A collection of some of our best features on the destructive Indian batsman

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Oct-2015How good is Sehwag? (August 2011)
Shashi Tharoor: Is he ready to take his place alongside team-mates Tendulkar and Dravid in the pantheon?Is Sehwag great yet? (August 2008)
Suresh Menon: Up there with the Gavaskars and Tendulkars? Just where does India’s gonzo opener stand in his country’s batting pantheon?Bunnies and boundaries (March 2015)
Sehwag takes a video quiz on his careerCricket’s modern Zen master (November 2010)
Mukul Kesavan: The key to his success is that he has the ability to live in the presentMemories of Virender (March 2013)
Ramachandra Guha: Now that his best is likely behind him, let us look back on some Sehwag classicsSehwag more destructive than Richards(December 2009)
Sambit Bal: Time to cut out the buts and salute Sehwag for what he is: one of the greats of batting‘Sometimes I play according to the situation’ (September 2009)
Nagraj Gollapudi: Modern cricket’s greatest maverick batsman speaks about the method in his madness in a two-part interviewFootwork my foot (April 2008)
Suresh Menon: What value does technical correctness in general, and footwork in particular, hold these days?Anatomy of a classic

Chandrahas Choudhury and Nishant Arora: Virender Sehwag looks back at his century and a half against Australia in Chennai, 2004The Last Samurai (March 2008)
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan: On Sehwag’s 319 against South Africa in ChennaiHas there ever been another like Sehwag? (December 2009)
S Aga: On Sehwag’s 293 against Sri Lanka in MumbaiSehwag’s theory of relativity (April 2008)
Sambit Bal: Where others see risk, he sees opportunity. And he has the numbers to prove itThe Sehwag effect (, April 2005)
Rahul Bhattacharya: Examining the impact that Virender Sehwag’s berserker pace has on his team-mates and their battingThe school that Sehwag built (December 2014)
Gaurav Kalra: The plainspeaking Indian batsman is focusing on life beyond cricket, having set up an educational institution with world-class facilities for academics and sportsThe limited-overs batsman who revolutionised Test cricket (November 2012)
John Wright: Sehwag’s ability to use skills seemingly made for ODIs in the long game, and his instinct and fearlessness make him one of cricket’s most compelling sightsThe accidental opener (November 2012)
Harsha Bhogle: When Virender Sehwag accepted the challenge of opening in Tests, he dramatically changed the way the game was playedThe pragmatic art of Virender Sehwag (November 2012)
Ed Smith: He has reached an understanding with his own flaws, refused to compromise his strengths, and stayed true to himself‘Hit the ball, enjoy the sound’ (November 2012)
Sidharth Monga: Virender Sehwag’s unorthodox style and approach to the game has redefined Test batting at the top and his impact for India and on world cricket should outlast his recent slump in overseas form‘Sehwag allowed me to find my rhythm’ (November 2012)
Rahul Dravid pays tribute to his team-mateFrom batting long to just batting (December 2011)
Sidharth Monga: On Sehwag’s one-time world record 219 in an ODI against West Indies‘I could never plan against him’ (July 2010)
Virender Sehwag talks about facing Muttiah MuralitharanSublime Sehwag on a different plane (August 2008)
Sambit Bal: On Sehwag’s 201* in Galle against Murali and MendisA match-winner in the subcontinent (November 2012)
Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan: A statistical analysis of Sehwag’s career before his 100th TestModern Masters: Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid and Sanjay Manjrekar break Sehwag down

Dane Vilas, who was picked for the Test series in India ahead of Quinton de Kock, hasn’t done badly behind the stumps, but has looked edgy with the bat in the first two matches

Firdose Moonda20-Nov-2015A wicketkeeper should be a silent contributor – if he is not noticed, he has done well – but on South Africa’s tour of India, he has found himself in the spotlight.Dane Vilas was a risk South Africa took – he had played just one day of Test cricket before this tour – and he was tasked with one of the toughest tours for a wicketkeeper. The bounce would be variable, the spin plentiful, and that was not the only difficulty. He would also have to double up as the seventh batsman to accommodate an extra bowler. In both departments, he has not looked convincing enough yet.Vilas has not dropped catches or fumbled stumpings, but he has not appeared entirely in control either. He conceded 15 byes in the first Test and four in the second, in 165.3 overs overall. On some occasions the ball scooted past him; on others it went through him. Almost every time he slapped the surface in frustration.Vilas has been more conspicuously out of his comfort zone while batting. He was edgy and nervous, as any newbie may be if he came in at 105 for 4, or 45 for 5, or 120 for 5. Vilas, however, tried to be over aggressive. He approached batting as though he had a point to prove, which he had already done in domestic cricket.Vilas’ first-class average is just shy of 40 and he has scored runs under pressure in the past. In 2011, when he moved from his home provincial team Gauteng to Western Province and found that his first match for his new side would be against his old, Vilas responded with a century, as if to show Gauteng what they had missed. He was promoted to the franchise team, Cobras, the following season and in his third game he scored a match-winning 161 not out against Titans – the then defending champions.Since then, Vilas has consistently been among Cobras most reliable players. Last season, he scored 499 runs in nine first-class matches, including one hundred and three fifties, at an average of 38.38.Morne van Wyk, who amassed 714 runs at 79.33 in eight matches for Dolphins, was last season’s leading wicketkeeper batsman in domestic cricket but Vilas had done enough to get noticed. It was eventually Vilas, and not the 36-year old van Wyk, who was called up for the South Africa A side for the India tour in August.The idea when that A side was picked was to create depth for the national selectors and to give some of the players who had not played much on the subcontinent – Dean Elgar for example – an opportunity to get used to conditions. It was not to ready Vilas for a Test stint in India; Quinton de Kock was the first-choice wicketkeeper.That changed when de Kock’s prolonged lean run became a proper drought in Bangladesh and he was subsequently dropped. Vilas was called up for the Bangladesh tour because AB de Villiers, who would have taken the gloves as he did when de Kock was injured against West Indies in late 2014, was on paternity leave. The expectation from Vilas himself would have been low and the understanding was that he was drafted in purely as cover for an emergency.Quinton de Kock was left out of the Test series against India, despite scoring two centuries during the ODI leg of the tour•Associated PressVilas’ debut Test in Mirpur was similar to the one that finished in Bangalore. There was only one day of cricket with four days washed out and that was rightly deemed far too small a sample to judge Vilas’ ability. He had to get another chance to show what he could do and the schedule dictated that the other chance would come in India.South Africa’s selectors cannot be faulted for sticking with Vilas. Consistency in choosing their players and affording them a long enough run in the side is what South Africa have built their success on. By picking Vilas, they simply did what has worked for them and what is fair. But professional sport is sometimes not all about following that linear line.By the time the Test squad was picked on September 10, de Kock had blasted his way back to form with three centuries on South Africa A’s tour to India. He was rewarded with a recall to the senior limited-overs’ sides but was left out of the Test series. Even after de Kock scored two hundreds in the ODI series, he was not kept on for the Tests and was sent home to play in the domestic T20 competition. It was the right message sent to Vilas and de Kock, though it may have cost South Africa both on the field and in the succession race.South Africa’s wicketkeeping position was owned by Mark Boucher for years and that meant there was never a clear plan on how to move on from him. Now, that issue has become fuzzier.Vilas will not know whether the next two Tests could decide his international future. De Kock will not know whether the fact that Vilas not scoring enough runs means he will get right back in. And what of Thami Tsolekile, as former international opener Alviro Petersen had mentioned on Twitter? Tsolekile may now consider himself extremely unlucky not to have been used in a stopgap role, and that may raise a transformation issue, as Petersen already pointed out.The tour of India will be won or lost with bat and ball, but there will also be debate about South Africa’s selection.

Stats highlights from the third day at the MCG, where Australia extended their lead past 400, despite some fight from West Indies

S Rajesh28-Dec-201552.57 Darren Bravo’s average in overseas Tests, the highest among West Indian batsmen who have played at least 20 away matches. Bravo’s average at home is 31.25, which means the difference between his away and home averages is 21.32. This difference is the second highest among batsmen who have played at least 30 innings each home and away: the only batsman with a higher difference is India’s Mohinder Amarnath, who averaged 51.86 away and 30.44 at home (difference 21.42).73.33 The average partnership for West Indies’ seventh wicket in this series. Their two 50-plus stands in this series have both been for the seventh wicket: 99 between Bravo and Kemar Roach in the first innings in Hobart, and 90 between Carlos Brathwaite and Bravo today. Their next-highest stand in this series is 42, also between Bravo and Roach, for the eighth wicket today.12 Consecutive innings in overseas Tests before this one, when West Indies did not bat for 100 overs. The last time they achieved this was a couple of years ago, in Hamilton in 2013, when they played 116.2 overs to score 367. (The promptly folded in 31.5 overs in their second innings of that Test.) In these 12 innings, the average length of their innings was only 65 overs.21 West Indian batsmen who have scored 50 or more on Test debut in an overseas Test. Carlos Brathwaite became the latest to join this list today. The last batsman to achieve this before him was his partner at the crease, Darren Bravo, who made 58 against Sri Lanka in Galle in his debut in 2010. The current West Indian team has a third player who is in this club: Denesh Ramdin scored 56 on debut in Colombo in 2005.188 Runs added by West Indies’ last four wickets, which lifted them from 6 for 83 to 271. The last time their last four partnerships added more runs was in 2012 at Edgbaston, when Tino Best scored 95 at No. 11 as the last four wickets added 218.45 Test wickets for Nathan Lyon in 2015, his best in any calendar year; his previous highest was 42 in 2013. This year Lyon has taken those wickets in 13 Tests, at an average of 28.75. Lyon is the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests for Australia this year, after Josh Hazlewood (51 at 22.56) and Mitchell Starc (46 at 25.06).5.59 Australia’s run rate in their second innings, the fifth time they have scored at more than five an over in Tests in 2015 (min 30 overs). Of their ten fastest Test innings with the same qualification, five have been scored in 2015.3 Instances of two batsmen scoring at least one century and a fifty in the same Test at the MCG. Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith have both achieved it in this game. The two previous such instances were in 1929 and in 1928. In all, there have been 28 instances of at least one century and a half-century in an MCG Test; last year Virat Kohli achieved the feat, while Chris Rogers did it in 2013.

The batsmen have been asked to score extra runs and their best way to do so is to think of overs 30 and 40, when there are only four men on the boundary, as one big Powerplay

Sidharth Monga17-Jan-20165:04

Agarkar: India bowlers not learning quickly enough

Around the time it became certain Australia were going to seal the series in Melbourne, a brilliantly funny tweet was retweeted 67 times. It showed a very young Rohit Sharma on a motorbike, Virat Kohli was riding pillion and the caption said: ” [Brother, we can’t do anymore, let’s go back to India.]” All it needed was a sidecar with Ajinkya Rahane.India have been on this treadmill of putting on 300 and failing to defend it, and every time the captain and the critics have asked the batsmen for more runs. In the absence of Mohammed Shami, their best ODI quick over the last two years, and with their throwing arms exposed ruthlessly by the Australian batsmen and their large outfields, India’s helplessness has never been more obvious than when MS Dhoni asked for 30 more runs from the batsmen instead of improvement from his bowlers.On a slower and drier MCG pitch the batsmen gave them 295, and India made a fist of it, but their fielding and bowling let them down at crucial moments again.The scrutiny, however, was on the dot balls Rohit Sharma faced, when he has been the one batsman making up for slow starts like a fiend. The big hitting of Ajinkya Rahane was dissected and the absence of Suresh Raina was rued. Everybody has sort of given up on the bowlers.And India’s batsmen are like the elder ones among quarrelling brothers and they are being told, ” [Son, you are the elder one, you please understand.]” You are among the best in the world, so please score 20 more. The question is, where do the batsmen get them from? It is extra pressure, Dhoni has made that clear, but it is not impossible.The onus is on India’s batsmen to score extra, and there is a way to do so between overs 30 and 40•Getty ImagesLet’s examine the options. Rahane came in to bat with the score at 134 for 2 in the 27th over. Eleven months ago, at the same venue, Rahane walked in at 136 for 2 in the 28th over against a far more threatening South African attack in the World Cup. He batted till the 46th over, struck 79 off 60 and fell with India’s score at 278. In this match he got out in the 45th over, having made 50 off 55, with India at just 243. Back then India reached 307 despite a stutter in the end; here they were kept to 295 despite a powerful kick from Dhoni’s nine-ball 23.The big difference was the Powerplay. It was still a thing at the World Cup and India took 44 runs from five overs heading into the final 10.But since the Powerplay has been abolished from ODI cricket, India have struggled to stay abreast with other teams. Dhoni had himself brought up the issue when, despite Rohit Sharma’s 150, India failed to chase 304 in Kanpur. In that game, India scored just 20 runs between the 35th and 40th overs, when batting Powerplay would have normally been on.With the change in rules, the last 10 overs, especially batting first, are not as critical as they used to be. Five fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle and teams can’t bank on getting 120 runs every time. Batsmen now need to look at overs 30 to 40 to accelerate.This is the time when there is one less boundary rider to worry about. It is some time in these overs that India need to create a Powerplay in their head. If a wicket falls, they should send a hitter in because, as Dhoni said, there is no need for one in the last 10 overs. Especially on these vast Australian outfields, where 80 runs can be scored by just knocking the ball around and the odd boundary, which is precisely what Dhoni can do.So when India’s captain asked for extra runs, you would have expected the batsmen to look for them between overs 30 and 40. In Melbourne, only 60 runs were added in these overs. In Brisbane and in Perth, an identical 67.India have been playing the first block of each game perfectly, especially with a shaky lower-middle order to follow. Their scores of 149 for 1, 166 for 2 and 147 for 2 at the end of 30 overs are testament to their quick scoring without losing wickets and under the pressure of knowing there isn’t much to follow. If, at some point before the 40th over, they can manufacture a Powerplay in their minds, possibly pick on a particular bowler, they may be able to get those extra 20 runs before going into the final overs.Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh did just that a couple of days ago and Australia went from 93 to 135 in three overs. It is not how India batsmen – more traditional and correct, who like to eliminate risk by following a method – like to bat, but their bowling and their fielding demand those extra runs be scored.

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Feb-2016Mohammad Amir picked up from where he left off against India, finding early swing to knock off Muhammad Kaleem’s off stump•Associated PressUAE were reeling at 12 for 3, but Shaiman Anwar almost single-handedly dragged his team to a competitive total, stroking 46 off 42 balls•Getty ImagesUAE swung wildly in search of runs after Anwar’s dismissal, but were greeted by quick wickets. Amir returned at the death to bowl Muhammad Usman out•Getty ImagesIt meant he ended with match figures of 4-1-6-2, the second-most economical spell in T20Is•Associated PressPakistan needed just 130 for victory, but they suffered early setbacks in the chase, with the captain Amjad Javed striking thrice•Getty ImagesThose blows seemed to tilt the contest UAE’s way, with Pakistan struggling at 17 for 3•Getty ImagesUmar Akmal, though, played a calm ahead, hitting a vital half-century to put his team back on track•Getty ImagesShoaib Malik, too, found form with a 49-ball 63, as the pair’s unbroken 114-run partnership eventually took Pakistan home with eight balls to spare•Getty Images

Some are lucky enough to choose the timing of their own retirement; others are pushed before they feel their time has come. Charlotte Edwards made it crystal clear that she can be classed in the latter category

Raf Nicholson11-May-20162:02

Connor praises ‘selfless decision’ from Edwards

The very fact that Charlotte Edwards’ announcement of her retirement from international cricket was made at Lord’s, in front of a roomful of journalists, was testament to the transformation of women’s cricket in the decade since she was appointed to lead her team.No previous captain of England Women had ever given a press conference to announce their decision to step away from the game. Even when Edwards’ predecessor Clare Connor retired due to injury after the 2005 Ashes series, there was no big fuss, no back page splash. Frankly, 10 years ago the press simply would not have been interested in who the captain of England Women was.That they are now – that this was a big enough story to be broken on Twitter the night before – is largely thanks to the efforts of Edwards. The awarding of professional contracts to England Women in May 2014 came in the wake of two back-to-back Ashes series’ victories, with her at the helm.Yet ironically, ultimately, it was the media scrutiny which would inevitably accompany the new professional era which was to be Edwards’ downfall.Her dethroning really began over a month ago in Delhi, after a shocking defeat to Australia in the World Twenty20 semi-final which her team had looked on course to win. Afterwards, she sat alongside new coach Mark Robinson, stony-faced, as he warned that his players needed to “get fitter”.It did not take a genius to work out where his comments were targeted. Only a few weeks later, the frosty atmosphere between the two was apparent for all to see when Robinson turned up to watch the Sussex-Kent Women’s County Championship fixture and, huddled into the small pavilion at Eastbourne during a three-hour rain delay, captain and coach conspicuously failed to acknowledge each other.Edwards has long said that she wanted to carry on playing until after the 2017 World Cup, to be hosted in England. Offered the chance to consider her position as captain after defeat in the women’s Ashes last summer, she declined to go. But that was before the appointment of a new coach who, it now seems clear, wants to stamp his own mark on the team, without the forceful influence of Edwards at his side.

No one has done more for women’s cricket in the whole of its history than Charlotte Edwards. She has fought to trample down barriers and break new ground for her whole career; almost her whole life

Some are lucky enough to choose the timing of their own retirement; others are pushed before they feel their time has come. Edwards made it crystal clear in her press conference that she can be classed in the latter category. “I was more than happy to step down as captain, but there was a real hunger to continue playing,” she said. “I’m really happy with where my game is at.” The choice, she stressed, was made by Robinson. “[He] spoke to me honestly that he saw the next series as an important series for him to develop players and take the team in a new direction…there isn’t a place for me in the team.”It is a sad end to what has been a largely triumphant career, in which Edwards has overseen the biggest transformation in the sport’s history. In 1996, the year of her England Test debut, she paid not just for her England blazer, but a hefty bill for accommodation during the three-Test series. Two years later, working as an assistant for the local bat company who were also her main sponsor, she began the grueling schedule which would see her finish work at 5pm, go to meet her coach David Capel (later assistant coach to the England squad), train and net for several hours and be back home at 10pm. It was a work ethic driven by love of the game. “I just wanted to play cricket,” she said later.Nearly 20 years after she played her first match for England, these kind of scenarios have not just disappeared but seem totally alien to the current crop of England players. Slowly, the professionalisation of the game has seeped in: Chance to Shine Coaching Ambassador contracts were introduced by the ECB in 2008; tour fees and match fees followed in 2011. And then came the crown jewel – the awarding of professional contracts for Edwards and her squad in May 2014. Winning two World Cups and the Ashes in the space of eight months in 2009 did nothing to harm their cause. Along the way Edwards has always led from the front, remaining England’s premier batsman for almost the whole of her career.Success, though, has been the ficklest of mistresses in the two years since professional contracts were introduced. First came the loss to India in the one-off Test at Wormsley, England defeated comprehensively by a side who had not even played the format for six years. A tour of New Zealand in early 2015, in which England lost two of the three Championship ODIs and just scraped a series victory, followed. Edwards’ side then endured an embarrassing Ashes series, awash with batting collapses, in which her captaincy came under fire, contrasted unfavourably with the fresh, innovative approach of her opposite number Meg Lanning. Defeat in the WWT20 semi-final was only the most recent example of failure.Moments of joy became harder to find for Charlotte Edwards and tougher to earn•ICC/GettyThat Edwards was England’s leading run-scorer in that tournament, during which Robinson apparently decided he no longer required her services, seems rather odd. But maybe this is missing the point. In the new professional era, perhaps it is as simple as this: it is the captain who is ultimately responsible for her team’s performance out in the middle.And while professionalism has brought with it the press coverage which women’s cricket has for so long craved, it has also – quite rightly – brought unprecedented scrutiny. Why has increased investment from the ECB not borne fruit on the pitch? Why do England seem to be stagnating when other teams are moving forward? Why are new players not pushing their way through into the side?For the first time in her captaincy, Edwards has had to look out onto a sea of hostile faces at press conferences and explain why her team has so vastly underperformed. It has not been easy. When I interviewed her for a piece on leadership six weeks after the women’s Ashes defeat last summer, she admitted as much. “We’ve gone under the radar for eight years of my captaincy. You can have a blip and no one even talks about it, no one mentions it. And you could sort the problems out without having that media spotlight on you, but now you can’t. The players are under the microscope now.”No one has done more for women’s cricket in the whole of its history than Charlotte Edwards. She has fought to trample down barriers and break new ground for her whole career; almost her whole life. From the age of 12, when she became the captain of Huntingdonshire Boys’, and silenced the jeering from the sidelines with her unrivalled batting talent. To age 16 when she became the then youngest player to represent England. To the countless hours that she has spent in schools, coaching and talking to young girls who now – thanks to her – see cricket as something which they can do just as well as their brothers. They will never face the same taunts she did.When asked about her proudest moment, it is no surprise that, tears in her eyes, she said: “Just being a role model for young girls. I didn’t have a female role model growing up, a cricketer, so to think I’ve done that is really special to me.”Similarly, no one was happier or prouder when professionalism announced itself in the women’s game than Edwards. Why? Because, as Connor put it today: “Professionalisation helps to normalise cricket for girls. It gives aspiration, and it gives players like Edwards a platform to inspire.” The ushering in of the professional era has been the culmination of everything Edwards has spent her career working towards.Even so, professionalism has proved for her personally to be a mixed blessing. The premature end to her incredible career is simply the final manifestation of the fact that Edwards is being judged by different standards now – the ones that she has striven all her career to be judged by. Whoever succeeds her – a decision Robinson has yet to make – would do well to remember that.

Also: England’s highest scorer across formats, and five-fors against all 18 counties

Steven Lynch17-May-2016England’s two newcomers for the first Test against Sri Lanka were both born on the same day. Has this ever happened before? asked Rajiv Radhakrishnan from England
That’s a great spot, as Jake Ball and James Vince – England’s two new inclusions for Thursday’s opening Test against Sri Lanka – were both born on March 14, 1991. Just as I contemplated going back through every Test scorecard to discover whether two men from the same side had ever made their debut together before, Wisden’s statistician Philip Bailey spared me the trouble with a bit of fancy database-delving. And it turns out he saved me an awful lot of time: this has happened only once previously, in the very first Test of all, back in 1877. In that historic match in Melbourne, both Australia’s opener Nat Thomson (the first man ever to get out in a Test) and his middle-order colleague Ned Gregory were born on May 29, 1839. There was a similar occurrence for opposite sides in Durban in 1913-14, when Lionel Tennyson made his debut for England, and George “Dusty” Tapscott his first for South Africa. They were both born on November 7, 1889. So watch out if both Ball and Vince win their first caps at Headingley – although I have a feeling that one of them might end up as 12th man, which would leave that 139-year-old record intact.In a recent interview on ESPNcricinfo, Phil DeFreitas said he was pretty sure he was the only bowler to take a five-for against all 18 first-class counties. Is he right? asked John Lynch from Vanuatu
Phil DeFreitas is indeed the only bowler to take a five-for against all 18 possible opponents in the County Championship, during a long career for Leicestershire, Lancashire and Derbyshire. The full 18 has only been possible since Durham joined the Championship in 1992, and it obviously also needs at least one switch of counties to allow completeness. Before that, seven men had collected a nap hand of 17: seamers Tom Cartwright, Ken Higgs, John Shepherd and Ossie Wheatley, slow left-armers Tony Lock and George Paine, and legspinner Percy Fender. Six other more recent performers have managed 17 out of 18 in Durham’s time. Martin Bicknell remained loyal to Surrey, so didn’t get the chance to take five against them; his sometime colleague Ian Salisbury never managed a five-for in eight matches against Surrey. Courtney Walsh never played a Championship match against Gloucestershire (his only first-class game against them was for the Rest of the World in 1987; he took 2 for 20). Peter Such never managed a Championship five-for in five matches against Essex, while John Childs never did it in 17 attempts against Warwickshire. And Eddie Hemmings never achieved it in 25 matches against Middlesex, despite rattling off five-fors against all 17 other county opponents.Ben Stokes has a highest score of 258 in Tests, but his average is only 33. Is there anyone who has a higher score but a lower average? asked Joshwin Maharaj from South Africa
Ben Stokes’ current batting average, from 23 matches before the start of England’s Test series against Sri Lanka, is 33.73. He would probably be grimly amused at the identity of one of the only two men below him in the averages who have a higher Test score: West Indies’ Marlon Samuels, something of a red rag to Stokes’ bull, currently averages 33.53 with a highest score of 260, against Bangladesh in Khulna in 2012-13. The other one is New Zealand’s Bryan Young, who averaged only 31.78 despite making 267 not out against Sri Lanka in Dunedin in 1996-97. There are 20 other double-centurions with lower averages than Stokes’ current mark, including Ian Botham (33.54), Vinoo Mankad (31.47) and Grant Flower (29.54). Bottom of the list is Jason Gillespie, whose 201 not out in his final Test innings raised his average only to 18.73; just above him on 22.64 is Wasim Akram, whose highest Test score was 257 not out, one shy of Stokes’ recent tour de force in Cape Town.Bryan Young has a highest Test score of 267, but an underwhelming Test average of 31.78•Getty ImagesWas Adam Zampa’s 6 for 19 the other day the best bowling analysis in the IPL? asked Bharani Ganesan from the United States
Adam Zampa’s 6 for 19 for Rising Pune Supergiants against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Visakhapatnam last week were the second-best figures in IPL history, behind only the 6 for 14 of Pakistan seamer Sohail Tanvir for Rajasthan Royals against Chennai Super Kings in Jaipur in May 2008. There have been only 13 better analyses than Zampa’s in all senior T20 matches, the best of all being Arul Suppiah’s 6 for 5 for Somerset against Glamorgan in Cardiff in 2011. The previous-best by an Australian was Michael Dighton’s 6 for 25, from only three overs, for Tasmania against Queensland in Toowoomba in 2006-07.Alastair Cook will soon complete 10,000 Test runs – but is he the highest scorer for England over all three formats? asked Arushi Makhijani from India
Alastair Cook needs just 36 runs to become the first Englishman to reach 10,000 Test runs – Graham Gooch is next on 8900 – but he’s only third on the list for all international cricket at the moment, with 13,229 in Tests, one-day and T20Is combined. Ian Bell is just 102 ahead, with 13,331, but the leader for the time being is Kevin Pietersen, with 13,779 runs in all formats for England. Pietersen is only 37th (and Cook 40th) on the overall list, which is headed by Sachin Tendulkar, who made 34,357 international runs, more than 6000 ahead of Kumar Sangakkara.In his recent autobiography, Younis Ahmed writes about the long gap between his second and third Tests. There are two players with longer gaps in their careers, but Younis reckons he holds the record for the number of matches missed, with 104. Is he right? asked Richard Green from London
There were 17 years and three months between Younis Ahmed’s second Test appearance, in 1969-70, and his third, after a surprise recall in 1986-87. There are indeed two men who waited longer between Test appearances: George Gunn of England (nearly 18 years between March 1912 and January 1930), and John Traicos, who played for South Africa in 1969-70 and in Zimbabwe’s first Test in 1992-93, some 22 years and 222 days later.Younis is right in saying that he missed 104 Tests during his absence. That was a record at the time, but it’s been surpassed since, as this list shows. The Surrey seamer Martin Bicknell missed a record 114 England Tests between playing two in 1993 and two more in 2003, while Floyd Reifer missed 109 between 1998-99 and returning as West Indies’ captain during a contracts dispute in 2009.Send in your questions using our feedback form.

Goonesena was the buccaneering all-round Sri Lankan talent, who plied his trade with distinction well before his country made ripples in the cricketing world

Rob Collins06-Jun-2016One of the most entrancing stories of world cricket during my lifetime has been the rise and rise of Sri Lankan cricket. Their successes appeal to the romantic in us all. That such a small, seemingly idyllic, teardrop-shaped island in the Indian Ocean has, since its elevation to Test status in 1981, produced a conveyor belt of batsmen with superb technique allied to visible spirit, nous and courage, is remarkable in itself. In the last generation, however, this has been complemented by some of the most entertaining, idiosyncratic and compelling bowling the world has ever seen, featuring the likes of Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath and, of course, the great Muralitharan.In their pre-Test incarnation of Ceylon, Sri Lanka produced a cricketer who has been somewhat overshadowed by these cricketing giants of recent years. Gamini Goonesena represented Nottinghamshire in county cricket for 11 seasons, on and off, with much success. I was too young to have watched him, and only recall his contributions as a summariser on Test Match Special on early Sri Lankan tours of England. Nevertheless, a cursory examination of the record books reveals an impressive all-round cricketer, who may just have been one of the best cricketers that the island has ever produced and whose contribution bears a second examination.Goonesena was a highly skilled legbreak bowler with excellent control of line and length, honed by endless hours of practice. Richie Benaud recalls that he was “a big spinner of the leg break and had a decent top-spinner and googly”. As a batsman, he may not have been prolific, but he was a meticulous and organised predominantly back-foot player. Nearly 700 first-class wickets and nearly 6000 first-class runs are, however, a testament to his all-round abilities. In fact, he was probably the best player ever produced by Ceylon. His captaincy was said to be outstanding too. His team-mate Ian Pieris claims that his charismatic captaincy was “head and shoulders above his contemporaries in England at a time when there were captains in the counties such as Peter May, Colin Cowdrey and Cyril Washbrook”.A legspinner of some repute, Goonesena registered to play for Notts in 1952, along with a fellow leggie, the Australian Bruce Dooland. However, he needed to wait until the following year while serving the required qualification period. As it happened, Notts had to share his services in his early years in England, because, like his countryman Kumar Sangakkara, his talents were not confined to the cricket field alone. Although he had originally headed to England in his early twenties with the aim of becoming a pilot at RAF Cranwell, he abandoned this idea and instead took up a place at the University of Cambridge to study law.Whilst obtaining his law degree, he became the first Asian to captain Cambridge (Ted Dexter was his vice-captain), and in 1957, with his side struggling at 80-4, he hit 211, which remains the highest individual innings by a Cambridge batsman in the varsity match, and is still the only double hundred made by a Sri Lankan at Lord’s. His partnership of 289 with Geoffrey Cook also remains the highest seventh-wicket partnership at Lord’s in first-class cricket. After his four-wicket haul in Oxford’s second innings, Wisden reported “…Goonesena, by reason of his splendid batting and his bowling in the second innings, was the matchwinner…The Cambridge captain and his men received the ovation they deserved as they left the field”.Goonesena had taken up legspin only because, as he wrote in his 1959 book, , “I was the smallest boy in my form at school and it wasn’t much use trying to bowl fast – the bigger boys could do it so much better and more successfully”. Yet, his career produced 674 wickets at 24.37. Although at first he struggled to adapt to English conditions, Goonesena achieved “the double” in 1955 (1380 runs and 134 wickets) and 1957 (1156 runs and 110 wickets). He also became the only man from either Oxford or Cambridge to have scored 2000 runs and taken 200 wickets, a feat which will, of course, now never be equalled.A peripatetic childhood had taken Goonesena from Ceylon to Kenya, before he returned to Ceylon where he starred for Royals in their classic rivalry with St.Thomas – the second-longest uninterrupted cricket rivalry in the world. He then headed to England in his early twenties, appearing as a professional for Notts and an amateur for Cambridge.His wanderings continued and later took him to Australia where he played for New South Wales, mostly as a locum for Richie Benaud, helping them win the Sheffield Shield in 1960-61. He also played grade cricket for Waverley in Sydney (as did his son), whilst, off the field, he worked for the Ceylonese Embassy and the Ceylon Tea Board.After his playing days, Goonesena used his acquired knowledge and experience to represent Sri Lanka on the ICC and to manage the Sri Lankan Test team on their 1982 tour of India.All-round cricketer, law student, businessman, diplomat, cricket administrator, team manager – Goonesena was both a trailblazer and a Renaissance man for Sri Lankan cricket.Want to be featured on Inbox? Send your articles to us here, with “Inbox” in the subject line.

Meet the Zimbabwe batsman who got religion, shed weight, and made his Test debut last week

Firdose Moonda05-Aug-2016Prince Masvaure did not enjoy fitness tests until about a week ago. By his own admission, the batting allrounder is carrying a few extra kilograms, and he was dropped by the Mashonaland franchise for that exact reason – but this time he had reason to run a little faster by the time the stopwatch started.”I saw Hamilton Masakadza in the car park when I got to the ground,” Masvaure said. “He came up to me and said, ‘Congratulations on making the Test side.’ I asked, ‘Oh really, did I?’ Because I didn’t get a call or anything. And he said, ‘Yes, you made it, it was announced this afternoon.’ I couldn’t believe that after so many years of hard work, it was actually happening.”Masvaure’s cricket journey began with baseball. He was the junior school vice-captain and slugger, capable of hitting the ball a long way. When the fifth-grade team cricket team found themselves a player short, they asked him to fill in. “From there, I just fell in love with the game,” he remembered.And he was good at it too. He earned a scholarship to Churchill Boys High, the same institution that schooled Tatenda Taibu, Hamilton Masakadza, Douglas Hondo and Prosper Utseya. He played cricket in the summer and rugby in the winter. He was a batting allrounder, and alternated between centre and fly half, and was also a “lot smaller than I am now”.In 2003 he made the Zimbabwe Under-16 side and toured Namibia. “That was my first time on a plane,” he said. “I just realised, if I keep on working hard, I can go somewhere.”The next year Masvaure was selected for Zimbabwe’s U-19 side, the youngest player alongside Gary Ballance. He represented the team in four successive years, including at two junior World Cups: at the 2006 tournament he played just one match and did not bat, but in 2008 he was the captain. It was not a great outing for either Masvaure, who scored 39 runs at 6.50, or the team, which lost all six matches, but it gave them an idea of how tough international cricket was going to be.

“Everyone in my family is quite big. If I tell them I am running, you never know what they will think”

Masvaure came up against a New Zealand side captained by Kane Williamson in the opening match. While Williamson would go on to rise through the ranks, Masvaure battled his way (and his weight) to get ahead.In the first season of Zimbabwe’s franchise system, the 2009-10 summer, Masvaure was contracted to Mashonaland. He was not among their outstanding performers but he held down a regular place. Then, “I got dropped because of my fitness.”That forced him to move to Masvingo, where he played for Southern Rocks but struggled. In his first season there, he averaged 10.66 and considered giving up cricket altogether. “I didn’t have a good season, and at the same time, things with Zimbabwe Cricket were going up and down. Maybe I didn’t do myself any favours since I couldn’t get selected in teams because of my fitness. I thought I was pushing hard but people told me the same thing: that I could play well but I needed to improve on my fitness. So eventually I thought of trying something else instead, like maybe pursuing my education.”Instead of the books, Masvaure eventually turned to farming and tried to grow Zimbabwe’s largest cash crop, tobacco. “It was extremely hard, because with farming you need to be there 24/7,” he said. “And I also found that with doing other things, I was not putting as much time into cricket. I needed to do something that could actually make me earn a living. It was difficult to balance the two.”Eventually several senior players convinced Masvaure that he had what it took to make it and persuaded him to make another move, to the Kwe-Kwe based Mid-West Rhinos. It paid off.In the 2014-15 season, Masvaure finished sixth on the Logan Cup batting charts, with 472 runs at 33.71, which included five fifties. He did not manage to follow that up with a strong 2015-16, but word had spread that he had promise. With Zimbabwe struggling for depth, especially in the batting department, after the retirement of Brendan Taylor, Masvaure was included in Zimbabwe’s A side to play South Africa A last month.For the first time since his U-19 days, he would face international bowlers like Vernon Philander. To ready himself for the challenge, Masvaure turned to religion.”I still feel I need to lose more weight and that there is more work to be done”•Zimbabwe Cricket”I am someone who believes in Jesus Christ. Just reading the Bible and knowing about God’s work gave me so much faith and belief in myself,” he said. “I told myself that if this is what happened, if Jesus did this and that, why can I not do the same thing? I told myself, I need to back myself, I need to believe I can do it before I go out there. The main thing that happened is that I believed I will make it before I even started playing the games.”Getting players into the right mindset has been a problem for Zimbabwe, but Masvaure has showed what can happen when they are. He scored an unbeaten 88 in the first game and 146 in the second, against an attack that included Test bowlers Philander and Dane Piedt and promising quicks Andile Phehlukwayo, Sisanda Magala and Duanne Olivier.”Those guys are world-class bowlers. I respect them a lot but what I told myself is that these guys are there to get me out and I am there to score runs, so if I try to play the names, it’s going to be hard. I tried to brush that off my mind and I said, let me just play the ball as it is. And then I scored against them,” Masvaure said.Ten days after that, he was told he would have the opportunity to repeat the feat at the highest level, against New Zealand. Masvaure found out he would receive his Test cap the night before the first match, and admitted he was overawed. “I tried to tell myself I am all right but I kept on breathing heavily. I had a lot of nerves. To be honest, I was scared,” he said. “But when we went out there and I received the cap, I was so emotional. And then when they sang the national anthem, I felt I was all right, I was ready for it, I was ready to give it a go.”He had to be, because by the time he was called on, to bat in an unfamiliar position, No. 7, with the score at 72 for 5, Zimbabwe were in a precarious position. Before Masvaure had faced a ball, they lost three more wickets at the same score. He would have been forgiven if he had perished without adding to the total, but he remembered what had served him so well against South Africa A and tried to repeat it.”It felt a bit different because when I went out there, I had to face spin first, whereas I am used to facing seam. I just had to adjust and get on with it,” he said. “I was very disappointed as well, because I know the guys were very good cricketers and what we displayed out there wasn’t the way I have seen most of the guys play. It felt like this is not how we should be playing our cricket. We are better than that. I was disappointed. Everyone was getting out to the same delivery. That frustrated me a little bit.”

“With farming you need to be there 24/7. And I also found that with doing other things, I was not putting as much time into cricket”

Masvaure saw off Neil Wagner’s short-ball spell and posted an 85-run stand with No. 10 batsman Donald Tiripano, to save his side some blushes.”Zimbabwe cricket is in a state where people are saying cricket is dead,” Masvaure says. “My goal is to try and see if I can perform consistently so that people can recognise that there is still something in Zimbabwe cricket, to bring back the hope we used to have, that we can put up a good fight and try to win, not just to compete. It’s something that really hurts me when you get to hear some of the comments people pass on from other countries. It’s something that really touches me.”He knows he needs to work on his fitness as much as on his batting. With Makhaya Ntini calling the shots as coach, Masvaure has taken up running, although he is still a little unsure how he will sustain that when he gets home. “Maybe it’s because of my family. Everyone in my family is quite big. If I tell them I am running, you never know what they will think,” he laughed.”I have lost a bit of weight, that’s what people say, but if I look at it, I feel the same. I still feel I need to lose more weight and that there is more work to be done. I am working hard on it. I feel I shouldn’t look the way I do.” But he knows he should keep playing cricket the way he does.

Paul Edwards at Old Trafford23-Jul-2016Eleven o’clock on a bright, slightly sticky Saturday morning in Manchester. Mohammad Amir runs in from the Statham End and bowls to Joe Root, who is 141 not out. The ball is on a good length but wide of the off stump. Root plays no shot and it passes to Sarfraz Ahmed behind the stumps.And so another day in the grass arena has begun. One ball has been bowled and there are scheduled to be roughly 539 more; or a minimum of 1617 pieces of action if we include the participation of bowler, batsmen and fielder. Some will be faithfully recorded and never mentioned again; others, the dismissal of Ben Stokes, for example, will be reviewed and scrutinised for, perhaps, five minutes.”I wouldn’t care if it was another sport but cricket takes up so much of the day.” With these words the partner of even a club player explains why things aren’t working. Yet for many of its supporters the length of a first-class cricket match is the essence of its attraction. They like the slow accretion of events and the way time imposes its demands. They enjoy their T20 matches – this isn’t an either/or dilemma – but they appreciate a format in which a cricketer’s endurance and mental strength are examined and in which batting for ten hours receives its due reward. It is, for them, truly a ball-by-ball game in which progress can be close to invisible.And so they enjoyed Root’s 618-minute innings and his Jesuitical quest for absolution after his transgressions at Lord’s. Successful Test batsmen are defined by their ability to go on. For them, a century is a junction not a terminus. So it is with Root and it was curious how his watchfulness in facing the Pakistan bowlers in that first session was matched by that of most spectators as they, in their turn, watched the way he began again.For most people on earth, the idea of being watched as they work is inimical; for sportsmen it is essential. And the symbiosis between the crowd and cricketers repays its own close attention. We watch the watchers watching the watched. The applause that greeted Chris Woakes’s first fours – a cut, a cover-drive, a square-drive – were almost celebratory, as if the good times had begun to roll and another drink was, indeed, the order of the day.Root, though, continued to wear a hair-shirt and we were 16 overs into the morning before he found the boundary courtesy of an edge and Younis Khan’s dropped catch at slip. He scored 44 runs in that first, exploratory session and only after tea did he bat as if truly liberated. By then, of course, there were beer snakes and fancy dress; some spectators may have watched the cricket a little less closely than they had in the morning. Stokes and Jonny Bairstow played trampling innings on tired fielders, hoping that weight of runs would earn early wickets. There was less intensity but more fiesta; summer in full, good-humoured riot.Then the declaration and a re-cranking of tension. A new guttural as James Anderson ran in from the Pavilion End. Earlier in the day Anderson’s team-mates, suddenly spectators themselves, had watched from one of the pavilion balconies. But it was not the local hero who made the breakthroughs. That honour fell in large measure to Woakes, whose three wickets were greeted with fresh roars as spectators scraped their plate in the last hour of the day.6.25 on Saturday and the air is a little fresher, the clouds higher. Stokes runs in from the Statham End and bowls to Shan Masood. The ball is on the off stump and the batsman plays it defensively and safely. There is a slightly subdued gasp from the crowd as if the air had been released from a huge balloon. Then ringing applause for the England players as they return to their dressing-room.For Woakes this has been another fine day; his shares on cricket’s stock-market have risen. He has masqueraded as a nightwatchman and reinforced his position as a potent strike bowler at a time when England are not short of them. As the crowd disperses, many are talking about how his bowling has helped make their day memorable.Within fifteen minutes Old Trafford is almost deserted and a few minutes later Pakistan’s players, rucksacks on their backs, are returning to their coach, trooping over the outfield like blue-uniformed trekkers.And so it ends, this gentle, fierce ticking down of 540 pieces of action, the shape of it all collaborative, confrontational, intense. “If you rush, you’ll never get anywhere,” said the man on the gate this morning.