Former allrounder last played an international match in 2012, shortly before turning 28

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jun-2020Irfan Pathan burst onto the international scene as a teenager full of promise, swing and runs, but played his last international match just before turning 28, in October 2012. Pathan, who retired from the game only in January this year, finished with 29 Tests, 120 ODIs and 24 T20Is. He often had to battle injuries and long spells out of the game, but Pathan held that if he been backed more in the second half of his career, he could have become “the best all-rounder India ever produced” in ODIs.”In terms of achievement, there could have been a lot more. I really believe that in one-day internationals, I could have been the best all-rounder that India ever produced, I could have been,” Pathan said in an interview with . “That didn’t happen because I didn’t play as much cricket as I could have because my last game for India was at the age of 27.”I see people playing till the age of 35 or 37 like England fast bowler [James] Anderson. Obviously the conditions in England are different. I think if you play till 35, things would have been better, but that’s gone, it’s done and dusted.”Whatever matches I played, I played as a match-winner, I played as a guy who made the difference to the team. Even if I took one wicket — the first wicket for the match — that made a big impact on the team. Whatever innings I played with the bat, I played to make a difference. That’s what will stay with me throughout my whole life.”In ODIs, Pathan held that his numbers were used against him even when his role in the team changed from being a strike bowler to being the all-rounder who came on first change.”The one thing I always get disappointed is that a lot of people only see the numbers and numbers don’t always give you the right picture. If you see the first 59 ODI matches that I played, I got to bowl with the new ball,” he said. “And when you are the new ball bowler, you got the opportunity to bowl with the new ball as well as the old ball. Your aim, your mindset, your body language and your responsibility is to take wickets.”When you are bowling first change, when you are a defensive bowler according to your captain and coach, you have to play the role of containing the runs. You have to make sure that you don’t give away too many runs. So if your role becomes different, then your numbers also become different as well.”Pathan largely took the new ball for India in ODIs till the end of the Champions Trophy 2006. In that time, he played 69 ODIs, and didn’t open the bowling on only two occasions. In that period, he took 113 wickets at an average of 24.78 and an economy rate of 4.96.Having played 69 ODIs in under three years, mostly under Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid’s captaincy, he went on to play only 51 more in his next six years, a period that coincided with MS Dhoni taking over the reins. He took the new ball only 19 times in that second half.”I actually feel that people from the team should have spoken about it,” Pathan said. “They should have said that, ‘Yes Irfan used to take wickets, but now we have given him a different role. We have given him the role of first change bowler and someone who can bat at No. 7 or No. 8, which is very much required in one-day cricket right now.’ Now, if an allrounder goes for around six runs per over and takes one wicket per match, you are happy with that, but you were not happy with Irfan Pathan who did the same thing. Why is that?”While Pathan agreed that a player needed to be flexible, he held that a change in role needed to be acknowledged, and supported, by the team management too.”I am not saying that I could only bowl with the new ball. No, I was ready to bowl with the old ball, I was ready to bowl with the new ball as well. But in a team game, when you have a different role, your numbers reflect differently. When Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the captain, he used to be very flexible in his batting order, so his numbers used to be different. Now when he is not flexible, obviously his numbers are getting affected. That is why either his average or strike rate will also get affected. It’s a team game. It’s not only about individuals.”The player has to be flexible, but if his role has been given differently, then it is the team’s responsibility to talk about it, but no one talks about it.”

Ganguly, however, acknowledged that the tour would be tougher than the last time

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2020BCCI president Sourav Ganguly expects Virat Kohli’s side to register their second successive Test series win in Australia when they tour down under later this year. Ganguly stated the upcoming tour would be tougher than the previous outing of 2018-19 but said India also had the batting and bowling to do well there.”I have said that to Virat also,” Ganguly told India Today in an interview. “I said, ‘because you’re Virat Kohli, your standards are high. When you walk to play, when you walk with your team, I, watching on TV, don’t expect you to just play well against Australia. I expect you to win. So for me, that is what it is. Because you have set the standards. It’s not anybody else. So you have to live up to the standards.'”On their 2018-19 tour, India had recorded their first Test series win in Australia, winning the four-match series 2-1. Australia were then without two of their batting mainstays Steven Smith and David Warner, who were serving a one-year ban each due to their role in the ball-tampering incident in the Cape Town Test against South Africa in 2018. Ganguly acknowledged this “milestone series” would not be as easy this time.”It’s going to be a tough series,” he said. “It’s not going to be what it was in 2018 when they went. It’s going to be a strong Australia but our team is as good. We have the batting, we have the bowling.”Absolutely [hopeful of the team]. We just got to bat better. You know the best teams overseas, they bat well. When we were so successful away from home, in England, in Australia and in Pakistan, we were getting 400, 500 and 600 in Test matches.India’s last international assignment was in March – a three-match ODI series against South Africa, which was called off in the wake of Covid-19 after a washout in the first game. While some of the players, including Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohammed Shami, have resumed training, one of India’s major concerns will be to ensure an injury-free return of their players, especially the fast bowlers.”I have been in touch with him [Kohli], telling him, ‘you have got to stay fit.’ You haven’t played cricket for six months, you don’t want your fast bowlers to come back and get injured. They have been training, [but] training and playing cricket is different. You have got to make sure your best bowlers are ready for the tour and fit. Whether it’s Shami, whether it’s [Jasprit] Bumrah, whether it’s Ishant [Sharma], whether it’s [Hardik] Pandya, they have to be at the top of their match fitness when they land in Australia.”Ganguly further said the BCCI had thought about a roadmap to start training camps in India, but with the rising Covid-19 cases, especially in the big cities, it was “too risky” to do anything soon.”We have thought about the roadmap. We have the SOPs [Standard Operating Procedures] in place. The BCCI and the NCA have worked extensively in getting the proper SOPs. That have been circulated to state associations. At the moment, there is no chance of camp because of what is happening, what the situation is in the country. It’s too risky. In Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, it’s just risky. So we will have to wait.”If at all the IPL happens in October – the Asia Cup has been cancelled – so maybe August-September would be the time where we can pull the players out and get them together for 15 days. We have got things in place but at the same time, the safety of the players is very important because they are long-term assets for India. One series, one IPL is not more important than player safety. But we want it to happen provided everything is in order.”India’s tour to Australia is scheduled to kick-off in October with three T20Is, followed by four Tests and three ODIs.”We just hope the number of quarantine days get reduced a bit because you don’t want the players to go all the way that far and sit in hotel rooms for two weeks,” Ganguly said. “It’s very depressing and disappointing. So we are looking at that and December is still a long way.”

Pollard’s heroics helped Mumbai Indians hammer 89 runs off the last five overs of the chase to tie the game

Saurabh Somani28-Sep-2020Royal Challengers Bangalore 201 for 3 (de Villiers 55*, Padikkal 54, Boult 2-34) tied with Mumbai Indians 201 for 5 (Kishan 99, Pollard 60*, Udana 2-45)
Super over
A day after IPL 2020 delivered an incredible thriller with the highest ever successful chase, the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore went one better, with the highest ever tied score in an IPL game. Mumbai were behind all through their chase of 202, needing 90 off the last five overs. They were still behind when Kieron Pollard reiterated his T20 G.O.A.T. status by smacking around Adam Zampa and Yuzvendra Chahal for an imagination-defying 49 runs in two overs during his unbeaten 60 off 24 balls. They were still behind when Ishan Kishan – back in the XI due to a Saurabh Tiwary niggle – was out for 99 to make it five needed off the last ball. Pollard hit a four, of course he did, to bring the match to a Super Over.As comebacks go, there was still one left in the match though, and Navdeep Saini delivered a standout Super Over to keep Pollard, Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma to just 7 for 1. Jasprit Bumrah, who had gone for 42 runs in four wicketless overs during regular play, then turned up with some excellent Super Over bowling of his own, though his gamble to bounce AB de Villiers with fine leg up went for a top-edged four. With scores level, Virat Kohli used his wrists to put the final ball away and ensure Mumbai’s story of comebacks ended on the last ball of the Super Over.Ten days into the IPL, the Royal Challengers have two wins in three games – a start they haven’t been used to of late.Before Mumbai mounted their incredible fight back, the Royal Challengers seemed to be coasting to victory, powered to 201 for 3 on the back of half-centuries from openers Aaron Finch (52 off 35) and Devdutt Padikkal (54 off 40), both of which were overshadowed by a barnstorming de Villiers 55 not out off 24. For almost three quarters of the chase after that, a revamped bowling attack stuck to its plans as Mumbai struggled.Pollard’s arrival and Kishan’s fine knock unravelled those plans, but not to the finish.Finch starts, Padikkal steers, de Villiers finishesFinch has not been in the best form so far in the IPL, but he didn’t let that change his game-plan, going hard at the top. He survived a couple of chancy hits, but then began connecting well, giving the Royal Challengers the kind of start from which they could launch. Kohli, however, looked off-colour and struggled to even get the singles. Padikkal, the other opener, played second fiddle to Finch in the opening stand, but opened out more once Finch and Kohli fell. What really boosted the Royal Challengers though, was de Villiers’ arrival. Without even looking like he was taking extravagant chances, de Villiers had purred to 20 off 12, when Bumrah came on for his final spell. He was promptly dispatched for 18 runs in one over and 17 in the next, with de Villiers scoring 27 of those. At the other end, Shivam Dube blasted three sixes and a four in his ten-ball stay as the Royal Challengers surged past 200.Washington Sundar stifles MumbaiThe Royal Challengers had brought in Isuru Udana and Adam Zampa for this game to beef up their bowling attack, with Dale Steyn and Umesh Yadav dropped. They then gave Washington Sundar three overs in the powerplay, a move that paid spectacular dividends. Not only did Sundar get Rohit Sharma in the game’s second over, he ended his first spell giving up a mere seven runs in three overs. None of Mumbai’s vaunted top order could attack him, denied room to free their arms or width to play the ball square on either side. Sundar – no stranger to bowling in the powerplay – was not the only one to stick to his plans. The long square boundaries allowed the Royal Challengers to bowl lines that asked the Mumbai batsmen to clear those, with fielders positioned in the deep. Sharma, Quinton de Kock and Hardik Pandya were all caught at deep midwicket off the spinners, as Mumbai sank deeper.Ishan Kishan arrives, Pollard unleashedAll the while,Kishan had been timing the ball well and kept ticking over. While he can hit the ball big, in Mumbai’s line-up it might have been expected of the others to do the big-hitting. But with the rest of the top order falling and the asking rate climbing, Kishan also began to go for the big shots. In Pollard, he had a partner at the other end who could hit them like few can. Pollard faced only 10 balls in the first 4.4 overs that the two were together, but Kishan took the other 18 for 31 runs.When Pollard faced up to Zampa at the start of the 17th over, Mumbai needed an unrealistic 80 runs in 24 balls. But Pollard then ripped apart Zampa and Chahal – both in their final overs – for a 27-run over followed by a 22-run over, and suddenly the impossible seemed merely the improbable. Along the way they were helped by three drops – two off Pollard and one off Kishan – of which one was straightforward.In the circumstances, Saini’s final over – the 19th of the innings – was an excellent effort with just 12 runs conceded, giving Udana 19 to defend. Kishan was on strike for four of the six balls, but sent two of them over the boundary, the first via a tough spilled chance and the second sailing over and taking him to 99. Mumbai could have had victory next ball, but Kishan’s slog-sweep was finally held in the deep, just a yard inside the boundary. The final ball was short and sat up, Pollard connected with a mighty swipe and got the power, but not the elevation as it bounced once before clearing the rope, to signal a tie.The Super OverSaini bowled a terrific over. He was going for the yorkers, and nailed a couple but the ones he didn’t ended up as low full tosses that weren’t easy to hit either. Hardik Pandya couldn’t time it, and even Pollard was beaten once before whipping another low full toss to deep midwicket. Only three balls were scored off from the bat, with one bye on the final ball, and Bumrah faced up to de Villiers once again to defend a low total. He almost did it, and de Villiers was even given out caught behind off a third-ball bouncer that was overturned on review, but with fine leg up, Bumrah’s gamble of bluffing de Villiers with another short one didn’t work. De Villiers wasn’t fully in control of his pull shot but he got enough on it to roll into the boundary. Bumrah went back to fuller lengths – a perfect yorker and a low full toss – for the last two balls, but with just two to get, he couldn’t stop de Villiers and Kohli.ALSO SEE: Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore live score, September 28 2020

England seamer happy to get one over brother in high-scoring contest against CSK

Andrew Miller23-Sep-2020Tom Curran reckons that the opening night of the IPL in Sharjah offered a sign of things to come for bowling attacks in this year’s competition, after the Rajasthan Royals out-muscled the Chennai Super Kings in a bat-dominated contest that featured a record-equalling 33 sixes across the two innings.Curran himself was subjected to six of those, including three in a row in the final over of the match, as MS Dhoni belatedly turned on the afterburners with the contest already out of his side’s reach.But, Curran said, given the combination of Sharjah’s short boundaries and the onset of dew in the latter stages of the CSK chase, he was happy to have taken his licks and emerged on the winning side – especially given that his brother Sam was in the opposition ranks.”It’s going to be tough work throughout the tournament, bowling at Sharjah,” Curran said. “It’s obviously small, but when the dew came in the second innings, it became really, really hard.”The ball got really, really wet and with the combination of the humidity and how much you end up sweating there, there’s going to be some entertaining high-scoring games. And the toss is going to be crucial as well.”Curran’s second foray in the IPL comes after an initial stint as a late replacement for KKR in 2018, in which he picked up six wickets in five matches, but at an economy rate of nearly two a ball.This time around, however, his burgeoning reputation as a death bowler – for Surrey and Sydney Sixers as well as England – persuaded the Royals to shell out INR 1 crore (USD140,000 approx) at last year’s auction. And while his skills weren’t exactly tested on Tuesday night, given that he was defending 38 in the final over of the match, the experience was valuable nonetheless, given that the Royals’ next match, against the King’s XI Punjab, takes place at the same venue on Sunday night.”It was frustrating to go for those sixes but, at the same time, with a wet ball like that, the main thing was to not bowl a no-ball and make sure we win the game,” Curran said. “If I start trying to nail my yorkers and the ball slips out, and I bowl a flat one that goes for six, it just brings them back into the game.”The pressure isn’t off but it kind of is, if you know what I mean,” he added. “It’s nice that we’d won the game but, as a bowler, to run up there at one of the most destructive batters in the world, it’s not the nicest situation. It’s one of those things really. It’s about adapting on the night really, and trying to get the job done for the team, which is what we did as an attack very nicely last night.”Tom Curran poses in his Rajasthan Royals colours•Getty Images

As a bowler who relies on sleight of hand more than outright pace, however, Curran recognises that he won’t be able to shelve his variations indefinitely in such conditions.”As the tournament goes on, it’ll be about practising with a wet ball and just trying to make the best out of a bad situation,” he said. “Concentrate on the next ball and try and limit those big, big overs because there’s going to be boundaries, there’s going to be a lot of sixes. It’s about limiting those, I guess.”If his evening’s work with the ball wasn’t quite as he might have planned, then Curran did at least enjoy a degree of one-upmanship against his brother, whom he withstood in an innings of 10 not out that, with Jofra Archer letting rip at the other end with four consecutive sixes, helped to lift the Royals to an insurmountable total of 216 for 7.Sam Curran did land some telling blows on the Royals, if not his brother, claiming 3 for 33 with the ball before cracking 17 from six balls after being promoted up the CSK order. “He came out with one intention. And one message, to swing pretty hard,” Tom said. “So unless he got 80-odd, I don’t think I would have bowled to him.”I wouldn’t say there was any chirping, but there was a bit of banter going into the game, so it was nice that we got a win there,” he added. “But it was a strange feeling, a different type of concentration really, seeing him running up, there were a lot more things on my mind than usual for those first couple, which was strange.”ALSO READ: ‘I worked on range hitting during the break – Sanju SamsonTom’s main scoring shot against Sam was an outside-edged yorker that flew through third man for four, but while he was happy not to have got out to his younger brother, he did rue a missed opportunity to put a more definitive stamp on their mini-battle.”I’d have liked to put him into the stands for a couple, to be honest! The last ball I faced, he tried to bounce me actually, which was surprising because he had square leg up. I wish I’d stood still because I reckon that was my chance to put him into the stands. But he was getting his yorkers in, so I tried to put him off and walk down the wicket.”It was good fun. We definitely had a laugh about it afterwards but, like I said, I’d have liked to have put him into the stands. He had a really good game, but we had a win. It’s nice to get a win and hopefully we get another little battle in a couple of weeks when we play them again.”Watch the Rajasthan Royals take on the King’s XI Punjab on Sky Sports, Sunday, September 27, at 3pm BST

“I knew I wasn’t going to play for India, so there was no reason to continue playing”

Shashank Kishore25-Oct-2020Tanmay Srivastava, the Uttar Pradesh batsman, has decided to retire from all forms of cricket at the age of 30. Srivastava finishes with 4918 runs in 90 first-class matches, a majority of which he played for Uttar Pradesh, a state he captained at different times right from the age-group circuit.A solid left-hand opener, Srivastava moved to Uttarakhand ahead of the 2019-20 domestic season. He wasn’t named among the probables for the upcoming season, which continues to remain in doubt due to the covid-19 pandemic.”I wasn’t going to play for Uttarakhand, so I didn’t have an immediate future with the team. I haven’t been playing in the IPL, I knew I wasn’t going to play for India, so there was no reason to continue playing,” Srivastava told ESPNcricinfo. “I played 90 first-class games. Yes, even if I could have played 10 more for 100, what would I have achieved?”Nothing would’ve changed. I’d rather not block a youngster’s place now. Someone else getting the right opportunity at the right time could benefit much more than me sticking around to complete a milestone.”Srivastava’s career started with much promise. As a 16-year old, he captained an India Under-19 team that had in their ranks the likes of Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey and Ravindra Jadeja. At 18, he lost the captaincy to Kohli but was India’s highest run-getter in their victorious Under-19 World Cup campaign in Malaysia in 2008.He was also part of the Uttar Pradesh team when they made back-to-back Ranji Trophy finals from 2006 to 2008, even scoring a century in a losing cause against Delhi on a seaming deck at the Wankhede Stadium. He was part of Kings XI Punjab for the first two IPL seasons before he fell off the IPL radar. Although he was then contracted with Kochi Tuskers Kerala, he didn’t have opportunities to present his case.”One of my favourite memories from cricket is opening the batting with Sachin Tendulkar in the Challenger Trophy in 2006 as a 17-year old,” he said. “He is a hero, so that was a magical experience. Scoring a century in a Ranji final, being part of an Under-19 World Cup win, wearing that India jersey, being part of the IPL – these are all experiences I cherish.”Srivastava finishes his career with a first-class average of 34, something he felt a little disappointed with, although he felt playing on surfaces up north meant the worth of it was probably a lot more. That said, he also accepted inconsistency didn’t help his case.”I used to score 500-600 every season, which is okay, maybe good. But there were a lot of other batsmen who also made the same amount of runs. That is why probably I couldn’t stand out. Also, the wickets in the north, especially in winters, were a lot more challenging than in other parts of the country. So it wasn’t easy as an opener. But that said, I’m overall happy with the career I’ve had.”Srivastava hasn’t charted out a post-retirement plan just yet. For now, he will continue representing ONGC, the company that gave him a sports-quota job as a teenager in 2007, in corporate tournaments.