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Playing her first international game since October 2022, the allrounder played a match-winning hand in a rain-curtailed contest

Srinidhi Ramanujam01-May-2024There’s an air of confidence around D Hemalatha of late. The allrounder had had to wait for more than 18 months before stepping into international cricket again. But when she finally got the opportunity to do that on Tuesday, against Bangladesh in the rain-hit second T20I, she ensured she made a case for herself with a blistering 41 not out off 24 balls. It came in an India innings of 47 for 1 in a curtailed chase lasting just 5.2 overs.It feels like a long time ago when Hemalatha made her T20I debut as a 23-year-old in 2018, at the T20 World Cup (then called the World T20) in the Caribbean. For someone who had shown so much potential at the domestic level for Tamil Nadu and Railways, Hemalatha had found it hard to translate it into runs in international cricket. Before her comeback game, she had played 15 T20Is and had scored a total of just 90 runs, shuttling between No.3 and 7 in the batting line-up with the highest score of 20.Related

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In those 15 games, she had come in at No.3 only twice, in 2022, and notched up 10 off 15 and 9 off 10 against England. This was a time when Yastika Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues were not part of India’s squad. In this series against Bangladesh, with Rodrigues out with a back niggle, the left-handed Yastika was India’s first-choice No.3. Yastika top-scored for India with 36 in the series-opener but had to miss the second game with a niggle. That’s when the stars aligned for Hemalatha.”Feeling great, playing for India and giving some contribution from my side,” Hemalatha would say after taking away the Player-of-the-Match award.At 29, she forced her way back into the India squad on the back of impressive performances in the domestic circuit and the WPL. In the senior women’s T20 trophy in October, Hemalatha scored 199 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 130.06 while batting at No.4 for Railways. This included an unbeaten 98 off 61 against Jharkhand, including 11 fours and five sixes. Her ability to negotiate spin and score quickly was on display for Gujarat Giants in WPL 2024 as well. After playing four matches in the middle order, the Chennai-born allrounder was promoted to No.3 against Mumbai Indians. The result: 74 off 40 at a strike rate of 185.A promotion to No. 3 during the WPL brought Hemalatha a 40-ball 74 against Mumbai Indians•BCCIIt was this big-hitting ability that took India over the line in Sylhet to go 2-0 up in the five-match series. After India had bowled Bangladesh out for 119 in overcast conditions, Hemalatha was out on the field for the third ball of the chase with Shafali Verma caught behind for 0. She scored four off her first seven balls, before dancing down the track and lofting offspinner Sultana Khartun high over the cow corner fence, bringing up the first six of the match. She then struck three fours off seamer Marufa Akther and left-arm pacer Fariha Trisna – a drive through backward point, a powerful cut, and a lofted shot straight over the bowler’s head.This was before she muscled left-arm spinner Nahida Akhter for a six over long-on and a four through the covers. Marufa came back to bowl the final over of the powerplay, and off the last ball before it started raining again, Hemalatha pierced the gap between extra cover and mid-off with a pleasing drive. In all, she hit five fours and two sixes.India were 19 runs ahead on the DLS calculations when the match was abandoned. At the post-match press conference, Hemalatha – usually a person of few words in media interactions – revealed that she was practising with the new ball at the WPL and that had given her the confidence to bat in the top order for India.”It’s really amazing. It always feels amazing when you are playing for your country,” she said. “In the domestic [circuit], I used to play at No. 4 and 5 in the [batting] order. When I came to GG [Gujarat Giants], I was playing at No.3. For that, I started playing with the new ball in WPL, and it has worked for me here also because I was confident playing against the new ball. We were planning to play just according to our strengths, it was a run-a-ball game, 120 was chaseable. We didn’t plan that much.”Rain might have robbed Hemalatha of a big innings, but it was a day to remember, nonetheless. Whether India persist with her when Yastika returns to full fitness is something to look at. But if she keeps firing like this when the management throws opportunities at her, and with four months to go for the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, India will have a happy headache fitting in Rodrigues, Yastika and Hemalatha.

Where Sri Lanka trusted Jayasuriya and Mendis to win the game for them, Pakistan always kept chopping and changing

Danyal Rasool28-Jul-2022It was almost exactly midway through this second Test, midway through the third innings, that Sri Lanka decisively pulled away from Pakistan. The 40th over had just been sent down by Yasir Shah. A poor one, with two loose balls put away by Dhananjaya de Silva, who was then in single digits; he would finish up in three figures. Five wickets down, two new batters at the crease and the skies darkening, Sri Lanka’s lead looked particularly vulnerable.Babar Azam had five spin options at his disposal, and Yasir’s ordinary over was more an aberration than anything else; he’d been fairly solid in his preceding seven, and also removed Oshada Fernando early on. Agha Salman at the other end was operating with impressive consistency, landing the ball in the danger area more frequently than perhaps any other Pakistan bowler; one drifting, non-turning offbreak had taken Angelo Mathews’ outside edge just before tea. Babar, however, opted for a change from that end.He didn’t bring on a fast bowler, or any of the other five spinners. Suddenly, there was the Pakistan captain, cap off and ball in hand, against two new batters who could barely believe their luck. Hindsight, foresight, and indeed sight at that moment could all tell you what was about to unfold and yet, seemingly oblivious to the magnitude of the moment, Babar began to bowl.Related

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Across a wretched over, Sri Lanka were presented 10 runs on a golden platter, with the pressure release palpable across the Galle Fort ramparts. Babar took himself off, but the spark for that embryonic stand had been lit; de Silva and Karunaratne added 126 runs for the sixth wicket, stomping on any final hopes Pakistan had nurtured for another dramatic fourth-innings heist.To say Sri Lanka’s win represented justice being done would be something of an understatement; it is perhaps a travesty the hosts were ever made to sweat on a win in a contest they grasped by the scruff of the neck from the first session. Sri Lanka’s approach to this second Test demonstrated a clarity of strategy wholly absent from Pakistan’s game from day one, something Mohammad Nawaz admitted to when expressing frustration with Pakistan’s first-innings bowling plans.Sri Lanka had a multitude of spin options to choose from, too, but Karunaratne and Dhananjaya, who stood in for him for large swathes of the Test match, would not allow themselves to get lost in the maze of choice. Identifying Prabath Jayasuriya and Ramesh Mendis as their key spinners, Sri Lanka let them operate for extended lengths in each innings, backing them to stick to Plan A even while Pakistan built up frustrating partnerships. Today, as time ran out and rain and bad light both threatened to play spoilsport, Dhananjaya would not panic in the face of a seemingly impermeable Babar-Rizwan partnership that saw Pakistan sitting pretty at 176 for 2 in 53 overs.Pakistan lost eight wickets for 85 runs in the final innings•AFP/Getty ImagesAside from seven overs from Dunith Wellalage, Ramesh and Jayasuriya were nigh on the only game in town. From the 50th onwards, no other bowler sent down a single over, the entire 8 for 85 collapse scripted by that most traditional of combinations: a left-arm orthodox spinner and a right-arm offspinner operating in tandem with the confidence of their captain and a patience that stemmed from trusting the process they had followed to the point of muscle memory.”Patience” was a word Babar continued to return to in the post-match press conference. He ascribed a lack of it to his batters, and praised Jayasuriya for possessing it in spades. “Even if he gets hit for a boundary, he doesn’t deviate from his length,” Babar said.Pakistan may not currently possess the spin bowling quality that always feels like it’s bursting at the seams in Sri Lanka, but the part a captain plays in enabling them to put their best foot forward is difficult to overstate. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-tracking figures, nearly half of Jayasuriya’s deliveries on the final day – 52 off 114 – landed full on the stumps, rather than the safer shorter length wider outside off stump. He would concede a run-a-ball operating that line and length, but continued to work away on that tactic.It was responsible for three of his four wickets on the day, including the match-defining ones of Babar and Rizwan. Babar’s struggles against Jayasuriya in an otherwise excellent innings were also laid bare, with the batter not in control of 33.3% of all deliveries the left-armer bowled. Ramesh, too, was more productive when he operated along the fuller line that gave batters the opportunity to score runs, three of the four wickets he took falling that way.The notion that Karunaratne, who has exactly as many wickets at Test level as Babar, would have even considered bringing himself on for an over for whatever reason bordered on risible, and Dhananjaya – a far more accomplished bowler than either – only sent down two overs in the final innings; yet Pakistan have often felt chained to their bowling choices rather than feeling liberated by them. The longest any two of their spinners operated in tandem all Test amounted to 17 overs, and never once did a Pakistan spinner lay siege to an end, as Sri Lanka so successfully did.It might have to do with the quality of the personnel, but as a theme across his captaincy, Babar’s ideas on management of spin resources have felt strategically light. In Karachi, Pakistan had asphyxiated the Australian middle order around tea on the first day, allowing just 16 runs in 13 overs. Instead of keeping that pressure on, the next 26 overs were bowled by the ineffectual Sajid Khan, Nauman Ali, Azhar Ali and, of course, Babar himself. Australia did not lose a single wicket during that spell, and went on to amass 556.It’s much easier when you have Jayasuriya and Ramesh in this kind of form at your disposal. But Karunaratne, and Sri Lanka, know exactly what to do with them, while Babar, and Pakistan, have much of their figuring out ahead of them.

They spent countless hours together as kids learning “correct cricket” and they brought all of it on Tuesday

Shashank Kishore in Rajkot10-Mar-2020As kids, Cheteshwar Pujara and Arpit Vasavada spent countless hours in each other’s houses at Railways Colony in Rajkot. When not summoned to do homework, they’d train together, wanting to out-do each other with the bat. Arvind, Pujara senior, wanted them to channel their cricketing pursuits better and would have them alternate at the nets. Then over countless meals, he would drill into them the need to play “correct cricket” and to prove themselves on tough wickets outside Rajkot.On Tuesday, Vasavada and Pujara exhibited those very virtues that were ingrained in them as young players wanting to make a name in Saurashtra. And in doing so, Saurashtra took another step closer to their Ranji Trophy dream, after three failed attempts.Sure this final wasn’t being played outside Rajkot – regarded widely as a wicket by casual cricket observers in the country – but Arvind, a keen watcher from the stands, would’ve been delighted because this was far from a typical Khanderi surface they grew up on. This could’ve well been a surface in Kalyani or Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi, one that needed both batsmen to dig in and exhibit substance over style. And they did.Pujara and Vasavada are the artisans of this team. There is a reason why the batting revolves around them. The more flamboyant artists were back in the pavilion. Sheldon Jackson looked a dream, but flattered to deceive. Vishwaraj Jadeja set himself up and was bowled through the gate. Such dismissals can potentially cause doubts for batsmen at the other end.Vasavada soaked it all from the non-striker’s end on Monday, even as Pujara battled throat infection, dizziness and fever. Pujara didn’t come out for pre-match warm-ups and the usual batting routines on Tuesday to preserve his energies. But when it was time for him to use them, he did it the way he knows best. Bengal’s fast bowlers kept trying to land the punches. Pujara had one answer: block.Short ball on the body: block. Left-arm over from outside leg: pad away. Left-arm spin from around the wicket: step-out-smother. Bouncer from around the stumps: duck and weave. He had answers to all questions the bowlers tried to ask of him. The approach comes out of years of training and knowledge of the surface, where batsmen, especially those from outside, can be worn down by demons they can’t see. In all fairness, conditions were tough and runs came in a trickle in the morning. It needed batsmen to fight and these two were prepared for the hard grind without the worry of being made to look ugly.They came together at a crucial time on Tuesday morning, with Saurashtra resuming on a dicey 206 for 5. A few quick wickets and Bengal’s hopes of restricting them below 300 would’ve been a real possibility. The onus was on them to see off the first hour at least. They added 25 in the first 15 overs of play, Pujara on occasions having mild discomfort against Shahbaz Ahmed’s left-arm spin. Once, he was even referred to the TV umpire for an lbw decision but survived because of his intent to try and get to the pitch of the ball, which got him outside the nine-feet mark. And while the impact was in line, he was too far down the pitch.Vasavada, at the other end, was equally watchful. Playing behind the line, rising with the bounce, weaving away from short balls, and resisting the temptation to sweep, a shot he plays very well. Most knocks of his generally has a good portion of runs square of the wicket through the sweep shot. But this was different. His determination to not play it as often seemingly evident.From time to time, Pujara kept walking up to him in between overs, sometimes in between deliveries, at the first sign of him trying to do something outside the manual. But these instances were few in a dogged effort. The mantra was clear: ‘There are no points for grace. Time and runs are our currency’.There was a poignant moment when Vasavada got to his century, though. Vasavada was consumed by emotion as he roared towards the dressing room, whipped off his helmet and waved his bat animatedly. Pujara had started to run towards him to give a big hug but stopped, held himself back and allowed Vasavada to let his emotions flow. And once he regained his composure, Pujara walked up to him and gave him a quiet hug and handshake. It was the hug that validated Arvind’s “tough runs outside Rajkot” philosophy.All along, Pujara was hardly been deterred at his own scoring rate. There was not even an inkling of that word ‘intent’ being heard from any corner. He didn’t get to his fifty until his 191st delivery, when he put away a long hop to the point boundary with all his might. It was sane batting, dour batting but a masterclass in putting mind over all else.Then a release shot came off his 200th ball, a length delivery that had him take a big stride forward and disdainfully crash on the up for four through cover point. But such luxuries of letting instincts take over were very limited, and the beauty of his knock lay in his self-restraint, like Vasavada, fully aware that while he wasn’t a 100%, he couldn’t afford to not give anything but 100% for his team. In four innings in the final, Pujara had a best of 27. This was his space, his home and he wasn’t going to pass another chance.The partnership was worth 142; but its value far greater than many stands they’ve had on flatter wickets. Pujara only made 66, off 237 balls. Vasavada 106, before being stumped. But as stumps approached and shadows lengthened in Rajkot, they had more than done their bit to give Saurashtra a real shot at history.On Holi, it wasn’t quite a colourful batting display you’d expect from an Indian mainstay, but the bloodymindedness to get the job done showed his steely resolve and how much the old virtues of occupying the crease and bail the team out meant to him.

He was disappointed to miss out on a maiden first-class double ton but pushed towards his India A dream

Ashish Pant13-Sep-2025Yash Rathod paused for a moment right after facing his first ball on the second morning of the Duleep Trophy final. He had just been beaten by Gurjapneet Singh. Stepping away, Rathod nodded his head furiously, talking to himself, trying to calm his nerves. After a disappointing semi-final against West Zone, where he managed just 2, Rathod was determined to make amends.Two hundred and eighty five balls later, as he walked back for 194, he had done his bit in helping Central Zone close in on their first Duleep Trophy win in 11 years.It wasn’t easy initially. Central Zone were 93 for 3 in the 34th over when Rathod walked out. A first-innings lead was just 56 away, but Gurjapneet was in the middle of a searing spell. He had just flattened Shubham Sharma’s middle stump, had Danish Malewar nick to slip, and was extracting plenty of movement in overcast conditions.Rathod started tentatively, particularly against Gurjapneet, who bowled 16 straight dot balls at him. He was beaten a few times and had an early escape when he edged the quick to second slip, with the ball falling just short. Then, twice he flashed outside off against fast bowler MD Nidheesh and was lucky to get thick edges past the gully fielder. The fluency, which had fetched Rathod 960 runs in the last Ranji Trophy season, was missing.Related

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“Initially, I think I was over-trying,” Rathod told ESPNcricinfo. “When I went to bat, the situation was tricky, but the plan was to react to the ball. Gurjapneet was also hitting the right areas quite consistently. The ball was swinging and seaming off the wicket as well.”Once I got past that phase, and the spinners came on to bowl, I thought I will capitalise. I tried to dominate them before lunch, but no matter what I tried – stepping out, sweeping, or playing off the backfoot – I wasn’t connecting [with] the ball consistently. It just wasn’t clicking.”Lunch came at the right time for Rathod. At the break, as he gathered himself, focus shifting over to playing instinctively, and once back, everything fell in place. Rathod clipped Gurjapneet for four through midwicket to raise his half-century off 84 balls. Soon after, he waltzed down the track to left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma, driving him past mid-on and then through covers.A key feature of Rathod’s innings was his backfoot play. He would often go deep into his crease off Ankit, nudging him fine past slip and would pull anything that was marginally short of a length. It took Rathod just 132 balls to reach his seventh first-class century, getting there by tapping Ankit to point off the backfoot, ending the second day unbeaten on 137.

My immediate goal is to prepare myself for the Irani Trophy. If I perform there, I will get closer to my India A dream. Yes, I want to play for India, but to reach there, India A is my first stepYash Rathod

Rathod was more proactive on the third morning. He clipped Gurjapneet through midwicket in the first over and reached his 150 with a push to mid-on. He rushed through the 180s with two fours but was cleaned up by Gurjapneet shortly after lunch, falling six short of a maiden first-class double-century. He was visibly dejected as he trudged off slowly, constantly looking at the replays of his dismissal on the big screen at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.”It was very disappointing,” Rathod said on missing out on a double ton. “I have been trying to get a double-century for a while. Last year, I scored five centuries, but being a No. 5 batter, it becomes tough to score a 200 as you end your innings mostly with tailenders.”Today, I had a chance to score a double ton on such a big stage. So yes, it was quite disappointing to not score those six runs but again, very grateful for 194. Maybe there is something better lined up for me, maybe I can score a double-century in the Irani Trophy.”Rajat Patidar and Yash Rathod added 167 for the fourth wicket•PTI A highlight of Rathod’s 194 was his calmness. Once settled, at no stage did he look hurried. He was involved in two big stands – 167 for the fourth wicket with Rajat Patidar and 176 for the sixth wicket with Saransh Jain – and ensured he didn’t try to match his partner’s pace.”It doesn’t matter how the batter at the opposite end is playing. Everyone has a pattern,” Rathod said. “I can’t play like Rajat bhai. His intent is different. My game plan is very different. I love playing risk-free cricket.”Five-day cricket is a long game. I know my patterns, I know my strengths where I can perform well. I like to take the game forward calmly, take control of the situation and stay clear with my plans and what I need to do.”Rathod has had a stellar start to his first-class career, with 15 scores of fifty-plus in just 35 innings, and was a key factor behind Vidarbha’s winning 2024-25 Ranji season. His next goal is to play all three formats but he is not looking too far ahead.”I have the belief it [playing all three formats] will happen,” Rathod said. “I also obviously want to play IPL, but my immediate goal is to prepare myself for Irani Trophy as that is also a big stage. If I perform there, I will get closer to my India A dream. Yes, I want to play for India, but to reach there, India A is my first step.”At 25, Rathod has already been part of a Ranji Trophy-winning team and is now close to being part of a Duleep Trophy-winning side. While things have happened quickly in the last year, Rathod is taking them in calmly, at a specific pace, much like his batting.

The Sri Lankan pair broke several records with their double-act against Bangladesh – here’s all the key numbers from that show

Sampath Bandarupalli24-Mar-20243 – Number of instances of two players from the same team with twin hundreds in a Test match – Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis did it for Sri Lanka in Sylhet. The Chappell brothers – Ian and Greg – scored twin tons against New Zealand in Wellington in 1974, while Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq did the same against Australia in Abu Dhabi in 2014.There have also been three Test matches where one player from each side scored twin hundreds – Arthur Morris and Denis Compton in Adelaide in 1947, Andrew Jones and Asanka Gurusinha in Hamilton in 1991, and David Warner and Virat Kohli in Adelaide in 2014.3 – Number of pairs with two 150-plus partnerships in a Test match, including Dhananjaya and Kamindu with 202 and 177 in Sylhet. Paul Gibb and Eddie Paynter added 184 and 168 for the second wicket against South Africa in the 1938 Johannesburg Test, while Joe Burns and David Warner had opening stands of 161 and 237 against New Zealand in the 2015 Brisbane Test.2 – Players with hundreds in both innings of a Test match while batting at No. 6 or lower before Dhananjaya and Kamindu in Sylhet. Kamindu became the first batter with two hundreds in a Test while batting at No. 7 or lower.Allan Border had two 150-plus scores while batting at No. 6 against Pakistan in Lahore in 1980, while Tillakaratne Dilshan scored 162 and 143 at No. 6 against Bangladesh in the 2009 Chattogram Test.266 – Runs scored by Kamindu in Sylhet are the second-most by any batter while batting at No. 7 or lower in a Test match. Don Bradman’s 270 runs against England in the 1937 Melbourne Test are the highest: he scored 270 in Australia’s second innings while batting at No. 7.164 – Kamindu’s score in Sri Lanka’s second innings is now the sixth-highest individual score while batting at No. 8 or lower in Test cricket. Only one player before Kamindu had a 150-plus score for Sri Lanka in Tests while batting outside the top six – 154* by Prasanna Jayawardene while batting at No.7 against India in 2009.375 – Partnership runs by Dhananjaya and Kamindu in Sylhet – the third-most by any pair for the sixth wicket or lower in a Test match. They are also the third pair with two century partnerships for the sixth wicket or lower in a Test.292 – Runs added by Sri Lanka after the fall of the sixth wicket in their second innings. These are the most runs by Sri Lanka in a Test innings after the fall of the sixth wicket, surpassing the 223 runs against Bangladesh in 2007 in Colombo.528 – Runs scored by Sri Lanka across the two innings in Sylhet after the fall of the fifth wicket, the most by them in a Test match. These are the fifth-most runs added by any team after losing their fifth wicket across two innings in a Test match.

He batted slow, trusted his defence and played another sublime innings when no one else could get to even 20

Andrew Fidel Fernando17-Jul-2022Babar Azam is the top-ranked ODI batter, 77 rankings points ahead of the next guy (Imam-ul-Haq). He is also the top-ranked T20I batter but is ahead of the second by a slimmer margin (Mohammad Rizwan is 24 points back).In Tests, though, the format that matters, the purists’ format, the thing that gets you into Wisden, he’s ranked a paltry fourth. Above him Joe Root (obviously), Steven Smith (partially riding on past glories), and Marnus Labuschagne (originally a discounted Steven Smith who has now proved more popular in the market since the rumours that the original has declined in quality).Related

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We’re comparing him to the best now. Is the Big Four, now the Big Five? Root, Smith, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, and…. Babar? We have to be comparing, right? This is sport. You cannot exist in a universe all on your own. No player is an island. Forget that the others on that list are four to five years older than him, which in cricketing years, is at least one generation removed, maybe more. They are setting the standard. The over-arching narrative is there. We must make Babar fit into it.Must we though? Do we have to play this game? Is the cricket world really the kind of even place where star batters from teams such as England, Australia and India, and to a lesser degree New Zealand, can fairly be compared to Babar? We don’t have to drag capitalism into it, but you know if we did, that analysis would not land in Babar’s favour.In this innings in Galle, Babar hit 119 runs. Sri Lanka series are not high-octane, or high-prestige, and they won’t get you into the big global lists. Even at home, they’ll move the needle less, you’d think, than series against the Big Three, or even South Africa.Babar, though, is there. Playing another sublime innings, on what is already a big-turning pitch. He plays (late, and under his chin) for the straighter one from Prabath Jayasuriya, which has duped his team-mates and brought lbw dismissals. He bats slow, trusting his defence, when plenty of great batters have hit out at this venue, reasoning that a good ball will inevitably get them out so why not make runs before it does.Babar Azam thanks the Almighty after reaching his seventh Test ton•AFP/Getty ImagesBut this is Babar we are talking about, and the good balls that get the best out are still not too good for him, so he is in his own space, playing as he thinks he should, and likely constructing an innings only he is capable of. In the last two weeks, we’ve had Smith and Labuschagne on this surface too. They produced innings of varying quality – Labuschagne progressing to a hundred on a flatter Galle track than the one on display now, though only after being let off early on.They never looked like they trusted their game like Babar.And rarely will the best batters around the world have their team-mates abandon them as happily as Babar’s did. Babar faced 244 balls in this innings. The next best was Yasir Shah who batted out 56 balls. Divide Babar’s 119 by six, and he’d still be the top scorer for his side. There are lone vigils, and then there’s dragging the bodyweight of your entire top order like vegetables in a gunny bag to the market vendor you need to sell it to, and that was basically Babar.He was on 28 when the seventh wicket went down. Then 38 for the eighth; 55 when the ninth fell. Then, farming roughly 72% of the strike, he more than doubled his score, on a pitch that no one else in his team could get to even 20. Though he was never in a rush through the course of this innings, he occasionally ventured the kinds of salvos that let you know, that if he wanted to, he could. Three successive fours off Kasun Rajitha towards the end of the second session, for example, one drilled down the ground, another crashed over midwicket, the third whipped over square leg.In the long view of this career, this innings might not be part of the central folklore. But a batter hitting 82 runs in the company of Nos. 9, 10 and 11, is not un-spectacular. It’s futile to pretend we won’t compare him with the others, because of course we will. But across formats, across pitch conditions, oppositions, match situations, perhaps we seed the thought there is something special happening here that is happening nowhere else.

Manchester United and INEOS are now reportedly stalling on a new contract for Kobbie Mainoo, as doubts over his Old Trafford future continue.

Mainoo’s fall from grace has been sad to see of late, considering the midfielder emerged has one of the most emerging youth products in years with the Red Devils, even starting for England at Euro 2024 last year.

The 20-year-old has been limited to just 138 minutes of Premier League action across seven cameo appearances this season, with Ruben Amorim not considering him a key man.

It remains to be seen what will happen with Mainoo, but journalist Simon Stone gave his thoughts earlier this week, suggesting his time at Old Trafford may still have legs.

Mainoo contract talks stall with transfer ruled out

Now, speaking to Football Insider, journalist Pete O’Rourke provided an update on Mainoo’s Manchester United future, claiming talks over a new deal have stalled with INEOS, but that they won’t let him leave.

“I’m sure it’s (handing Mainoo a new contract) something that Man United would definitely be interested in doing. They’ve been in talks with Mainoo for a while now over a new contract. Suggestions are now that contract talks have been put on hold because of his uncertain future at Old Trafford.

“We know Mainoo was interested in a move away in the summer window as he knew he wasn’t going to be playing in Ruben Amorim’s side. I don’t think he’s started a Premier League game so far this season.

“For United, on their part, they don’t really want to lose Kobbie Mainoo, and that’s why they blocked the move in the summer window and obviously I think they’d be reluctant to let him go in January as well because United want to be competing in that top four, if they can.”

To lose Mainoo so early in his career would be a negative for United, given his vast potential, so the hope is that Amorim and INEOS’ stance on him changes.

Granted, he has endured a year of struggles, not helped by injury problems, but he is a special young footballer with the natural ability to be a star, as he has already shown in his career.

Antoine Semenyo chooses between Man Utd and Liverpool

What a signing this could be…

1 ByHenry Jackson Nov 22, 2025

Hopefully, a contract extension is agreed, but ultimately, if the manager and the club don’t value Mainoo enough, a move away could be best for everyone, sad as it would be.

49ers keen on signing Man Utd star Kobbie Mainoo for Leeds

How hard-hitting batter turned to another sport after injury curtailed his rugby career

Matt Roller16-Sep-2025When Ross Adair walks out to open the batting at Malahide on Wednesday he will complete a rare sporting double.The last time Adair pulled on a green Ireland shirt to face England, his opponents included the future England rugby union captain, Maro Itoje; this time, his opposite number at the top of the order will be Jos Buttler. Even if his encounter with Itoje was an Under-19s fixture, he will surely become the only man to have faced both modern English sporting greats in international competition.The prospect of playing against Buttler makes Adair grin. “I’m a 31-year-old man, and I’m trying not to be too excited about this guy – who is not much older than me – coming over to play cricket against me,” he says, sheltering from the wind on the Sport Ireland campus on the outskirts of Dublin. “To be in the presence of someone who’s done so much in the game will be pretty cool.”It is the latest landmark in a second sporting life that Adair himself admits seemed unlikely when he was recovering from the double hip surgeries that effectively ended his rugby career. “That was life’s way of telling me that I was on the wrong path,” he says. “I didn’t expect to be here, if I’m quite honest. It just sort of happened.”Adair and his younger brother, Mark, juggled both sports as teenagers, but went in different directions. “I got to a stage where there was Ulster Under-20s or the Under-19 Cricket World Cup,” he explains. “Ryan Eagleson (now Ireland’s bowling coach) was the Under-19s coach and he left me out… The cricket door closed, the rugby door was open, so away I went.”Primarily a winger, Adair struggled to break into a strong Ulster backline. “The back three when I was there was [Andrew] Trimble, [Jared] Payne and [Tommy] Bowe – effectively a Lions back three.” He made a single substitute appearance at senior level in the Pro12, scoring a try during his seven-minute cameo, before moving onto Jersey Reds in the English Championship.Ross Adair in action for Ulster’s A team during his rugby union career•Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty ImagesCricket went on the backburner. “We played one-hand, one-bounce in the changing rooms. That kept my eye in… I maybe came back and played a couple of games for Holywood, my local club – [Rory] McIlroy territory. But if I’d gone back to Jersey with a broken finger, they’ve have been like, ‘What are you doing?'”By the time a degenerative hip condition prompted two surgeries in early 2018, he had started to fall out of love with rugby. He returned to play for Ballynahinch and for Ulster’s A team, but recalls clearly when he realised it was time to quit: “The ref blew the first whistle, and I was counting 80 minutes down in my head… I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.'”Adair took a job in property development and started to play cricket again on the side – though an Ireland call-up was a long way off his radar: “It was just a bit of for me, a bit of fun.” Runs in club cricket earned him opportunities for Northern Knights in the Irish inter-provincial system – initially at No. 7 or 8 – before he blasted a century from the top of the order in 2022.His first Ireland call-up came on a tour to Zimbabwe, with senior players missing playing franchise cricket, and hitting 65 off 47 in his second cap ensured further opportunities would follow. He ran the drinks at last year’s T20 World Cup but marked his arrival at international level in September, launching nine sixes in a 57-ball hundred against South Africa.A combination of injury, bad weather and Ireland’s sparse fixture list means that he has only batted once since in T20Is, scoring 48 against West Indies in June. “I’ve had to watch the highlights of my hundred a couple of times, just to [remind myself], ‘You can still do this, you’re fine.’ Sometimes you second-guess yourself, but that’s all part of sport. It’s very normal.”By his own admission, Adair is a “raw” batter who relies more on temperament than technique. “I’m just glad I’m not one of the guys that go, ‘My head was a millimetre out of position there.’ You’d go insane… I like going with the flow. I could always strike a cricket ball, but I was just very, very raw. That helped me a lot when I came back.”He finds cricket more “mentally challenging” than rugby, particularly given the high-variance nature of his role as an attacking opener: “You could go five or six games in a row without getting any runs and you think you’re shit, but that’s not the case. There’s a score around the corner… It’s live by the sword, die by the sword. For me, it’s an amazing way to live.”Adair was inspired by England’s record-breaking hitting on Friday night, when they racked up 304 for 2 against South Africa: “That’s my kind of cricket. It always has been: see ball, hit ball.” He saw Phil Salt’s series – a first-baller, followed by an unbeaten 141 off 60 balls – as emblematic of the life of a modern T20 opener. “It’s scary… But that’s just the way it is.”When I went back to cricket, once I finished playing rugby, I could just go back and blast it. I wasn’t worried about the consequences… When it did take off a bit, I was trying to keep that mindset: don’t worry about it. If you get out, you get out. It’s fine. You could be 90 off 40, you could also be 0 off 1… That sense of freedom makes it a bit easier for me.”Related

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He believes there are more transferable skills between cricket and rugby than might be obvious – “being in front of a crowd, blocking out the noise… and I’ve taken a lot of high balls” – and sees T20 as the “closest thing” between the two. “It’s just such a good, explosive, aggressive version of cricket… That’s maybe why I love it the best.”Adair won his first central contract last year, shelving his day job to become a professional cricketer aged 30, and has one eye on next year’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. “Hopefully with these games coming up, I can put my foot down for that opening role… They’re proper cricketing countries – the people there are mad for it – so it’s a very exciting time.”Facing England will be the biggest challenge of his career so far, but he will not be changing his approach. “I respect them so much because of what they do, and the cricket they play, but you have to park that sometimes… I’ll keep coming and trying to take them on, no matter who they are. I’ll park the respect once it comes to the game.”The two nations’ cricketing rivalry is not as deep as in rugby, but Adair is still “incredibly” excited ahead of Wednesday’s series opener. “I love playing England. I’ve had my experience with England before and even then, as an 18-year-old in the rugby sphere, you just want to get stuck in. It’s a bit different in cricket because it’s not as confrontational – but it still means a lot to us.”

“I am planning for the next match already,” says the big-hitter, after a heartbreak at his home ground, close on the heels of defeat in the BPL final

Mohammad Isam04-Mar-2024Midway through the press conference after Sri Lanka’s three-run win against Bangladesh in Sylhet, journalist Shakila Bobby asked Jaker Ali a question. The young batter had just come off a breathtaking 68 off 34 balls, which included a Bangladesh record of six sixes in the innings.”You just played your first game at home in Sylhet. The crowd was chanting your name. What was that like?” Shakila asked from the back of the press-conference room.” [sister], I have always loved playing at this venue. I made my first-class debut at this ground. I know the wicket and atmosphere of this place. It was all good, but it would have been great had we won the game,” Jaker responded.Related

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Wait, sister? Few in the room knew beforehand that Jaker and Shakila were siblings. Most of the Dhaka-based journalists who had travelled to Sylhet had no idea. But now interest was piqued. Another journalist asked Jaker how it felt to take a question from his sister.”She must be proud of me. She looks happy,” Jaker responded, with a shy smile.Shakila is the Sylhet correspondent for the Bangladesh daily . Her husband Mamun Hossain is a photographer with the same newspaper. They brought their toddler Saiyara Mahek along, and watched the game from the press box. The niece cheered a few times as Jaker was hitting his big sixes, the crowd going wild around her.After the press conference, Jaker caught up with his sister’s family. And then Shakila spoke to the other journalists. “It was my dream to ask Jaker a question in a press conference,” she said, beaming. “I never knew that it would come true one day.”Shakila Bobby, Jaker Ali’s sister, with her husband Mamun Hossain and their daughter Saiyara Mahek•Bangladesh Cricket BoardShakila said the whole family is into sports. Shakila herself is a former captain of her district’s cricket team. Their father, who died in 2017, was an athlete in the Bangladesh Army. They hail from Habiganj, a town 75km to the southwest of Sylhet.Jaker plays his first-class cricket for Sylhet Division, which is why he felt so at ease at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, the team’s home venue. Jaker struck five of his six sixes after Mahmudullah got out, having given his senior partner support when he was going all guns blazing.Jaker took the game into the last over, but started if off strike, with No. 8 Rishad Hossain facing up. When Jaker got the strike, it was 10 needed off four balls. He could not get the job done, but expanded on all of it at the press conference. “[Mahmudullah] Riyad told me to bat normally. I didn’t have any extra plans. He was getting boundaries with calculative risks. It freed me up. It made life easier for me.”[Later] I asked Rishad to give me the strike, but he got out. I was on strike when we needed 10 off the last four balls. I was confident that we could win the game. I was playing a good innings. But I didn’t connect with the ball and it went to hand.”When Riyad was taking chances, my plan was to ensure that we would get 10 or 12 runs in the over. This was my role with Riyad at the crease. I shifted my gear after he got out.”

“My face is telling you how I feel. Losing is always heart-breaking. I didn’t sleep the night after losing the BPL final. I would have felt great if we could have won today. But I am planning for the next match already.”Jaker Ali is not dwelling on the tough times

Jaker got into this Bangladesh T20I squad because Aliss Al Islam sustained a finger injury. He had done enough in this season’s BPL to be in the reckoning (in fact, his Comilla Victorians coach Mohammad Salahuddin had blasted the outgoing chief selector Minhajul Abedin for not picking him in the first place). His exploits included unbeaten knocks of 40, 38 and 18, all featuring explosive hitting.”My BPL form really helped me here,” Jaker said. “We got here in Sylhet just two days after we finished the BPL in Dhaka. No changing in format was good for me. I also knew about this ground well, this being my home ground.”Jaker said captain Najmul Hossain Shanto had given him a heads-up about his call-up, which allowed him a bit of time to prepare mentally. Jaker had not got the job done in the BPL final against Fortune Barishal, which gnawed at him. He had lost a night’s sleep, but then he had to prepare for his first home game for Bangladesh. Tonight was a bit of a repeat for him, but, importantly, he seemed keen to learn from these experiences.”My face is telling you how I feel. Losing is always heart-breaking. I didn’t sleep the night after losing the BPL final. I would have felt great if we could have won today,” he said. “But I am planning for the next match already. We can take note of plenty of positives from today’s game.”

On a sluggish wicket, he scored 79 off 84 to keep India on track in the chase and showed he can still thrive under pressure

Hemant Brar19-Jan-20222:00

Manjrekar: India must tweak their line-up to make middle order ‘wholesome’

“Champions thrive under pressure.” That was Shikhar Dhawan’s message to India’s Under-19 cricketers ahead of their World Cup campaign in the West Indies. Having struck three centuries in the 2004 edition of the tournament, Dhawan knows what it takes to perform there. But he could have used the same words to motivate himself too.At 36, Dhawan is in the twilight of his career. Last July, he led a second-string Indian side to Sri Lanka and hoped to utilise the tour to make his place “stronger” for the 2021 T20 World Cup. Dhawan has stepped up his T20 game in the last couple of years, but the selectors preferred Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan as their openers for the global tournament.Related

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One justification behind Dhawan’s exclusion could have been that a top three of Rohit, Dhawan and Virat Kohli makes the T20I side too anchor heavy. When Chetan Sharma, the chairman of selectors, was asked about it, he said, “He is a very important player for us… The need of the hour was that we wanted to look at other players while we give rest to Dhawan.”Make of it what you will but the bottom line is ODIs is now the only format Dhawan finds a place in. But in stand-in captain Rahul’s words, Dhawan was “in a great space” coming into the South Africa series.”He’s a senior player, he understands exactly what is expected of him,” Rahul said on the eve of the first ODI. “He has come out here and is really having fun, really enjoying his cricket. For me as a captain, it will just be about trying to keep him in that space, and give him that confidence and freedom to go out there and do what he has been doing for so many years.”On Wednesday, Dhawan did exactly that. Chasing 297 on a sluggish wicket, he scored 79 off 84 to keep India on track. South Africa eventually won by a comfortable margin but Dhawan’s knock once again underlined his value in the ODI side and showed he can still thrive under pressure.Shikhar Dhawan lays into a drive•AFP/Getty ImagesWith the pitch helping spinners and the ball not coming on to the bat, South Africa opened the bowling with part-time offspinner Aiden Markram. While Rahul played Markram cautiously, Dhawan skipped down the track and lofted him over mid-on.From the other end, he hit Marco Jansen to the square boundary on either side of the wicket. That meant despite Rahul scoring 12 off 17 balls, India’s scoring rate hovered around five.Keshav Maharaj was introduced in the tenth over but started with a wayward delivery down the leg side and Dhawan enchased that too for four.Luck was on his side as well. In the second over of the innings, he got inside edge off Jansen but the ball missed the stumps and went for four. Later, when he was on 43, he played back to a fuller delivery from Maharaj and got an outside edge but with no slip in place, it fetched him another boundary.That meant Dhawan reached his fifty off just 51 balls without taking much risk. Along with Kohli, he added 92 off 102 balls for the second wicket to put India in a commanding position.But with the target still 159 runs away, Maharaj got one to turn sharply from outside off. Dhawan was shaping for a cut and was bowled. Kohli fell soon after, which allowed South Africa to wrest back control.