“Right now, the back is feeling as good as it has felt,” Marsh says ahead of the Brisbane Test against India

Andrew McGlashan12-Dec-2024Mitchell Marsh has insisted there is no limit to the number of overs he can send down against India, having put his trust in the coaching and medical staff amid a cautious build-up to the series and then careful management ahead of the Adelaide Test, while Josh Hazlewood continues to push for a return to the side in Brisbane.Marsh has been nursing periodic back stiffness since the white-ball tour of the UK in September, where he bowled just once – in the ODI at Lord’s – which was the first time he’d had ball in hand since suffering a hamstring injury in the IPL in April.There had been plans for him to bowl in the Sheffield Shield early in the season but those were put on ice by the ongoing back issues. He took two wickets on the opening day of the Perth Test, sending down 17 overs in total for the match, after which he pulled up sore, which led to doubts over his place for Adelaide with Beau Webster called up as cover.Related

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• Hazlewood declared fit to replace Boland at the Gabba

• Past and present weigh on India, and Australia, as the fabled Gabba beckons

• WTC final scenarios – South Africa need one more win for guaranteed top-two finish

• Who has inflicted the most golden ducks in Test cricket?

Marsh didn’t bowl in the lead-up, with Pat Cummins saying it was a decision not to use up overs at training, before finishing with a innocuous none for 26 from four overs in the first innings.”Not in my mind, no,” Marsh said when asked if there was an upper limit on his bowling capacity for the series. “I’ll try and be ready to bowl as much as Patty needs me. Our allrounders haven’t bowled a hell of a lot in Australia the last few years, but I am really thankful for our medical staff and Ronny [coach Andrew McDonald] and Patty who have allowed me the space between that first and second Test to just get right for the game.”I didn’t bowl as much as I would have liked to in the lead-up to the series, but our medical staff, Ronnie and Patty were really clear. I trusted that.”Meanwhile, Hazlewood had another extensive bowl as he continues to overcome the side strain which kept him out of the second Test. With only short run-ups available in the Gabba nets and no spare centre wickets, Hazlewood went out to Allan Border Field to bowl off his full run alongside Mitchell Starc, under the eye of bowling coach Daniel Vettori. If he pulls up without problems on Friday he will be close to slotting back into side at the expensive of Scott Boland.Such was the speed with which Australia bowled out India twice in Adelaide, needing just 80 overs, that even Nathan Lyon was only required to send down a single over as Starc, Cummins and Boland went to work.In the Gabba Test against West Indies earlier this year, Australia used Marsh, Cameron Green, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne for a combined 23 overs.”I had an interrupted lead-in but I am really well placed,” Marsh said. “For me it is about being able to contribute. Whether that is five overs and bowling the occasional good ball and getting a wicket or just bowling overs to give our boys a chop out. Right now, it [the back] is feeling as good as it has felt.”Away from the bowling discussion, Marsh was involved in one of the more curious incidents during the Adelaide Test when he walked for an edge behind against R Ashwin only for replays to show he hadn’t hit the ball.”The reality is I thought I hit it and I didn’t,” Marsh said. “I didn’t speak to Heady [at the non-striker’s end]. I had a mare. When I got to the change rooms they asked if I hit it and I said ‘yeah, I smashed it’. And then the replay came up and the head went into the hands and about one minute later everyone else was laughing at me.”

The part-time offspinner claimed the wicket of Pant early in the final session and the home side then surged

Andrew McGlashan30-Dec-20243:17

Cummins: ‘One of the best Tests I’ve been part of’

Travis Head has broken Indian hearts a few times with the bat, but at the MCG he claimed the wicket which gave Australia an opening for their dramatic final-session surge, although captain Pat Cummins revealed he was partly being used to help improve the over rate.Head and Nathan Lyon sped through their overs after tea when India began the session just three down and Head managed to snare Rishabh Pant with a long hop that was pulled to wide long-on. Australia went on to claim seven wickets in 21 overs to secure victory early in the final hour on day five.Slow over rates can lead to points deductions in the World Test Championship [WTC] and defending champions Australia, who paid the price for such penalties in the inaugural cycle, were lagging for most of the game. It has yet to be confirmed if they had caught up by the end of the match. Australia are bidding to join South Africa in the WTC final at Lord’s and can secure their spot with victory in Sydney.Related

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• India lose seven in the final session, Australia snatch 2-1 series lead

• WTC final scenarios: India need a win in Sydney to stay in contention

“He’s got a bit of a Midas touch,” Cummins said of Head’s bowling at the presentation. “I’ll give the coach credit for that one [bringing him on]. Also, we were a bit behind on the over rate, so we thought, get Trav in there, [he] might get a breakthrough and help us out with some overs.”Head referenced his lean returns with the bat in this Test, where he made 0 and 1, having scored centuries in Adelaide and Brisbane when asked about his key contribution.”I’ve had four-and-a-half days off, didn’t feature, thought I’d watch the boys bat this week,” he told the host broadcaster. “And nice to contribute. I got told I was bowling [at tea], wasn’t too pleased about things. We are a pretty relaxed group, [we] don’t change too much, we knew what we had to do. Pat and Ronnie [head coach Andrew McDonald] come up with the plans, had a chat and we were able to go out and execute it.”It [the Test] ebbed and flowed throughout the five days and [was] probably one of the best Test matches I’ve been involved in. No matter what the result was going to be, two teams went at it pretty hard. There were moments where both teams stepped up, moments where they fought and it’s just nice we’ve been able to come out with the win. It’s been a long five days.”When asked about plans for Pant specifically, Head joked. “Bowl a rank [long hop] and have everyone on the fence. I just threw them down there, see what happens and it turned our way.”There was also an explanation from Cummins of Head’s wicket celebration, which referred to an on-going joke about putting his spinning finger in a glass of ice.Mitchell Marsh averages just 10.42 so far in the series•Getty Images

Although Australia emerged with a 2-1 lead and are now within touching distance of their first series victory over India in ten years, they do head to Sydney with a couple of areas of concern: the form of Mitchell Marsh and the fitness of Mitchell Starc who battled what appeared a rib or back problem during the match.Starc bowled superbly on the final day, claiming the wicket of Virat Kohli, and Cummins was upbeat that he would be available for the final Test.”I’m pretty confident he’ll be fine,” Cummins said. “We’ll reassess in a couple of days. He’s managing a couple of sore bits, mainly one sore bit on his ribs or something. But he’s a warrior, he gets through, his pace didn’t drop off, he didn’t even contemplate not being an option to bowl. So other than being in pain, he’s fully fit and available.”Should Starc not be right, it would bring Jhye Richardson into contention for a recall. Richardson, who played his last Test in the 2021-22 Ashes, was released from the squad on Monday so he could feature for Perth Scorchers against Adelaide Strikers on New Year’s Eve and will then link back up in Sydney on Wednesday.Meanwhile, Marsh has made 73 runs at 10.42 in the four Tests alongside claiming three wickets at 46.33 with all those coming in Perth. Uncapped allrounder Beau Webster is part of the squad should the selectors opt to make a change.

The two teams are in transition, but there’s plenty of firepower in both sides for what should be a high-scoring series

Sreshth Shah21-Jan-20251:20

‘Gambhir will be judged on CT and England tour’

Big picture: Teams in transition

Gautam Gambhir and Brendon McCullum have many things in common. They were both stellar openers, they were both captain and coach of Kolkata Knight Riders at different times, they’re both known for their “aggressive” mindsets when it comes to approaching the game from the dugout, and, now, they both find themselves trying to shepherd teams in transition.India’s has been easier, at least in this format, with three superstars calling time on their careers with T20 World Cup medals around their neck, and others fitting in smoothly over the course of wins against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and South Africa. England’s has been trickier, with one of the most exciting white-ball teams in world cricket struggling in ICC tournaments since their T20 World Cup win in 2022.This has meant McCullum enters the India T20I series as England’s white-ball coach for the first time, with ambitions of maximising the team’s unfulfilled potential. And for Gambhir, the aim is to show that the T20I team remains unaffected by the poor Test results that have shaken the establishment.Related

• Powerhouse line-ups clash in a series that could test T20's limits

It’s against this backdrop that India and England meet in a five-match series that could test the limits of the shortest format. And as the lines between T20Is and ODIs keep blurring, there will be opportunities for some T20I specialists to stake their claim for future ODI positions – especially after the Champions Trophy concludes.Five potentially delectable T20 batting surfaces await the two sides across the next fortnight, and the first salvo in Kolkata will give a glimpse of what to expect.

Form guide

India WWLWW
England LWWWWArshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami work together at the nets•PTI

In the spotlight: Bethell and Shami

Very few youngsters right now have the aura of Jacob Bethell. He made blistering international debuts in all three formats at the back end of 2024. He has had a stint with Melbourne Renegades in the BBL, and has an IPL contract with Royal Challengers Bengaluru without playing a single game in India. The left-hand batter has developed a reputation of smacking spinners for fun, is a handy left-arm spinner himself, and is considered an electric fielder in the ring and on the boundary line. Could there be a more perfect T20 cricketer in this era? Slotted in at No. 6 for the first T20I against India, Bethell’s stocks have never been higher. England see him as one of their future superstars. Now all he has to do is ace the India challenge.On the other hand, Mohammed Shami, at age 34, is making an international comeback after an ankle surgery and a knee niggle. He hasn’t played international cricket since India’s loss in the 2023 ODI World Cup final, and despite India trying other fast bowlers in the interim, there’s a feeling that Shami remains India’s second-best seamer behind Jasprit Bumrah. India have gambled by selecting him for next month’s Champions Trophy, and the focus in the T20Is and ODIs against England will be on how his body holds up. It’s also the perfect way for him to come back, at his domestic-cricket home ground.

Team news: Archer, Wood combine, but what of Bishnoi?

England captain Jos Buttler said he was especially pleased at having every first-choice T20I player available for this series. They have named their XI already, with Phil Salt taking the gloves and Ben Duckett opening alongside him. Buttler himself will be at No. 3, with England also having the searing pace and fit bodies of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood to attack India. England’s deep line-up makes them one of the most dangerous batting outfits at the moment.England: 1 Phil Salt (wk), 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jos Buttler (capt), 4 Harry Brook, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Jacob Bethell, 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark WoodIndia have two major decisions to make: how many spinners to play, and how deep their batting should look. Arshdeep Singh, Shami and Hardik Pandya should be be the seamers, while Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel could be the two spin options. That probably leaves India deciding between seam-bowling allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, spin-bowling allrounder Washington Sundar, and an outright wristspinner in Ravi Bishnoi. England are right-hander-heavy, and struggle against fingerspinners, two factors that could decide India’s eventual choice.India (probable): 1 Sanju Samson (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Nitish Kumar Reddy/Washington Sundar/Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.Brendon McCullum and Jos Buttler oversee England’s training session•Getty Images

Pitch and conditions: Dew and runs aplenty

Kolkata is going to offer a hard deck with true bounce. The boundaries are small, and the ball in January will get wet very quickly. That means Eden Gardens should be a paradise for batting. Suryakumar and Buttler both felt conditions would be the same irrespective of the toss result, so expect a belter with dew around.

Stats and trivia: Arshdeep closes in on Chahal

• Among Full Members, England have the second-worst batting average against fingerspin since the start of 2024: 26.8. Against top sides like Australia, South Africa and India, it drops to 13.88 at a run rate of only 6.74.
• With 95 wickets in 60 T20Is, Arshdeep is only one wicket behind Yuzvendra Chahal, who leads the pack for India in the format. If Arshdeep gets to the landmark of 100 wickets in this five-match series, he’ll become the quickest fast bowler to get there. Currently, Haris Rauf holds that record, having achieved it in 71 games. Also, since Arshdeep’s T20I debut, no bowler has taken more wickets in the powerplay (40) or in the last five overs (46).
• India have not lost a bilateral T20I series at home in the last six years. Their last defeat was against Australia in February 2019. In the 16 series since, India have won 14 and drawn two.
• Since the T20 World Cup 2024, India have scored at 9.2 runs per over in the powerplay, an astonishing 10.3 from overs 7-15 and 10.9 in the last five overs. In this period, no team has had a better run rate between overs 7-15 or a better ball-per-boundary ratio (4.7).
• Archer has the wood over both Suryakumar and Hardik, with both batters striking at only 116 against him while averaging 14.5 and 19 runs, respectively.

Quotes

“It’s a really exciting tour coming to India with what I’d say is a full line-up for us. Sometimes there’s so much cricket that certain players have to be rested or managed. But that’s certainly not the case for us at all in in this series.”
“Eden Gardens is a special feeling, because this is where I played when I started playing regularly.”

UP Warriorz were 48 for 6 at one point in reply and slipped to bottom of the table after an 81-run thrashing

S Sudarshanan03-Mar-2025It was not a happy homecoming for UP Warriorz, who received a thrashing at the hands of Gujarat Giants at the Ekana Stadium and slipped from third to last place on the points table in the process. In the first WPL match in Lucknow, Beth Mooney put on an exhibition to lead Giants to 186 for 5, the third-highest total this season.She provided a reminder of why she is the No. 1 T20I batter in the ICC rankings, and helped Giants vault from fifth place to second by the end of the evening.In reply, Warriorz went down without a peep, losing by a massive 81 runs. They lost two wickets in the first over, four inside the powerplay, and were 48 for 6 – only one batter in the top six scored in double-digits – before Chinelle Henry’s 14-ball 28 took them past 100. They were eventually bowled out for 105 as Giants became only the second team to successfully defend a score – the first, incidentally, were Warriorz – this season.Mooney scored a 59-ball 96 not out and was involved in a 101-run second-wicket partnership with Harleen Deol. She hit 17 fours in her innings, the second-most in an innings in the WPL.Thanks to the mammoth win, Giants’ net run-rate shot up to 0.357 from -0.450 and they are now placed only behind Delhi Capitals, their six points taking them level with Mumbai Indians, whose NRR is 0.166.

Mooney’s masterclass

It looked like this was not going to be Mooney’s season. Heading into the contest, she had tallied only 84 in five innings, averaging a mere 16.80. Since Giants don’t have a spare wicketkeeper in the squad, there was no question of dropping her. She started slow, being 23 off 21 when the powerplay ended, helped by a couple of fours in a Deepti Sharma over.But it was after the field restrictions ended that Mooney truly came into her own. She used her feet against both Sophie Ecclestone and Deepti, and used the pace of Henry and Kranti Goud. Whenever Warriorz had mid-off and mid-on up and bowled length, she used her feet to access the area down the ground and peppered the straight boundary for 49 runs in the arc between long-on and long-off. At one point, it looked like she would hit the first century of the WPL but she got to face only five balls at the death (overs 17-20).Thanks to Mooney’s middle-overs assault, Giants scored 104 runs in the ten overs from seven to 16, only the fourth time they scored over 100 in that phase in the WPL.Deandra Dottin shows Kiran Navgire where to go after dimissing her•BCCI

Deol supports, Dottin entertains

Going with the trend in WPL 2025, Warriorz opted to bowl on a mixed-soil surface that had a decent covering of grass, and tasted success in the opening over. Henry’s outswing had the out-of-form Dayalan Hemalatha caught behind for 2. It was her fourth single-digit score in five outings this season.Deol, at No. 3, got going with an aerial sweep off Grace Harris over square leg. But the highlight of her innings was her footwork against the quicks. She creamed Henry through wide mid-off to end the third over and then repeated the treatment against Goud after the powerplay ended. She enjoyed the ball coming onto the bat – Phoebe Litchfield later called the Ekana the “best batting conditions” – and stroked her way to a 32-ball 45. She missed one when she made room to hit Ecclestone over the off side and was bowled, thus ending the century stand.After a 44-run stand between Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner set Giants up for a strong finish, Deandra Dottin got going with a four off Goud in the 17th over and then hit Ecclestone for a six and a four in the next. She attempted an ungainly reverse sweep and was trapped lbw by Ecclestone for an eight-ball 17. Warriorz closed out the innings well, giving away just 16 in the last two overs, but that was not enough.

Warriorz and their wounded batting line-up

Having not played Chamari Athapaththu in the five games she was available for before leaving for national duty, Warriorz handed a debut to Georgia Voll, the replacement, at the first opportunity. Voll had found massive success while opening in the WBBL but Warriorz persisted with Kiran Navgire and Harris as their openers with Voll at No. 3.Navgire poked at an outswinger from Dottin without moving her feet and was caught by a diving Litchfield at slip for a golden duck on the second ball of the chase. Three balls later, Voll went for a wild drive away from the body, only for the ball to swerve in and hit the top of middle. And just like that, Dottin had put Giants on course for a win.From the other end, Kashvee Gautam found massive swing and success, after Vrinda Dinesh shaped to scoop but was beaten by the inward curve. Deepti also fell cheaply, nicking Meghna Singh behind. Harris kept running out of partners before missing the scoop off Tanuja Kanwar and Warriorz were tottering at the halfway mark.Henry struck a few lusty blows down the order, but it was really just a flicker before the fire was extinguished.

The defeat in the final league match of MLC 2025 meant San Francisco Unicorns finished third on the table, and will have to play the Eliminator

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jul-2025Los Angeles Knight Riders notched up only their second win of MLC 2025, but did it at the worst possible time for San Francisco Unicorns, denying them a chance of making the top two on the points table.Unicorns gave the massive chase of 244 their best shot, but it was firstly too many runs, and secondly, they missed the services of Romario Shepherd with the bat, after he hared in off the boundary line to try and take a catch in the first half, hurt his ankle, and wasn’t available for the rest of the game.Sanjay Krishnamurthi kept Unicorns in the chase with a 40-ball 92•Sportzpics for MLC

The total of 676 runs scored in this, the last game of the league phase, was way ahead of the norm in Lauderhill – the top innings score in the other eight games had been 188 – and it was all thanks to Andre Fletcher, Alex Hales and Sherfane Rutherford in the first half and Sanjay Krishnamurthi in the second.For a while, Krishnamurthi threatened to eclipse Fletcher’s 118, getting to 92 off just 39 balls with seven fours and seven sixes by the end of the 14th over. At that stage, 68 were needed off five overs, the game having been reduced to a 19-overs-a-side affair after a rain delay more or less halfway into the Knight Riders innings. But Jason Holder sent Krishnamurthi back first ball of the 15th, and despite some lusty hitting from Xavier Bartlett, who hit Corne Dry for three sixes and a four in the 16th, Unicorns ran out of steam. Shepherd was missed a great deal.The chase had started badly for Unicorns, though. Karthik Gattepalli, the left-arm spinner on MLC debut, opened the bowling with Dominic Drakes and, after Drakes had removed Finn Allen in the first over, accounted for Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk in the second on his way to returns of 3 for 31.