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Bancroft seeks county fulfilment at Somerset

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Cameron Bancroft might be part of Australia’s Ashes-winning squad but his early forays in county cricket have caused a headache or two

David Hopps22-Dec-2017Cameron Bancroft will return to county cricket with Somerset in 2018 as he seeks to build on his new Test status by finally proving his mettle in the English game.Bancroft makes the switch from Somerset’s west country neighbours, Gloucestershire, were he has spent two relatively undistinguished seasons considering that he has now won considerable kudos in Australia as part of their Ashes-winning squad.He also revealed a dry wit in his first media conference when he outlined at length Jonny Bairstow’s “headbutt” greeting in the Avenue bar in Perth shortly after England’s Ashes party had touched down in Australia.He averaged 40.29 for Gloucestershire in the Championship last season, which sounds solid enough, but remove an admirable unbeaten 206 in a stalemate against Kent and the returns have not been so great: 671 runs over the last two seasons, both of them only temporary assignments, at an average of 25.80.Such a return illustrates why Bancroft’s selection for Australia’s Ashes XI was met with more scepticism in England than in his native Australia, where his unbeaten 228 for Western Australia against South Australia in Perth last month became an irresistible claim for selection.Bancroft still has learning to do and that means that Somerset have secured him for the majority of the season, confident that even though he will make a step up to Division One this can be his breakthrough season.Somerset’s director of cricket Andy Hurry said: “Cameron will be available, subject to permission from Cricket Australia, for the start of the 2018 Specsavers County Championship season, all of the Royal London One-Day Cup fixtures plus the six remaining Championship matches that take place after the T20 Blast group stages. This will provide us with the continuity that we are looking for from an overseas signing.”He has come very highly recommended and will fit seamlessly into our environment. This will be a key ingredient to us achieving our aspirations of winning silverware. Cameron has the appetite and the temperament for scoring big hundreds. He really values the price of his wicket, is mentally tough and highly driven to succeed.”Bancroft made his international debut in this winter’s first Ashes Test, making an eye-catching 82 in Australia’s second innings, although his returns have been low since then. If he has as much impact at Somerset as his coach at Western Australia and Perth Scorchers, Justin Langer, who averaged more than 50 in first-class cricket for the county, then everybody will be more than satisfied.Chris Rogers, another Australian opener of recent vintage, also came close to leading Somerset to the title in 2016.As a teenager in Attadale, a well-to-do riverside suburb of Perth, Bancroft kept a poster of Langer on his bedroom wall, and is slowly developing a similar reputation as a driven and disciplined opening batsman.”I’ve heard a lot of good things about Somerset from Justin Langer and it’s clear that they are a team heading in the right direction,” Bancroft said. “There’s a long history of Australians doing well at Taunton, so hopefully I can add my name to that list.”

Not sure if Kohli is a long-term captaincy option – Graeme Smith

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The former South Africa captain has raised doubts over Virat Kohli’s ability to get the best out of his players in high-stress situations, the type of which they will repeatedly come up against on tour

Sidharth Monga in Johannesburg22-Jan-2018South Africa’s most successful Test captain Graeme Smith has raised doubts over Virat Kohli’s ability to get the best out of his players, and wondered aloud if Kohli is a long-term captaincy option for India. Smith also said Kohli needs a person in the support staff who can challenge his ideas and help him grow as a leader. Smith and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar were speaking to former Zimbabwe bowler Pommie Mbangwa at a breakfast event organised by South African television network SuperSport.A recent column by Ramachandra Guha, historian and former member of the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators, has brought into open the power Kohli enjoys. Almost every BCCI functionary, Guha wrote, defers to Kohli, and the big fear is that Ravi Shastri is the India coach only because Kohli wanted an agreeable man to run the team alongside him. “When I look at Virat, I think he needs someone in the support staff who can constructively challenge him and help him grow,” Smith said. “He has all the capabilities tactically, he knows his own game, he sets the standard in the field for everyone else.”I think if he had a really constructive person in his environment, who could talk to him, make him think, maybe even challenge him with some different ideas, in a constructive way, not an angry or aggressive way, but make him think, open his eyes to other possibilities, that would make him a really good leader.”Gavaskar said Kohli was a good leader but he needed to bring himself down to the level of other players in the side and then take them up the level he wants them to be. Smith was more categorical in pointing out the disconnect between Kohli and the rest of the team.”We all know he’s an outstanding player, his intensity really benefits his own personal game, he loves that confrontation, that intensity brings the best out of him,” Smith said. “Sometimes as a leader you’ve got to consider how you impact the others in the environment, that’s an area of his leadership that he needs to grow. You can see, he’s often at his players. He’s very aware, he’s focus on the game is on, sweeping or mid-on.”[But] often his reaction to situations… I think that can sometimes impact on your team negatively. We all know how powerful Virat Kohli is in world cricket, in Indian cricket. For him, he’s built this aura and for him maybe to find a level where he can connect with all his players, to get to a level where can get the Indian team to be as successful as he is, that’s something that he, when I watch him, is grappling with.”Kohli’s reactions to events in the Centurion Test could be seen as displeasure with his team-mates. Every time a wicket fell, even as he stood tall on an Indian kind of pitch, Kohli would react in frustration, smashing the bat into his pad, looking the other way or generally not looking impressed.”I don’t know, when I look at him, if he is a long-term captaincy option for India,” Smith said. “At the end of this year, he’d have been away from home for a while, the pressure he’ll face, the scrutiny from the press – I know he only gets that in India – but if you’re away from home and you’re struggling for form as a team, I don’t know if I’d want to burden Virat Kohli with that… Or if India have a better leader in that environment.”Gavaskar joked that they had a leader – vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane – but he wasn’t selected for the first two Tests, both of which India lost. “You might have some players who don’t have the same understanding of the game, or the same fierce desire, but sometimes you have to bring yourself down to a completely different level,” Gavaskar said. “Down, not up. Because that is the only way you are going to get the others who are down up to a level that you want to be. By making them understand that this is not the level where you’ll be doing well yourself, but rather where you are going to do well for the team to win.”Captains evolve in their thought process not only when they are captaining. On off days too, they are always thinking in terms of how can they take the team forward. And sometimes in that process, with that thinking – ‘how do I take the team forward?’ – you lose sight of simple simple things because as an individual you don’t think it is not necessary for you – but it is necessary for some of the lesser guys… As soon as Virat realises that and starts to recognise that, he will become a better leader.”Smith agreed that Kohli needed to take the whole team along with him. “You can be the best player in the world, and you love that intensity and you often don’t think what your team-mates are going through,” Smith said. “Sometimes you talk to AB de Villiers, he gets down and reverse sweeps, he makes it look so easy, and sometimes you need to remind AB that other guys don’t see it that way.”As a leader you need to understand the whole environment, talk to the players to try to get the best out of the environment. He might grow as he learns to soften that a little bit. His performances speak for themselves, it’s about whether he can get the best out of those around him when they are under pressure.”Kohli has captained India in 34 Tests and has fielded a different XI every time. In the process, apart from first-choice keeper Wriddhiman Saha and newcomers Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah, everybody has been dropped by Kohli at least once. That could be the kind of reactions Smith might have been talking about.

South Africa show fight but Australia's lead crosses 400

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Keshav Maharaj and Morne Morkel picked up three wickets, but South Africa were no better off than 24 hours earlier as Australia’s lead reached 402 at stumps on day three

The Report by Brydon Coverdale03-Mar-2018
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIt was a long shot that South Africa could significantly improve their situation on the third day at Kingsmead, and long shots rarely get up. They fought hard, took wickets, fielded well, kept Australia to a fairly modest score – and still ended the day facing a near-record Test chase. It was always likely. The morning began with Australia 189 runs in front, and ready to start their second innings. What South Africa really needed was an all-out 47 a la Cape Town 2011. What they got was Australia on 213 for 9 at stumps.That meant that for all South Africa’s hard work, little had changed in the match situation. Australia’s lead stood at 402 runs, with the possibility of adding more on the fourth morning. South Africa would need at the very least the fifth-highest successful chase in Test history to win. They would also have to better by 60-plus runs a record that has stood for 60-plus years – the highest target ever successfully chased in a Test in South Africa was 336, achieved on this ground when Neil Harvey struck an unbeaten 151 in 1950.If South Africa want encouragement, they can look to more recent history. In 2002, also at this venue, they chased down Australia’s target of 335, so the two highest-successful pursuits in South Africa have come at Kingsmead. And the second-highest successful chase in all of Test history was the 414 that South Africa achieved against Australia in Perth in 2008. If the conditions are different, at least some of the players are the same: AB de Villiers made 106 not out in that chase, and Hashim Amla contributed a fifty.But enough nostalgia. Kingsmead 2018 is all that matters now, and on the third day of the Test, Cameron Bancroft eased some of the immediate pressure on his place in the side with a half-century; Usman Khawaja got out reverse-sweeping before he had reached double-figures; Dean Elgar made Steven Smith his bunny by dismissing him for the second time in Test cricket; Keshav Maharaj took his match tally to eight wickets; Morne Morkel took his career tally to 297; Kagiso Rabada bowled impressively and claimed 2 for 28; and perhaps significantly for the chase, Elgar hurt his hand late in the day.Bancroft and David Warner started the innings with a solid 56-run partnership but on 28, Warner threw his start away by trying to force Rabada through leg and instead sending a catch to mid-on. Khawaja then completed a disappointing Test personally when he tried to reverse-sweep Maharaj and a catch popped up off his glove to Quinton de Kock, ending his innings on 6.Australia’s lead was already in comfortable territory but Bancroft still had much to play for, seeking to justify his retention ahead of Matt Renshaw for this tour. If he didn’t fully put his stamp on the position as Warner’s opening partner, he at least showed a glimpse of what he can do, striking 10 fours on his way to a 76-ball half-century, and using his feet well to the spin of Maharaj. At least, for a while. It was that same footwork that brought him undone, when on 53 he failed to reach the pitch of one and Maharaj turned it past his edge to allow an easy stumping.Left-arm spin also accounted for Smith, but from an unlikely source. Faf du Plessis took a gamble on the part-time spin of Elgar and it immediately paid off, when on 38 Smith tried to sweep and was lbw. Remarkably, it was the second time in Tests that Elgar, who has 14 wickets from 46 Tests, had dismissed Smith, the world’s best Test batsman. Four years ago almost to the day, he had bowled Smith in Cape Town with a hop so long it could have won Olympic gold in the triple jump.Smith had already survived a close call on 30 when he was adjudged not out lbw to Maharaj, and South Africa’s review found that – by the slimmest of margins – he had been struck in the umpire’s call zone on off stump. In general, South Africa might have been frustrated by close calls going against them on the third day, though du Plessis was also saved from wasting reviews on two occasions when the umpire Kumar Dharmasena decided he had taken too long.South Africa continued to pick up wickets fairly regularly. Mitchell Marsh edged to slip off Rabada for 6, Tim Paine was taken at slip off Maharaj for 14, Shaun Marsh spent 99 balls over 33 before he too edged to second slip off Morkel, and Nathan Lyon likewise sent a catch into the cordon off Morkel. The one who wasn’t caught behind the wicket was Mitchell Starc, who crunched Morkel to cover, where Elgar took a sharp catch but immediately left the field for medical attention to his hand.The day finished – early once again, due to bad light – with Pat Cummins on 17 and Josh Hazlewood on 4. And with South Africa, for all their best efforts, no better off than they were 24 hours earlier.

Maroof, Mir seal ODI series for Pakistan

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Pakistan climbed to the top half of the ICC Women’s Championship table with a resounding win against Sri Lanka in Dambulla, on the back of a half-century from captain Bismah Maroof and a four-for from offspinner Sana Mir

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Mar-2018Getty Images/ICC

Pakistan climbed to the top half of the ICC Women’s Championship table with a resounding 94-run win against Sri Lanka in Dambulla, on the back of a half-century from captain Bismah Maroof and a four-for from offspinner Sana Mir. Once Pakistan posted 250 for 6, the hosts were bowled out for 156 to give the visitors an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.Opting to bat, Pakistan saw slow starts from openers Nahida Khan (29) and Muneeba Ai (31) before they were sent back by medium-pacers Ama Kanchana and Sripali Weerakkoddy, respectively, by the 20th over. The innings was then steered by Maroof, who struck nine fours and a six to register her 12th ODI half-century. Her 89 off 90 balls lifted the run rate along with lower-order contributions from Nida Dar and Sana Mir’s 25-ball 27. Weerakkoddy finished with 2 for 46 from her ten overs.Sri Lanka’s chase wobbled as early as the fifth over when Nipuni Hansika was run-out by Muneeba for 5 off 16. Captain Chamari Atapattu scored a brisk 24 off 23 but she fell to Nashra Sandhu’s left-arm spin in the ninth over and four wickets from Mir had them in serious trouble at 67 for 6. Chamari Polgampola, Kanchana and Weerakkoddy steered the score past 100 before a last-wicket stand of 50 runs helped them to 156 but they were bowled out in 37 overs. Mir finished with impressive figures of 10-3-32-4 and Nahida Khan took four catches in the match.The third ODI will be played on Saturday in Dambulla.

Rabada picks up second disciplinary charge in same Test

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Fresh charge levelled against South Africa quick for Warner send-off, even as he awaits ruling on Smith shoulder nudge

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Mar-2018While Kagiso Rabada awaits the ruling on the Level 2 charge against him – for having brushed Australian captain Steven Smith in the shoulder – he has been hit by another charge: a Level 1 offence for the send-off he gave David Warner in Australia’s second innings in Port Elizabeth. Rabada is currently on five demerit points and could earn three more if found guilty of the Level 2 charge, which would see him banned for the next two Tests.He has yet to respond to the Level 1 charge, which was levelled for screaming in Warner’s face after dismissing him. Though no expletives were heard, provoking a response from the batsmen is also an offence according to the ICC’s code of conduct.If found guilty of both offences, Rabada’s total demerit points will amount to at least nine, which means he will be on the threshold of 12 points. Twelve demerit points equate to six suspension points and could see him miss at least three Test matches.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Australia allrounder Mitchell Marsh, meanwhile, added to the growing list of this series’ unsavoury moments when television cameras captured his verbal riposte to Rabada after he was bowled on the fourth morning in Port Elizabeth. In the first over of the day, Marsh was comprehensively bowled by a ball that sliced between his bat and pad, and, as Rabada ran past in celebration, the Australian was seen mouthing the words “f*** you c***” while turning his head towards the bowler.Marsh had been the recipient of another celebration directed at the batsmen when dismissed by Rabada in the first innings; this time around, the bowler was far more composed but Marsh had his say. While the Australians had asked for stump microphones to be turned down whenever the ball is dead during this series, as is the case in Australia and in line with the ICC’s guidelines, there are no restrictions on the use of close-up television replays. Marsh’s response was duly repeated numerous times on the broadcast, and picked up on social media platforms around the world.Rabada’s Warner send-off was his second registered offence in the Test match. The first incident occurred on day one – on dismissing Smith in the first innings, Rabada yelled “yes, yes, yes” in the Australian captain’s face and then their shoulders made contact as Rabada approached his team-mates.Rabada is the leading wicket-taker in the series so far, with 15 scalps, and single-handedly bowled his team into a position of authority on the first day in Port Elizabeth, with five wickets in 18 balls. In the second gig, too, he helped wrap up Australia’s innings quickly on the fourth morning to finish with innings figures of 6 for 54. A Rabada suspension could have a significant effect on the series, especially if Dale Steyn, who is targeting the Cape Town Test for a comeback from injury, is unavailable.Three of the points he currently has will remain on his record until January 2019, having first been sanctioned in January 2017. Since then, he has developed a growing rap sheet, picking up another in July 2017, and one more last month. Each demerit point remains on his record for 24 months. He has already been suspended on disciplinary grounds once, when he reached four demerit points during South Africa’s tour of England last year.

Graham Onions and James Anderson leave leaders Nottinghamshire facing heavy defeat

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Lancashire reduced the home side to 1 for 3 at one stage – Ross Taylor bagging a pair – after Keaton Jennings’ century built a big lead

David Hopps at Trent Bridge12-May-2018
ScorecardOne minute, Saturday afternoon at Trent Bridge is a little docile and there is little more pressing in life than to study the intricacies of Keaton Jennings’ wagon wheel (not much down the ground since you ask, which has not harmed one record-breaking England opening batsman who is preparing for yet another international season).A few minutes later, and Nottinghamshire, having started their second innings 205 behind, are 1 for 3 and the air is rent with the cacophony of jubilant cries from Lancashire fielders, the soundtrack for the first month of the season, all whoops and hollers and gerrin theres. Lancashire have got in – and should win by Sunday lunchtime, arresting Nottinghamshire’s table-topping start to the season in the process.To turn round such a predicament would need something spectacular. Notts gave few indications that they will manage it as they trimmed the defiicit to 99 by the close of the second day. Samit Patel crashed four fours then drove James Anderson to point and, after a fifth-wicket stand of 68, Riki Wessels became another Graham Onions lbw victim to leave Lancashire relatively unconcerned by the rain that clipped 11 overs from the day.Peter Moores, Notts’ coach, put the blame on the bowlers, saying: “Sport is funny, we prepped well for this game, we went into it as the last of a mini-series of five matches with a chance to really push on and cement our place at the top of the division but we just haven’t bowled well enough.”There was not much rhyme or reason to Notts’ concession of three wickets for one run in 10 balls: Steven Mullaney dragged on as he tried to carve Anderson square on the off side, Onions squeezed one through the tiniest gap between bat and pad to bowl Chris Nash and Ross Taylor fell first ball, Onions slanting one back to have him lbw. That was a pair for Taylor, lbw to Onions on both occasions. He fell in the same way against Onions at Old Trafford, too, which is a bit of a pattern.As for Nash, he is 115 for 9 for the season – his move from Sussex so far not reaping dividends as he becomes the latest batsman to fail to solve Notts’ ever-present top-order frailties. You have to go back to Chris Broad and Tim Robinson a generation ago to find Notts’ last truly established opening pair: highly successful and occasionally crotchety with it. Since then, they always seem to be signing opening batsmen, but have never remotely found a duo like that.RT Robinson is officiating here. Imperturbable and not given to excess, he probably finds such regular finger raising more attention-seeking than he would wish. As for Broad, his son Stuart was in situ, his 4 for 41 suggesting he was in good rhythm ahead of the Test series against Pakistan (the same is true of Anderson but then it usually is). Broad’s showiest moment was a sharp return catch, diving to his left in his follow-through, to dismiss Dane Vilas.Another Notts seamer hoping to attract England’s attention returned less impressive figures. Jake Ball remains Division One’s leading wicket-taker, but he could have chosen better days to disappear at five an over. His two wickets included a frustrated short delivery which Jordan Clark, who had played enterprisingly, uppercut to third man.If England talk should be banned when it comes to Haseeb Hameed, whose task is properly to recalibrate his Lancashire career, it is also premature in the case of Jennings, as fondly as the likes of Andy Flower look upon his upstanding and diligent ways, but he has back-to-back hundreds now on exacting pitches and his game is clearly coming together again. He was shrewd and selective in a match where not too many have been able to claim that distinction.He had a fifty bagged overnight and, in the second phase of his innings, only the introduction of Patel’s left-arm slows when he was in the 90s disturbed his equanimity. He went from 91 to 95 with a reverse whip, but two balls later edged suspiciously out of his crease and survived a missed stumping. The shot that brought up his hundred was more in keeping as he methodically worked Mullaney into the leg side. His demise came on 126 when he left a straight one from Broad and his off stump whistled out of the ground with the crispness of a stick of celery.”Different gravy,” Lancashire’s captain Liam Livingstone said of Jennings’ innings. Enough praise perhaps to send him rushing to his urban dictionary to discover exactly what his captain was talking about.

BCCI, Srinivasan and Modi in Enforcement Directorate's line of fire

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It is understood an aggregated penalty of over INR 121 crore has been laid on the Indian board and its former bigwigs, among others, in connection with Foreign Exchange Act violations during IPL 2009

PTI01-Jun-2018The Enforcement Directorate has slapped a penalty of over INR 121 crore on the BCCI, its former boss N Srinivasan and former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi among others, for alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Act (FEMA) during IPL 2009, according to agency officials.A special director of ED, it is understood, levied a penalty of INR 82.66 crore on the BCCI, INR 11.53 crore on Srinivasan, INR 10.65 crore on Modi, INR 9.72 crore on former BCCI treasurer MP Pandove, and INR 7 crore on the State Bank of Travancore (now merged with the SBI) in connection with the matter.The ED – an agency under the government of India responsible for enforcing economic laws in the country – was investigating a case of alleged contravention of the Foreign Exchange Act (FEMA) in transferring over INR 243 crore out of the country to host the 2009 IPL in South Africa. This transfer of funds was in alleged violation of the RBI guidelines meant for transferring funds abroad. The order asked the accused to deposit the fine amount with the government exchequer within 45 days.

David Richardson to step down as ICC chief executive in 2019

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Richardson will move on at the end of his current contract, having overseen a period of great upheaval at cricket’s world governing body

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jul-2018David Richardson, the ICC’s chief executive since 2012, is to step down from the position after next year’s World Cup. He will move on at the end of his current contract, having overseen a period of great upheaval at cricket’s world governing body, with the process to find his successor set to begin immediately.From the “Big Three” shake-up at the ICC – subsequently reversed – the reduction of the World Cup to ten teams, and the recent confirmation of an ODI league and World Test Championship, Richardson has been a steadying presence at an organisation well accustomed to change.His tenure also coincided with rising commercial returns – the ICC in 2014 announcing a “significantly” increased eight-year TV rights deal with Star Sports – and the creation of two new Full Members, in Ireland and Afghanistan, although that has been accompanied by criticisms about the level of finance and opportunity afforded to those outside cricket’s traditional strongholds.”The hardest thing as a cricketer is knowing when the time is right to retire,” said Richardson, who will turn 59 later this year. “But for me, the end of the ICC Cricket World Cup next year is about right. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the ICC and I am particularly pleased with what we have achieved in recent times in creating greater context for all formats of the game and securing increased opportunities and clear pathways for all members to play at the highest level.”I will certainly do all I can over the next 12 months to ensure that we complete our work on the new global strategy for cricket aimed at growing the game both in our traditional and new markets, and, in particular put on a World Cup that does the game proud.”I’d like to thank the ICC chairman and the current board of directors and member chief executives for their support and of course to my senior team and all of the ICC staff who are so dedicated to our great sport.”A former South Africa wicketkeeper who became the ICC’s first general manager in 2002, Richardson was recommended as Haroon Lorgat’s successor due to his long experience at the organisation.Initially working alongside a president, changes to the ICC’s constitution in 2014 saw the creation of a chairman; N Srinivasan, one of the architects of the “Big Three”, was the inaugural holder of the role, before his forced departure saw Shashank Manohar elected and the rolling back of several of the reforms initiated by India, England and Australia.”On behalf of the ICC Board, I would like to thank David for his service and commitment to cricket over the past 16 years and, particularly, over the last six years as CEO,” Manohar said. “His achievements speak for themselves, but in recent history the commercial success of the sport, his leadership of the ICC team and establishing greater context for international cricket are of particular note.”David will be missed by everyone in the game, but this is an opportunity for the ICC to drive forward our new global growth strategy, which David has played an integral part in developing, under new leadership. A global recruitment process will now get underway to identify the right person to lead the ICC.”

England consider options to keep Ben Stokes in frame for Lord's Test

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The England management are keeping an open mind as to Stokes’ availability, should his court case in Bristol be adjourned

George Dobell01-Aug-2018England have not given up hope that Ben Stokes could be available for the second Test starting at Lord’s on August 9.Stokes is due in court in Bristol on August 6 – the day after the Edgbaston Test is scheduled to finish – to face a charge of affray with the case scheduled to last somewhere between five and seven days.But the England management are keeping an open mind as to Stokes’ availability, should the case be adjourned for any reason. If that were to happen on the first or second day of the trial, the England camp have confirmed to ESPNcricinfo they would consider his involvement in the Test at Lord’s.Replacing Stokes, as England found during the Ashes, is desperately difficult. While the England management are expecting a drier surface at Lord’s that could well see Moeen Ali drafted back into the side as a second spinner, they would prefer him to play alongside Stokes, rather than instead of him.A case can be adjourned for many reasons including illness, the admission of new evidence or a change in the charge. While it remains likely the case will go ahead as originally envisaged – certainly the Stokes camp has no plans to call for an adjournment – the England camp are keen to find a way to accommodate Stokes if he becomes available.

Hardik Pandya not a Test allrounder yet – Holding

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Michael Holding believes Hardik Pandya is not effective as a batsman and lacks control and consistency with the ball

Nagraj Gollapudi16-Aug-2018Hardik Pandya is not yet ready to take the allrounder’s spot in India’s Test team, according to former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding, because he is not effective as a batsman and lacks control and consistency with the ball.”The [Indian] attack has not been the right balance,” Holding told ESPNcricinfo. “Apparently they are playing Hardik Pandya as an allrounder to help out with the bowling. When he bowls he isn’t as effective as he should be. If he was a good batsman, if he was getting runs – 60s, 70s, not even regular hundreds – at the number at which he bats and then he bowls and gets two or three wickets, happy, hallelujah. Happy with that. But he is not getting the amount of runs that can then allow him to get a wicket or two in the Test match. That doesn’t work.”Pandya made his Test debut last July in Sri Lanka, scoring a fifty in Galle and followed it with his maiden Test century in Pallekelle in his third Test. He has played nine Tests so far and, barring the home series against Sri Lanka for which he was rested late last year, he has been the only constant in the Test XI along with captain Virat Kohli.In his fledgling Test career, Pandya has had more success with bat than ball – 458 runs at an average of 32.71 with a century and three half-centuries, and 10 wickets at an average of 39.30 and a strike rate of 71.50. Overseas, Kohli has used Pandya largely to give the frontline bowlers relief. The Lord’s Test was Pandya’s most hectic in terms of bowling workload in a single innings – he bowled 17.1 overs and performed the role of the third seamer, assisting the new-ball pair of Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma.That Pandya had to bowl more was a consequence of Kohli’s decision to field two spinners in wet and overcast conditions. Pandya took three wickets, having gone wicketless in the first Test at Edgbaston. Incidentally, he is the second highest run-scorer for India – after Kohli – this series. But the fact that R Ashwin is five runs behind Pandya, who has scored 90 in the two Tests, only illustrates how horrific the series has been for India’s batsmen.Before the Lord’s Test, Pandya had gone wicketless for four Tests, starting from the second match in South Africa in January. While appraising Pandya’s bowling, Holding said he did not have many skills.BCCI

“I don’t think he does a lot with the ball. That is number one,” Holding said. “He is not consistent. He does not have the control that puts batsmen under pressure constantly. He will bowl a couple of good deliveries, yes, but you need to have the control to put batsmen under pressure consistently. And he doesn’t have that. If you are going to be a frontline bowler anywhere in the world, if you are going to be someone that your captain can rely on, that can throw you the ball and expect you to get wickets and expect you to have control, he is not really the man in my opinion.”Holding said India were shooting themselves in the foot by playing Pandya as the third seamer because he does not have the “firepower” to help them take 20 wickets.When asked to describe his role after the third day’s play at Lord’s, Pandya did not want to classify himself as a batting or a bowling allrounder. “If I’m batting I think as a batsman and if I’m bowling I think as a bowler.” Pandya had said. “I don’t have any one particular role.”Holding said India were trying to make Pandya perform the roles of two players, which he was not yet equipped to do. “Not if I have someone else who is fit,” Holding said, when asked if Pandya should play at Trent Bridge. “If there is no one else, sure you have to play him. If there is someone else that is a specialist batsman or specialist bowler I will certainly prefer that. There must be someone that can bat better if they want a batsman, there must be someone who can bowl better if they want a bowler. But it seems as if they are trying to fill two spots with one person. He (Pandya) is not there yet.”Despite his scathing assessment of Pandya, Holding said he is young and has time to develop as an allrounder.”I am not going to tell anyone that you won’t be there because he is a young man. But he is not there yet. I heard a mention, when I was working in South Africa: ‘he is the next Kapil Dev’. I ain’t going to tell anybody he’s not going to be the next Kapil Dev, but he is nowhere near there yet. And they need to find someone who can contribute a lot more to this team right now.”