, the non-striking batter caught short.But Asitha is ready for his plan B too. Niroshan Dickwella, the wicketkeeper, misses the stumps closest to him, which means that Wagner makes his ground comfortably. But Asitha knows that if Dickwella is aiming at those stumps, he can collect on his follow through and throw down the next set. His thinking is spectacular. It is perfect.Earlier in the over, Asitha collected a bounce throw from the deep and effected a run out with minimum fuss and total efficiency. If there is any player on the field matching Williamson’s nous and Wagner’s effort right now, it is Asitha. His first 11 overs in this innings cost 14 runs. In the previous three overs before this one, when New Zealand have been trying to smash it, he conceded just 15. He’s keeping Sri Lanka in the match.

Williamson once described the feeling of batting alongside a big-hitting Brendon McCullum as being “like the library in a theme park” … Libraries have been around for millennia. Quietly enriching the human experience, shaping history in all sorts of subtle ways, forging progress, informing advancement.

On this last ball, Asitha gets into perfect position to collect the ball as Williamson is scrambling, he swivels on his left heel, and almost in the same movement, he throws down the stumps at the non-striker’s end.It is an perfect play. He’s beaten the batter and pushed him on to the back foot. He’s collected the throw and hit the stumps direct. But Asitha sends the throw in on the bounce. It hits the pitch halfway between him and middle stump. The bails fly off. Some close fielders are excited.But here is the physics: The bounce helped the ball find its target, but it slowed the throw down. Not only did the ball have a greater distance to travel, it had to be deflected off the ground, which always absorbs some energy. Williamson made his ground by a fraction of a second. This, very likely, was the difference between a draw for New Zealand, and a victory.On his 93rd Test, the act that will define this game, is Williamson’s sprinting and diving. So that only a perfect play, and not an perfect play, could catch him short.Captain Tim Southee greets his two match-winners, Kane Williamson and Neil Wagner•Getty ImagesThis is New Zealands greatest men’s batter. The late Martin Crowe – the only player whose record could seriously have stood up to Williamson’s – happily acknowledged this many years ago. In the last Test Williamson played, he became the most prolific Test batter from his country and put the matter to rest. This 121 not out was his second second-innings hundred in succession.Others have perhaps forged more eye-catching careers through their explosive batting, or their charisma, or the effect they have had on foreign leagues and foreign teams.Williamson once described the feeling of batting alongside the bonkers Brendon McCullum as being “like the library in a theme park”.Theme parks, a modern phenomenon, are the venue of glorious, but transitory, entertainment. They are lit up all over, joyful squeals lasting late into the night, kids flitting from ride to ride, the bang-badoosh-whoosh of rollercoasters the scene of screaming and indescribable fun for years, but eventually turning into rusting monuments to human elation decades later, the place decommissioned, the park having made its money, and moved on.Libraries, meanwhile, have been around for millennia. Quietly enriching the human experience, shaping history in all sorts of subtle ways, forging progress, informing cerebral pleasures. They will be around for millennia yet.Today, Williamson, the greatest batter New Zealand has ever produced in its long cricketing history had to scramble a bye, to win a Test off the last delivery. And he scrambled the hell out of it.

And has any other player hit a six and taken a wicket off the final balls of their career as Stuart Broad did?

Steven Lynch07-Aug-2023Stuart Broad hit a six off the last ball he faced in Tests, and then took a wicket with his final ball too. Has anyone else done this? asked Matthew Edwards from Australia, and many others

I think I had more messages in the last week about Stuart Broad’s feats in the last Ashes Test at The Oval than any other recent occurrence! And the short answer is that Broad is indeed the first to achieve both these feats in his final Test.Broad hit a six from the final ball he received, from Mitchell Starc, and was then left not out when James Anderson was dismissed in the next over to end England’s second innings. Two other men are known to have hit the last ball they received in Tests for six: the West Indian fast bowler Wayne Daniel, against Australia in Port-of-Spain in 1983-84, and the Australian allrounder Glenn Maxwell, against Bangladesh in Chattogram in 2017-18. Although it currently seems unlikely, it’s possible that Maxwell could yet play another Test.According to the Melbourne statistician Charles Davis, there’s one other possible addition to the list: the West Indian legspinner Tommy Scott hit a six during the last over he faced in Tests, against Australia in Melbourne in 1930-31 – but full ball-by-ball details have not survived, so we’re not quite sure when he hit it.Neither Daniel nor Maxwell (or Scott) also took a wicket with their final delivery in a Test, as Broad did. He joined a surprisingly long list – around 120 men – who have done this. Many of the players concerned are not terribly memorable, but the better-known names include Muthiah Muralidaran, Glenn McGrath, Richard Hadlee, Hugh Trumble, Charles “The Terror” Turner, Jim Laker, Alan Davidson, Garry Sobers, Derek Underwood, Andy Caddick, Sarfraz Nawaz and Dennis Lillee. Perhaps the strangest entry on the list is the South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, who took his only Test wicket – the West Indian Dwayne Bravo in Antigua in 2004-05 – in his 84th match, and never bowled again in 63 further Tests.In his long Test career, Stuart Broad took an eight-wicket haul and also had an innings of more than 150. How many people have managed this double? asked Derek Martin from England

The retiring Stuart Broad hit 169 against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010, and five years later took 8 for 15 in Australia’s astonishing first-morning collapse at Trent Bridge.Broad is one of only seven men to do this particular double in a Test career. Two of them actually made double-centuries: Vinoo Mankad of India (who passed 200 twice, and also took two eight-fors) and England’s Ian Botham (two lots of eight). Two of them took nine wickets in an innings: Richard Hadlee of New Zealand, and India’s Kapil Dev, who had two hauls of eight wickets and one of nine.The other two to complete the “Broad double” were England’s Wilfred Rhodes and the South African Lance Klusener, who took 8 for 64 on his debut, against India in Kolkata in 1996-97.A further 12 men have scored at least one century and taken eight wickets in an innings during their Test career: Botham uniquely did it in the same match, with 108 and 8 for 34 against Pakistan at Lord’s in 1978. For the full list, click here.Prabath Jayasuriya has taken a wicket in every Test innings in which he has bowled. Is there a longer streak of taking wickets in innings from debut? And what’s the most consecutive innings a bowler has taken at least one wicket? asked Michael Baker from England

The Sri Lankan slow left-armer Prabath Jayasuriya has so far bowled in 16 Test innings, and taken at least one wicket each time (he has 59 in all at the moment). The record in this regard is held by the New Zealand paceman Shane Bond, who bowled in 32 innings in all from his debut in November 2001, and never failed to take a wicket.The West Indian fast bowler Andy Roberts and the 1930s England legspinner Walter Robins both took at least one wicket in the first 23 innings in which they bowled.The record for a mid-career streak is held by Muthiah Muralidaran, who took at least one wicket (and usually many more!) in 52 successive Test innings from April 2006. Bishan Bedi struck in 42 successive innings, Dennis Lillee and Waqar Younis in 41, and Andrew Flintoff in 37.Shane Bond picked up a wicket in each of his first 32 Test innings since debut, the record•Getty ImagesDuring the Ashes series I heard Glenn McGrath say he was never dismissed in a Test at Lord’s, and scored a few runs there as well. What’s the most a batter has made on one ground without ever being dismissed? asked Tim Marshall from England

Glenn McGrath played three Tests at Lord’s, and he’s correct to say that he was never dismissed there. After making 0 not out in Australia’s eight-wicket victory in 2001, he scored 10 and 20, both undefeated, and had match figures of 9 for 82 in a 239-run win in 2005. (He didn’t bat in 1997, but did take 8 for 38!)Unsurprisingly, McGrath is a fair way down the list of run-scorers who were never dismissed at a particular ground. On top is the New Zealander Stephen Fleming, who made 343 runs at the P Sara Stadium in Colombo, in the form of innings of 274 and 69, both not out, against Sri Lanka in April 2003.Next come England’s Wally Hammond, whose one Test innings at Eden Park in Auckland brought him 336 not out in 1932-33, and the more recent Indian batter Karun Nair, who made an unbeaten 303 in his only innings at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, in 2016-17. For the list, click here.The West Indian fast bowler Colin Croft had five Test innings at Port-of-Spain, scoring 31 runs while never being dismissed, while the Pakistan slow left-armer Zulfiqar Babar went in to bat six times in Sharjah and was never out, collecting a grand total of 22 runs in the process.Mukesh Kumar made his debut for India in all three formats in the space of a fortnight. Is this a record? asked Suresh Joshi from India

The 29-year-old Indian seamer Mukesh Sharma made his Test debut against West Indies in Port-of-Spain on July 20, played his first ODI in Bridgetown on July 27, and made his T20I bow in Tarouba (Trinidad) on August 3.Mukesh thus completed the full set of three international formats in 14 days – but he lies only second on this particular list. The New Zealander Peter Ingram actually completed his nap hand in just 12 days, all against Bangladesh early in 2010: T20I debut in Hamilton on February 3, first ODI in Napier on Feb 5, and a first Test cap in Hamilton on Feb 15.Ingram was 31 at the time, and the New Zealand historian Francis Payne recalled: “The ironic thing was that it took him almost ten years at provincial level before he represented New Zealand at all. He reinvented himself from a modest-scoring stonewaller to an aggressive and heavy-scoring batsman.”Aizaz Cheema (Pakistan) and Dion Myers (Zimbabwe) both took 15 days to complete a full set of international formats, Kyle Abbott (South Africa) 16, and Doug Bracewell (New Zealand) 17. The England record is held by Joe Root, at a relatively sedate 29 days.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

For moments during the first innings, especially when Kuldeep Yadav was attacked, the home side were under some pressure but they responded in style

Andrew Fidel Fernando22-Oct-20231:48

Bond: New Zealand gave up on getting Kohli out

Beneath the colossal Dhauladhar mountain range, the snow on the peaks and ridges set aglow by the setting sun, New Zealand are hustling. They have been hustling most of the afternoon.Since 19 for 2 in the ninth over, Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra had raced their twos, been alive to tight singles, and sped out of their creases, stopped when the ball was fielded in the ring and zipped back to safety, each of their actions rapid and electric.This is only part of their hustle, because New Zealand being New Zealand, there is also a manic fight on the strategy front.India have only five serious bowlers this match, and New Zealand have planned to take one of them down. On a pitch that favours seamers, the spinners are the obvious targets, and between Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, Kuldeep is the softer one.Related

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Partly this is because Kuldeep is less experienced; Jadeja is now a hardened veteran across formats. Partly this is because wristspinners are an infamously fragile breed.Shane Warne, the greatest to ever do it, proclaimed repeatedly that a wristspinner’s first objective should be to bowl a decent-enough first over their captain would keep them on for a second.Between 21 December 2019, and 27 March 2021, Kuldeep went through a patch when he went at over six runs per over in six of eight ODIs, and 5.5 or more in the other two. This sounds like a small sample size, but these are the margins of error when you play for this India team. New Zealand will know Kuldeep has a history of being rattled. They’ll also know he’s been rattled less lately. But they have to try.Because Mitchell is a right-hander Kuldeep’s stock ball spins to him, he takes the lead in upsetting Kuldeep’s figures and by extension – he hopes – India’s bowling plans. He runs at Kuldeep and launches him for huge sixes down the ground. As New Zealand are scrapping for advantage and this is still not enough, Mitchell repeatedly tries the reverse sweep against the turn as well. But he is beaten on two of the four times he tries it against Kuldeep.Kuldeep Yadav was under pressure but still had an impact•Associated PressThat’s the game, but when you’re searching this desperately, you miss some.Still, New Zealand are winning this battle. Kuldeep has leaked 35 from his first four overs. When he comes back on for a fifth in the 31st over of the innings, he gives away another 13.Most captains would swap him out here, right?”That’s it. You’re done for a bit.””Let’s get some control back here. Get someone in who can bowl some dots.”Go into damage control. Who else is around who can roll their arm over?”Not India. Rohit keeps Kuldeep on for two more overs in this spell. In the next over, Kuldeep should have had Mitchell caught at long off, but Jasprit Bumrah drops it. In over after that, Kuldeep nails Tom Latham in lbw front of leg stump. As wristspinners are a famously mystical breed, it is not clear whether this was a slider or a front-of-the-hand flipper.

Mohammed Shami, the first bowler with two men's ODI World Cup five-forshttps://t.co/wm8y4HuhSE #INDvNZ #CWC23 pic.twitter.com/OG010nc0SY

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) October 22, 2023

Then Kuldeep goes out of the attack.At some point, you begin to realise that no amount of hustle will work. That this is not a cricket team that responds to the usual cues. Bowlers don’t get bashed into oblivion here. India have dropped three catches by this stage, but no falling apart as England did two nights ago is happening.What happens instead is an irresistible rallying. In Kuldeep’s first five overs he gave away more runs than he had in his full quota all tournament, but in his last five overs he bowls wickedly fast deliveries that threaten the stumps, takes two wickets and concedes only 25. Mohammed Shami in his first game in the tournament takes five wickets and is almost unhittable at the death, while Jasprit Bumrah does spectacular things like bowling a 49th over brimful of yorkers, which concedes only three runs.Mitchell and Ravindra had put on a stand of 159 off 152 balls for the third wicket – the biggest ever partnership for any wicket at this venue. Yet in the last 16 overs of the innings, so spectacular is India’s bowling that New Zealand – supremely placed to provide a blistering end to this innings – can manage only eight boundaries.New Zealand’s total always seemed light, but India’s chase was too smooth to believe. They would continue to hustle late into the night, black uniforms shooting like pinballs over a mottled green outfield that England had complained about a week earlier, but New Zealand’s fielders had no problems diving on.The run out of Suryakumar Yadav was spectacular – Mitchell Santner, perhaps the best fielder of this tournament so far – backhanding a ball while rolling over to bowler Trent Boult, who backhanded it to the wicketkeeper while his own body was twisting around. A play so perfect, it deserved to win the match.2:44

Mitchell: ‘The way India bowled was pretty special’

Not against India. Virat Kohli produced an innings so sweet it gave him time to turn down a single and look for the big 49th century. This is after openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill had put on a 71-run partnership against the likes of Boult and Matt Henry, who have statistically been the best opening pair in the past few years.All this while the crowd roared for India, shouted Bumrah, Siraj, and Shami’s names in the last 10 overs, and clamoured as one for Kohli as he approached his century, even cheering a Jadeja forward defence so Kohli would have enough runs left to chase in order to get to triple figures.If you are an opposition team, even one that has won four in a row as New Zealand has, how do you possibly combat this? You are playing a cricket team every bit as forbidding as the colossal peaks that surround a stadium that is packed with supporters whose clamouring for India’s success is voracious and relentless.After the match, New Zealand’s best batter, Mitchell, said he and his team-mates were grateful for the chance to play at a venue such as this, and have experiences such as this, since his is a team that hails from “the bottom of the world”.But from among the New Zealand side, Mitchell will know, most of all, how teams as spectacular as India are now, intimidate opposition on their home soil.Mitchell’s father, John, is a former coach of the All Blacks, whose home crowds turn up to stadiums with far greater capacity than Dharamsala, dressed all in black – a sporting phenomena known as “the blackout”. At Eden Park, the All Blacks have not lost in 29 years. They have won a World Cup final there in that stretch.On Sunday, India and their ocean of blue shirts were almost as scary. The next-best team in the competition so far, had a run at India missing their key allrounder. By the end Kohli was turning down singles in his quest for a hundred. No amount of hustle got New Zealand close.

The allrounder was a key figure for Madhya Pradesh after they endured a shift from boiling Puducherry to freezing Dharamsala

Shashank Kishore06-Feb-2024Venkatesh Iyer can’t remember playing a game in India in sub-zero temperatures. That’s until earlier last week, when he landed in Dharamsala for Madhya Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy Group D fixture against Himachal Pradesh.”My first thought was: I shouldn’t be out here playing,” Iyer tells ESPNcricinfo.The HPCA Stadium was covered in snow. There were sheets of rain and icy-cold winds. A day earlier, Madhya Pradesh had finished a game in 32-degree Celsius heat with over 90% humidity in Puducherry.”Temperature-wise, the chill in Ireland two years ago [when Iyer was part of an India squad that toured the country for a T20I series] was a lot more, but this was unique, a first for me in India. Even three layers of sweaters didn’t help,” Iyer says. “It was freezing, the entire ground was covered in snow. There was heavy rain as well.”MP’s situation was compounded by logistical challenges. From Puducherry they had to drive down four hours to Chennai and board a flight to New Delhi before reaching Dharamsala. A three-day break between games was whittled down to two.”From extremely hot, we came into freezing conditions, but weather can’t be an excuse for poor performance,” Iyer says. “That said, it was tough. That’s why we had to go there a couple of days prior to know how the body is going to react, how we’re going to recover. Else we would have been caught completely off guard. The two days of training was very crucial to our conditioning.”So what did it entail?”It was more about mobility exercises and warming up our muscles,” Iyer explains. “We also tried to leave the hotel for the ground a lot earlier than usual. If we used to leave usually at 7.45am, we left for the ground at 7.30.”Even 15-20 minutes of extra warm-up time was massively important in that weather. You can’t enter the ground and immediately start running in that weather, it can take a toll on your back. The entire schedule was superbly planned by our trainer.”What were the key aspects to training in such weather?”A lot of stretching for starters,” Iyer says. “It’s normal for muscles to cramp, they tend to become stIff, so it was important to keep them loosened in that cold. Even whe we were in the hotel, we were called to the gym for stretching more than any other form of conditioning because you never know which muscle you will end up pulling.Venkatesh Iyer missed MP’s journey to the 2022-23 Ranji title due to a combination of injuries and India duty•Getty Images”In the room, we were advised to use heaters at all times, and keep our bodies warm throughout.”On the field, Iyer had a memorable performance. He first picked up a three-for to help skittle Himachal out for 169 and then contributed a vital 72 in tough conditions to help MP eke out a first-innings lead. This earned him the Player of the match award in a drawn, weather-impacted fixture during which no play was possible on days two and three.”The forecast is very accurate there,” Iyer says. “The first day we arrived, the ground was covered in snow, but the first day’s play, the sun was shining bright, and we got in a full day of cricket. Overall, we knew we’d get probably 2-2.5 days to try and push for an outright result.”They got a good partnership lower down the order [Himachal recovered from 36 for 6 on day one]. Had we bowled them out for 70-80, and we got what we did, it would have been game on.” As it turned out, Himachal were 42 for 5 in their second innings, still six runs short of making MP bat again, when the game was called off.”Batting-wise, this is an innings I’ll remember for a long time,” Iyer days. “I had to battle the conditions. It was so difficult that you were never set. But once you know which direction you need to head to, the clarity makes this slightly better. I knew we had to make 170-180, that gave me increased focus.”Iyer found himself struggling at different times. He was recovering from a back spasm, which made it tougher given the conditions.”There was genuine travel fatigue” he says. “You’re on the bus for a long time. And then with the distances we had to cover, it took a toll, but you have to take care of it as a professional and ignore things you can’t change.”Iyer is driven by the desire to win the Ranji Trophy, having missed out on the team’s journey to the title in 2022-23 due to a combination of injuries and being on India duty.”We now know what it takes to be champions, we have the ability to win,” he says, with MP potentially one win away from entering the knockouts. “That belief has come since our win. For someone not part of the set-up there, to come in here, I find this an amazing place to be.”More than the team goal, it’s my burning desire to do something special to help us win the Ranji Trophy. Some things complete you as a cricketer. A Ranji Trophy win will complete it for me.”

England legspinner is back on the world stage, with an eye on the next generation

Matt Roller07-Jun-2024″You want to be a role model for the next generation,” says Adil Rashid, sitting outside England’s dressing room at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. “Especially where I’m from, in Bradford. When they see me play, they know that it’s possible, regardless of where you come from or your background. They know you’ve come from the bottom, and made it to the top.”Rashid is about to start his 10th year as a mainstay of England’s limited-overs team. His consistent excellence can obscure just how remarkable his story is: a boy from Bradford, the son of a taxi driver, and a legspinner with Pakistani heritage who has become a double world champion and a source of inspiration for South Asian cricketers in England and Wales.Rashid is the youngest of three brothers but “always had that something special about him,” recalls Amar, the middle brother. “We used to play in our basement every day and on our drive, in the park or on the local astroturf. We were always playing together. He always had that natural ability.”Amar is sitting on the balcony of what used to be a warehouse in Thornton, to the west of Bradford. In late 2022, he and his family transformed it into the Adil Rashid Cricket Centre through extensive renovation. It is now a modern four-lane net facility used by aspiring young players, club cricketers and professionals, the only one of its kind in the immediate area.”I’ve invested quite a bit of money,” Adil says. “It’s about giving back to the community, and also having something there for the next generation of cricketers coming through. There’s a big demand in terms of club cricket as well: Under-10s, second team, first team, Bradford League, Yorkshire League. It was almost a no-brainer – it was just about finding a location.”After seeing a dozen different potential sites, Amar settled on Thornton. He played to a decent standard himself, with nine List A appearances for the Unicorns – an invitational side in the county 40-over competition – in 2011. But coaching has always been his passion: “It’s what I’ve enjoyed and what I’ve known all my life.”Yorkshire legspinner Jafer Chohan gets tips from Amar Rashid•ESPNcricinfo LtdAmar runs the centre, and was instrumental in the initial idea to set up an academy named after his younger brother over a decade ago. “As funny as it might sound, I coach a lot of fast bowlers,” he says. “We are going for the more modern style of coaching here: helping fast bowlers to develop speed; power-hitting and 360-degree batting; and the uniqueness of legspin.” They are skills that have rarely been produced through the traditional English system.The centre is the northern training base for the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA), a scheme launched in 2021 by Tom Brown following his PhD research at Birmingham City University. SACA’s aim is to address the underrepresentation of British South Asian players at the top level: according to its research 30% of recreational cricketers in England and Wales are British South Asian, which drops to 5% within men’s professional cricket.Related

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Eight SACA graduates have signed professional contracts since becoming involved in the scheme. Foremost among them are Kashif Ali, who scored twin hundreds for Worcestershire in their first County Championship match of the season, and the legspinner Jafer Chohan, an ever-present for Yorkshire in the T20 Blast since signing his first professional deal.Chohan, a student at Loughborough University, was released by Middlesex five years ago, aged 17. “I was really hating cricket at that point,” he recalls. He played for SACA in their first full season, and their head coach Kabir Ali tipped Yorkshire off about him. He also impressed Joe Root while net-bowling to England’s Test squad before a tour to Pakistan.It culminated in an open trial at the centre later that year, attended by coaches from the northern first-class counties: Darren Gough, then Yorkshire’s managing director, quickly offered him a contract. Chohan has continued to work closely with Amar ever since. “Growing up, my only spin coach was my dad,” he says. “Coming here has taken my bowling to the next level.”Rashid is back out in the Caribbean, seeking a third World Cup title•Gareth Copley-ICC/Getty ImagesChohan was inspired by Adil: “For me, someone of Pakistani origin, watching him made me feel like ‘you know what? I can actually do it.’ Him and Moeen [Ali] have done so much for the Asian community: they made me want to embrace being Asian a lot more, rather than feeling embarrassed about it. It actually feels like more of a cool thing which, when I was younger, maybe it didn’t.”Now, Chohan is mentored by his idol. “I couldn’t be more grateful: without him and Amar, my game wouldn’t be where it is right now. He has been very open with me: it doesn’t get much better than bowling with one of the best legspinners in the world. Last year, when I got called up to the four-day squad, he saw that and gave me a call to give me a few tips… Those little things go a long way.”Adil is proud of the progress that Chohan has made, with him and Amar mentoring him. “That’s what the centre and the academy is there for,” he says. “It’s for people who don’t get recognised, but you see the talent is there. Jafer has worked with my brother and with me and he has broken through. It was a big moment for the academy and for the centre, to know that people have come through and made it.”

“It’s about giving back to the community, and also having something there for the next generation of cricketers coming through. It was almost a no-brainer – it was just about finding a location”Adil Rashid on setting up his academy

I arrive at the centre on a rainy Wednesday lunchtime, the day of England’s washed-out T20 international against Pakistan at Headingley. As Amar speaks about his vision to roll the centres out across the country, a legspinner is bowling in an empty net, aiming at a cone while working on his variations.His name is Kyme Tahirkheli, an allrounder who nearly gave up on the sport altogether when he was released by Yorkshire’s academy at 17. Now aged 25, he is regularly training at the centre as he searches for a pro contract. He recently trialled at Worcestershire, and hit 117 off 101 for SACA in a red-ball friendly against Lancashire’s 2nd XI last month.”I was put off by cricket when I left Yorkshire: I felt like my stats showed consistently that I was a performer,” he says. “I came across Amar in 2020, and since then I’ve been coming down religiously… I’ve been working hard, every single day. It’s hard graft – in many ways, you’ve got to work harder than the guys who have contracts – but I’ve been putting in performances for SACA.”Amar Rashid runs the Adil Rashid Cricket Centre in Thornton, Bradford•ESPNcricinfo LtdLike Chohan, Tahirkheli sees Adil and Moeen as “a big inspiration”. He says: “For myself, being a South Asian from Bradford, it really resonates with me seeing Adil go out and achieve these great heights. Every time I’ve met him, he’s always very humble: you wouldn’t be able to recognise the things that he’s achieved or what position he’s in, in life. That’s really inspiring for me – and many others – to try and emulate him.”The centre is a small business which charges for use, but the academy has sponsored players who cannot afford to pay for one-on-one coaching. Amar hopes to source additional funding: “We need to start applying for more: we haven’t nailed it down yet. There are a lot of kids from deprived areas around here, so we need that funding to help sponsor more of them.”It is also Adil’s training base when he is at home. He spent three months training there between the ILT20 in February and England’s T20I series against Pakistan, and continues to use Amar as a coach when he is on international duty. In the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, Amar would watch from home and send Adil advice; it culminated in him taking 2 for 22 in the final.Rashid is already a double world champion, part of the first men’s team to hold both white-ball World Cups simultaneously. Over the next three weeks, England have the chance to set another record by becoming the first men’s team to retain the T20 World Cup. “That’s the aim, ,” he says. “We have the belief to do that.”We’ve got the team, the squad, the backroom staff, the mentality, the positive energy. Can we make history again? That’s what we’re driving towards. Hopefully, we can go out there, do our thing, and be victorious.” Whether they do or not, Rashid has made his hometown proud.

Their preparation for the World Cup always looked light and they were handed a thrashing by Afghanistan

Deivarayan Muthu10-Jun-20241:14

McClenaghan: NZ looked sloppy and rusty from the outset

Kane Williamson guides a legbreak from Rashid Khan straight into the lap of Gulbadin Naib at first slip and throws his head back in disappointment.Williamson’s get-out-of-jail shot is the dab, against both spin and pace, but with a slip in place and the ball turning and holding up in the Providence pitch, there was no way out for him and New Zealand.”He must have known there was a slip there,” Ian Smith summed up the dismissal on TV commentary. “It’s another indication of a side that hasn’t played cricket.”New Zealand slid to 33 for 4 in the seventh over, in pursuit of 160. They eventually folded for 75 in 15.2 overs. Rahmanullah Gurbaz had outscored them with 80 off 56 balls.New Zealand batted, bowled, and fielded like a side that was desperately short on match practice. Their full-strength T20I team had last played together at the end of their home summer against Australia in February. While a second-string side toured Pakistan for a five-match T20I series in April, some of New Zealand’s key personnel, including captain Williamson and finisher Glenn Phillips, spent most of the IPL on the bench. Openers Devon Conway and Finn Allen were coming into the T20 World Cup after having just recovered from injuries. Neither had featured in the IPL or the Pakistan series.The cobwebs had gathered so much dust that it was impossible for New Zealand to brush them off in three hours. Allen, who was patrolling the longer leg-side boundary, lost the ball under lights and dropped Ibrahim Zadran on 13 in the fifth over. In the next over, Conway failed to gather an accurate throw and fluffed a run-out chance. Gurbaz was on 19 at that point. The opening pair punished New Zealand’s sloppiness in the field and pressed on to forge 103 in 14.3 overs. There were a number of other fielding lapses in an un-New Zealand performance that had the Black Caps red-faced, including Williamson.New Zealand were poor in the field against Afghanistan•ICC/Getty Images”Our fielding didn’t help our cause without a doubt,” Williamson said after the game. “That would be the most frustrating part for me. “It is something we pride ourselves on, so that was very disappointing but that performance from us married up to an outstanding performance from Afghanistan meant that it wasn’t good enough and they showed their skill today and we were outplayed.”New Zealand’s batting was just as shaky, with the ball swinging more under lights in the night than it did in the evening. After left-arm seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi wrecked the top order, Rashid and co. used the low bounce and skid offered by the Providence pitch to their advantage. And of course, there’s always some turn as well at the venue. Rashid is familiar with all of that, having played for Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL in 2017. Gurbaz is also used to these conditions, having turned out for Amazon Warriors more recently in 2022.

To turn down those two warm-up games, to me, is mind-blowing and should be put under scrutinyMitchell McClenaghan

Especially in hindsight, it feels like New Zealand might have been better off had they participated in warm-up games. Sure, their players had arrived in three batches and they had logistical challenges to deal with, but could they have squeezed in some warm-up fixtures like a similarly undermanned Australia had done in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup?Former New Zealand fast bowler and a current expert at ESPNcricinfo, Mitchell McClenaghan, was puzzled at New Zealand’s decision to opt out of playing warm-up matches in the Caribbean, where conditions vary significantly from one venue to another.”To turn down a couple of warm-up games…you’ve got a lot of players that haven’t played and sat on the bench in the IPL,” McClenaghan said on the Timeout show. “Conway looked incredibly out of touch. Finn Allen, in his case, didn’t go to Pakistan with a back injury. All these guys haven’t played in the last month or so and then also haven’t played in the Caribbean. So, to turn down those two warm-up games, to me, is mind-blowing and should be put under scrutiny.”New Zealand’s batting was worked over by pace and spin•ICC/Getty ImagesFormer New Zealand coach Mike Hesson, who had coached Islamabad United to the PSL title earlier this year, was also critical of New Zealand’s fielding and their decision to rock up cold without playing warm-ups.”We looked really underdone,” Hesson told . “We actually looked disinterested at times when things actually started to not go our way. The body language dropped in the field, which is certainly not what Kane Williamson will be pleased with at all. From there, they gave Afghanistan a bit of momentum and there were some chances that New Zealand missed. Devon Conway certainly looked like he hadn’t played cricket in three months, which he obviously hadn’t, and I felt for him. The fact that there’s been no warm-up games for this Black Caps side…unfortunately, there was no surprise with the performance they put in.”Given the draw – New Zealand were among the last of the 20 teams to start the T20 World Cup – they were always meant to play catch-up. Their 84-run drubbing in their opener has now put them so far behind that they’re on the brink of being knocked out in an obvious group of death, in which Afghanistan and West Indies have coasted to two wins each. Afghanistan’s eye-popping net run-rate of 5.225 means they already have one foot in the Super Eights, leaving New Zealand facing West Indies, who also have a healthy run-rate (3.574), in a must-win on June 12 in Trinidad, the home to several West Indies T20 superstars.In their most recent T20I match at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, West Indies toppled England for a 3-2 series win, with left-arm fingerspinners Akeal Hosein and Gudakesh Motie taking five wickets between them for just 44 runs in their eight overs on a sluggish track last December. New Zealand understand that they have margin for error from hereon.”Well, they [West Indies] are an amazing T20 team. They’re a strong team that can change the game very quickly and it’s obviously their home conditions as well,” Luke Ronchi, New Zealand’s batting coach, said upon the squad’s arrival in Trinidad on Saturday. “They have a lot of guys from Trinidad playing in their team, so they know the conditions and the ground at the Brian Lara Stadium. It’s [about] making sure we do what we do. That’s something we missed in the first game.”Even if New Zealand hit the ground running against West Indies, they could well suffer an early exit, considering their poor net run-rate (minus 4.2), unless the co-hosts lose to Afghanistan.One rust-ridden, un-New Zealand performance may have unravelled an entire World Cup campaign.

We love using real-life metrics to understand our beloved game better

Alan Gardner16-Sep-2024How high is Josh Hull’s ceiling? These are the sort of questions that keep the Light Roller up at night. And not just ones related to home improvement. Is Sam Billings an air-fryer convert? Does Ravi Bopara own a ride-on lawn mower? Never mind averages and strike rates, this is the good stuff.But anyway – just how high is Hull’s ceiling? It has been the talk of English cricket since Hull, a 6ft 7in left-arm seamer from Leicestershire, was picked for a surprise Test debut a couple of weeks ago. If he’s that tall, you’re probably thinking, then he a high ceiling. Quite likely a “massive” one, as his captain, Ollie Pope, put it in the build-up to his first England appearance.Does it have any nice cornicing, though? And what about the paintwork? Presumably an ornate light fitting is out of the question, with headspace at such a premium.Related

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• Ollie Pope admits to 'frustration' after Test summer sweep goes begging

• WTC scenarios: England's chances take a hit; Sri Lanka, Bangladesh still in contention

• 'When we came back from 26 for 6, it was a new dimension': how Bangladesh pulled off their greatest feat

You might be wondering what this has to do with Hull’s potential as a Test cricketer – let’s just have a look at his numbers and decide whether he’s any good. But this isn’t how the game works in England anymore, not under Brendon McCullum’s Holistic Cricket Wellbeing Programme (Golf Module optional). Selection is now about attributes and moments. Zak Crawley is our guy to open – it, brother! Shoaib Bashir is a tall spinner with huge hands – get him on a plane to India!Now we have Hull, who had taken two wickets at 182.5 for his county this season, but has size 15 feet and a massive ceiling. And to be fair to Rob Key, McCullum and Co, this Jedi mind-trick stuff seems to be working out: Hull now averages 30.33 in Test cricket, compared to 84.54 in the County Championship.So what’s next? It turns out that, despite his enormous ceiling (as previously mentioned), Hull’s release point is slightly lower than Stuart Broad’s was – somewhere around the level you would hang a nice portrait in your hallway. England do like their raw data, so this will have doubtless been spotted. A plan may already be in place, involving yoga and visualisation techniques. Or maybe some time in the nets. You know, whatever works.And then it’s onwards and upwards, hopefully accompanied by statistics that go through the roof in the right way. Because only in the fullness of time will we come to know whether Josh Hull has the fixtures and fittings to accompany his truly stratospheric ceiling.Won’t even try to think up a joke about Pakistan here, because the PCB will always outdo us•AFP/Getty Images

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Of course, despite all the attributes and moments, not to mention scintillating entertainment for Joe Public when Pope opted to bowl spin for a bit when the light was bad, England lost the Oval Test to Sri Lanka. Afterwards, Joe Root explained the team’s failure in the following terms: “Coldplay can’t be No. 1 every week.” Which seems to betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how the music industry works, as well as provide an interesting insight into Root’s musical tastes (are such bedwetters even allowed on the Baz boombox?) And, as far as analogies go, it also fails to explain why England have spent exactly zero weeks at No. 1 (on either the ICC rankings or the World Test Championship table) since McCullum took control of the playlist two years ago.

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Elsewhere on the charts, meanwhile, Pakistan are still playing the old hits: dysfunction, hubris and farce. Barely a year on from Mickey Arthur minting “The Pakistan Way”, his replacement, Jason Gillespie, is discovering that the only way is down, as a 2-0 home defeat to Bangladesh extended their losing streak under Shan Masood’s captaincy to five Tests in a row. Afterwards, Masood attempted to put his team’s struggles into a context everyone can understand. “You can’t prepare for science and then sit a maths exam,” he said. “If you’re being tested for maths, you study maths. To play red-ball cricket, you must play red-ball cricket.” The PCB’s response, meanwhile, has been to come up with an entirely new curriculum in the form of the Champions Cup – proving themselves once again to be top of the class in shambling ineptitude.

DC needed Rahul to anchor their innings and take apart CSK’s best bowler, and he did both with aplomb

Deivarayan Muthu05-Apr-20252:08

Jaffer: Rahul’s takedown of Noor was the key for DC

At 11am on Saturday, four-and-a-half hours before of the start of Delhi Capitals’ (DC) game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk, the team management learned that Faf du Plessis might not be fit to take the field. DC coach Hemang Badani then asked KL Rahul, who had batted at No. 4 on his franchise debut last Friday, if he could slide up the order and take up du Plessis’ spot.”Happy, coach. I’m happy to go up the order,” was Rahul’s immediate response, according to Badani.Rahul is used to moving up and down the order across formats. He’s a shape-shifting object that is capable of turning himself into whatever the team needs. On a tricky, red-soil surface in Chennai, they needed Rahul to first anchor the innings and then dismantle the opposition’s best bowler. Rahul aced both roles during his 77 off 51 balls – and then even kept wicket in Chennai’s inhospitable heat – to carry DC to their third successive win.Related

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• Rahul 77 leads Delhi Capitals to 183 against CSK

• Stats – CSK go six years without chasing a 180-plus target

He had started slowly. He was on 29 off 23 balls at the halfway mark of DC’s innings. But he had sussed out the conditions intelligently and understood that the pitch was offering extra bounce, of the tennis-ball variety. So, he refrained from hitting over the top. He also needed some time to ease himself in.”Yeah, it’s more the mental [adjustment] and just the process of just getting in and just getting used to walking at a particular stage,” Rahul said after the match. “There are a few routines that I do, and I’d like to get used to doing the same thing and then your body gets used to doing that.”But since I’ve been going up and down the order, I just feel like a little unsettled when I walk in and the first few balls it takes me a few minutes to just get used to it. That’s been the most challenging part for me. Once I get through those initial nerves, and just getting used to being in the middle – or whatever is my routines if I can get settled with that – then it’s just bat and ball again.”Against Noor Ahmad, the left-arm wristspinner who is the highest wicket-taker this season so far, Rahul had a plan, and he committed to it. It’s hard to pick which way a left-arm wristspinner is turning the ball, especially at the high speeds Noor bowls at, but Rahul was ready to pounce on any error in length. When Noor pushed one full enough for the sweep, Rahul slog-swept him away over midwicket for six.KL Rahul slog sweeps Noor Ahmad for a six•BCCILeaving the crease against Noor is fraught with immense risk, so Rahul took the less risky option of sweeping the wristspinner because whichever way the ball turns, the arc of the bat covers for it as long as you pick the length.Expecting Rahul to sweep him once again, Noor then hid a wrong’un away from Rahul’s reach in his third over. Rahul, who had originally shaped for the sweep, picked the length, which wasn’t full enough for the shot, and ended up flat-batting it on one knee over Noor’s head. It forced Noor to change his length again, and Rahul nailed the sweep again. His plan to take Noor down was a sweeping success: 20 off nine balls at a strike rate of 222.22. Noor had looked unstoppable until Saturday, when Rahul stopped him from bowling his full quota of overs.”I think what we have spoken as a side is not to settle or not to let any bowler settle,” Badani said at his post-match press conference. “Now, a certain batter will have their own game plan. And as you mentioned, Rahul was clear enough that he was not going to let Noor settle down. Because he felt that Noor was a crucial bowler for CSK. And he wanted to make sure that once you put the opposition’s best bowler down, it becomes difficult for the opposition to keep coming back after that and I thought he did that well.”Rahul then went about lining up the weakest link in CSK’s attack on the day, reverse-scooping left-arm seamer Mukesh Choudhary for four between the keeper and short third. Even before the ball had passed Khaleel Ahmed at short third, the bowler had his hands on his head. Rahul ran out of gas in the end overs – he managed just nine off his last ten balls – but he had already done enough to push DC to an above-par total.1:36

Jaffer: ‘Things are falling in place for Delhi Capitals’

In the 2023 ODI World Cup final, Rahul was unable to make a decision under pressure. He wasn’t sure if he should attack Mitchell Starc when he came back for the death, or if he could play him out and find runs elsewhere. Rahul took no half-measures against Noor, though, on Saturday. He took no half-measures against Mitchell Santner either in the Champions Trophy final last month.DC were initially looking to have Rahul open the batting for them but after Harry Brook pulled out of the tournament, they decided to slot him in at No. 4. In his first game for DC at that position, he hit Mohammed Shami, no less, for two fours and a six off his first three (legal) balls in a cameo. In his next match against CSK, he seamlessly moved up to the top and played a starring role for them on a challenging Chepauk track.”He is somebody who has been around long enough to understand the need of the hour,” Badani said of Rahul. “He has opened for India. He has opened in Test cricket recently for India. He has batted at No. 4 or 5 in the Champions Trophy, and he is somebody who can play spin well, who can play pace well.”Wake up in the morning, become a shape-shifting object, and win the Player-of-the-Match award in the evening. It’s just another day in the life of KL Rahul.

For a change, Sri Lanka have also named a full-strength squad to face Zimbabwe in the two ODIs

Andrew Fidel Fernando28-Aug-2025Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are about to begin a two-ODI series in Harare. Here are five things to watch for.

Brendan Taylor is back playing white-ball cricket

Having served out his three-and-a-half year ban for corruption-related offences, Taylor is back playing ODIs – the format in which he has been most prolific, having made 11 hundreds. This isn’t Taylor’s first international since the return – he had hit 44 and 7 against New Zealand in a Test earlier this month. But perhaps he has his eyes on that 2027 men’s ODI World Cup, and at age 39, he needs to prove he can keep contributing meaningful runs. He has done well enough against Sri Lanka in the past, averaging 36.92 against them – a little higher than his career average. Zimbabwe will need his experience against an unorthodox Sri Lankan attack.

Sri Lanka have named a full-strength squad

In the past, Zimbabwe tours have been seen as an opportunity for Sri Lanka to try out some younger players. But Sri Lanka are now the kind of side that does not consistently make major ODI tournaments, and they are not taking chances this time. They will be intent on their potential 2027 World Cup players getting some exposure to conditions in Zimbabwe. But more than that, they will be keen to continue winning in the format in which they have seemed most comfortable over the past 12 months. It’s a chance too, to prove that their improvement in the format is not just down to familiar (big-spinning) conditions at home.

Zimbabwe have to turn the ship around

In 2025, Zimbabwe’s men have lost 13 of the 17 completed matches they have played, across formats. Their one series victory, actually, was in the ODI format, when they defeated Ireland 2-1 in a home series in February. Since late April, though, they have lost 10 matches consecutively – six Tests and four T20Is. In all four of those T20Is, their batting never got going, though occasionally the bowling was effective. Against a reasonably confident Sri Lanka team, they have their work cut out.Charith Asalanka has tended to make use of his bowling depth in ODIs•MARTY MELVILLE/AFP via Getty Images

Sri Lanka binge on allrounders

This phase of Sri Lankan men’s cricket has valued multi-skilled cricketers, and despite Wanindu Hasaranga being unavailable for this series, there are still some allrounders on show. Charith Asalanka is increasingly a reliable bowler in this format, but in the squad also are the likes of Janith Liyanage, Milan Rathnayake, Dunith Wellalage, and Kamindu Mendis. In ODIs, Asalanka has tended to make use of this bowling depth to prevent batters from settling, and to give himself more options at the death. In the first two ODIs of their most-recent series, for example, Asalanka used seven bowlers apiece.

Dilshan Madushanka attempts to impose himself

Following a stellar 2023 World Cup (though the team tanked around him), Dilshan Madushanka has had a quiet couple of years. He has struggled for rhythm and control across formats. Now, ODIs are the only format he really gets picked for. A rapid left-arm quick who can swing the ball into the right-hand batters early, and also has a wicked cutter, would be an asset to any limited overs team, so long as the radar is good. Thankfully for Madushanka, he has a little form going into this series, having racked up regular wickets in domestic limited-overs tournaments.

The 19-year-old Afghanistan mystery spinner has already made a splash in all three formats since his international debut in 2024, and he’s got the confidence to take on the world

Nagraj Gollapudi15-Sep-2025It was July 2022. The Shpageeza League, Afghanistan’s domestic T20 tournament was being played at the Kabul Cricket stadium. At around 1am in the morning one day, AM Ghazanfar got a call from Atta Mohammad, one of his older brothers, who asked Ghazanfar to be ready to report to the stadium the next day to join the Mis Ainak Knights squad.Ghazanfar was a net bowler for Knights at the time. The team was looking to replace former Pakistan left-arm fast bowler Mir Hamza, who had gone back home. During a nets session, the captain, Asghar Afghan, impressed with Ghazanfar’s bowling, asked if he could bowl with the new ball. Barely 16 then, Ghazanfar said yes, leading to the late-night call-up.The next morning, though, the security at the ground would not allow Ghazanfar to enter as he was not authorised for access. Eventually Knights’ manager secured him entry. Ghazanfar, upon coming in, noticed the team were in a huddle. “I was late and I was worried about what Asghar Afghan would say to me,” Ghazanfar says with a smile on a Zoom chat recorded a day after he made his T20I debut, against Pakistan, during the tri-series between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UAE earlier this month.Related

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Ghazanfar changed quickly into Knights gear and joined the team. His nerves vanished soon when Afghan told him he was playing. “Uff, ! I was under pressure, but I was proud at the same time,” Ghazanfar says. “My confidence level was high and I told myself I could manage myself and everything else quickly. I told myself, this is your day, this is your opportunity.”He misremembers being Player of the Match on his debut in the Shpageeza league, against Boost Defenders; he took one wicket in his four overs in a four-run win for Defenders. It was in Knights’ next match, against Hindukush Stars, where he took four wickets inside the powerplay, of which three came in the sixth over, that he won the award for his 4 for 15. “The game changed everything for me and my cricket,” he says.

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Last year was eventful for Ghazanfar. He made his debut for Afghanistan in ODIs, against Ireland in March 2024. In November, he became the third-youngest bowler to take a six-wicket haul in ODIs, after only Waqar Younis and Rashid Khan, when he picked up 6 for 26 against Bangladesh. He followed that up with another five-for against Zimbabwe in December, putting him on another list with those two bowling greats – as only the third bowler in men’s cricket to take more than one five-for before turning 19.Ghazanfar picked up four wickets in his debut Test, against Zimbabwe in December 2024•Zimbabwe CricketEarlier that month Ghazanfar played four matches in three days, shuttling through the UAE, featuring in both the Under-19 Asia Cup in Dubai and the AD T10 in Abu Dhabi. In the last week of the year, he made his Test debut – also his first first-class match – stepping in for Rashid Khan, who missed the first Test, in Bulawayo, due to back and hamstring issues.As Afghanistan prepped for the match, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan’s Test captain, checked in with Ghazanfar about whether he was ready to play a Test, considering he had never played red-ball cricket. “He said, ‘You can do it, seriously?’ I said, ‘Yes, I can,'” Ghazanfar said. Later, alone in his room, Ghazanfar stayed up late to strategise and get himself mentally ready for the big game.He speaks about an inner confidence that has allowed him to handle his and others’ expectations across the three formats. “My mind is such that red-ball, white-ball doesn’t matter. The target is to bowl wicket to wicket. My match starts once the batsman engages with me face to face. I will not think this is white-ball, this is red-ball, this is T10. I like to plan and engage with the batsman’s plans.”Bowling in the Test, on a flat deck, was not easy. “They made such a wicket that two or three of their batters went to sleep on it,” Ghazanfar laughs. “Both Hashmat Shahidi and Rahmat Shah also scored double-centuries. The wicket was flat and the ground was heavy, but I got four wickets still.”

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Ghazanfar comes from Zurmat district in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan. The youngest of ten children, he started playing tennis-ball cricket around 2019. His parents live in Zurmat, while a few of his brothers run the family business, which is spread between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.At 13, when he joined the Saleem Karwan Cricket Academy in Kabul, he did everything: opened the batting, bowled fast, bowled spin. His coach at the academy, Roze Khan Zurmetai, suggested he stuck to spin bowling. It was a major turning point. In about three months, Ghazanfar says, he ended up being the highest wicket-taker in the U-16 age group in Afghanistan (though records are unavailable to verify the statistic). “Before that, while I had the skills, I did not know exactly how to use them. But the coach said my skill lies in bowling spin and I should stick to that. I focused on that, worked hard, and with the grace of God, got the results.”Ghazanfar’s many variations make it exceptionally tricky for a batter to read a delivery out of the hand•Emirates Cricket BoardGhazanfar’s bowling run-up comprises nine steps, starting with a hop and skip, and he runs through the crease to deliver with a fastish arm action, in the Rashid or Mujeeb Ur Rahman mould. Batters have found it hard to read his stock ball and his variations out of his hand.Ghazanfar was lured by the magic of the wrong’un early on. “I started bowling the googly and the carrom ball but the googly was my strength. But as I started to train and bowl a lot, I started trialling backspin and offspin with the carrom ball and googly. Slowly, slowly, I started improving with practice.”The offbreak, arm ball and flipper are his other variations. Ghazanfar credits his fast-tracked growth to former Afghanistan fast bowler Dawlat Ahmadzai, who he says helped developed his spin craft and with the mental aspect of the game.Ahmadzai, who has mentored several young Afghan talents, including Rashid, as well as the current opening pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, was head coach at the Mohammad Mirza Katawazai Cricket Centre in Kabul in 2022 when Ghazanfar’s brother Atta approached him, keen for him to look at his younger brother. “When I spoke to Ghazanfar for the first time, he told me he had started as a fast bowler,” Ahmadzai, who is currently head coach of East Bay Blazers in Minor League Cricket in the USA, and a former chairman of selectors for Afghanistan, says. “I asked him to bowl in the nets. Then I looked at his hands and felt he had the fingers meant for a good spin bowler. The middle finger on his bowling hand is strong and long and is the key driver of his variations. He also is tall and has strong shoulders.”Ahmadzai worked on Ghazanfar for nearly a year, from the basics of his run-up and action to teaching him the importance of backspin, helping him read cues from batters and telling him how to confound them. “He improved my skills a lot, teaching me how I can utilise my skills and when, and the kind of things I always need to pay attention to during my training and during the match,” Ghazanfar says.

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As a fingerspinner with multiple variations, Ghazanfar has quickly edged out the competition, including some of Afghanistan’s other mystery spinners, to earn places in prominent T20 leagues. He grabbed headlines during the IPL 2025 mega auction, when five-time champions Mumbai Indians bought him for Rs 4.8 crore (US$570,000 approximately). However, he did not feature in the tournament because of a back injury – a lumbar fracture that took several months to heal – that had its origins in the marathon spells he bowled in the Zimbabwe Test.Since 2022, Ghazanfar has been picked in several franchise leagues, including the IPL, LPL, CPL, ILT20, Abu Dhabi T10 and The T20 Blast•Abu Dhabi T10He travelled to India, though and spent time with the Mumbai Indians squad. MI’s scouts had been tracking him for a while by then. “In 2023 I was playing for Afghanistan U-19 in the UAE. Rahul [former India left-arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi, a long-serving senior MI official and scout] wanted me to attend trials at the ICC Cricket Academy. I did well, and they told me they would look at me at least as a back-up bowler during the 2024 season. I was very happy because to play the IPL is every youngster’s [wish]”He could not get a visa as a net bowler for MI, but he did end up going to the 2024 IPL after Kolkata Knight Riders picked him up as a replacement for Mujeeb, who was injured. “I was waiting to get picked as a net bowler but instead I got picked by a team. I couldn’t have been more happy,” Ghazanfar says.He didn’t get a game for KKR that season, but says the experience made him a better cricketer and also got him a good pay packet at the 2025 auction. KKR won the 2024 IPL, so Ghazanfar came back home that year with a medal, but he says his learnings trumped that. He spoke to spin greats like Sunil Narine and R Ashwin that season. “Having been there for big matches, including the IPL final, I saw up close how players were dealing with pressure. That was very significant for me,” he says.Gautam Gambhir, who returned as KKR mentor in 2024. “He gave me a lot of support. He said, ‘Your future is bright.’ [He said] that I should focus on my batting, which will come handy in the long run. He would stand behind me during my bowling at training and offer tips. He also said he would ensure KKR got me back for the 2025 season.”The franchise did bid hard for Ghazanfar but pulled out at the Rs 4.6-crore mark. “My kismet was with Mumbai,” he says with a smile. He expects to be retained by Mumbai for the 2026 season but still has fond memories of celebrating his 19th birthday with the franchise. “Tilak Varma ” [Tilak Varma did me especially dirty] Ghazanfar laughs, running a hand across his face to mimic how the Mumbai and India batter smeared cake all over it.Tilak was already acquainted with Ghazanfar, having played against him in the semi-final of the Emerging Teams Asia Cup in October 2024. Tilak was leading India A, who lost that match by 20 runs. Ghazanfar played a role in that defeat, getting the India opening pair of Abhishek Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh out cheaply.