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Lanning, Perry, Gardner and co. share their thoughts after triumph; Sune Luus says tournament a watershed moment for women’s sports in SA

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-2023Meg Lanning: “It’s a pretty special effort from the group. All teams came hard at us – we knew that was going to happen. But we performed well throughout the tournament, so super proud. We felt like it was a good score, but we had to bowl well. The wicket wasn’t as good as it was in the semi-final. We felt confident if we could hit the right lengths and target the stumps. We had to put pressure on South Africa.Related

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“We knew it would be an amazing atmosphere, which it was. It was a great event. It was about keeping things simple when the pressure is on, and getting things done. Nice to finish off with a win with this group. It’s a special group. Not just the players, but also the support staff that put in a lot of work behind the scene, and allow us to go out and play our cricket.”Ashleigh Gardner: “We have been longing for this moment since the last World Cup. We played some fantastic cricket throughout the tournament. Today just showed that we were not in winning positions throughout the game, but we scrapped and we fought; super proud of this group. [Best personal contribution in the tournament] Probably the semi-final. My role within the team with both bat and ball is trying to change the game with whatever I can do. For me, it was with the bat in that game, and then come back and bowl.”Personal accolades are great, but what I am most excited about is that we have won this tournament. We are World Cup champions. I probably bowled more in games, and that was in WBBL as well. I played a different role. I have bowled more and it has translated in internationals as well. Meg has the trust and confidence in me. She has been fantastic. Just putting my team in winning positions as much as I can. Words cannot describe how proud I am. We talk about evolving as individuals, and growing the game and having the impact globally. There is so much fun playing cricket for your country. Being a part of this team is fantastic. This phase is something I am going to be proud of later in life.”Beth Mooney: “It’s a very special win. Incredible being in South Africa and playing in front of an outstanding crowd like this one was special. I am glad I can fake it. I was not calm [in the middle] and the crowd was impressive and not many cheering for us, unfortunately. The girls will tell you later. The crowd were very impressive. It was a really tough wicket and I was a little too hard on myself in the middle. I walked off thinking we hadn’t gotten on the board.”Never judge a wicket till both the teams had batted and it was bloody tough out there and we did well. I was disappointed with my output in the first couple of games. But the belief of the support staff helped me turn it around. It was unbelievable. It was just a matter of time for me. We’ll see what Cape Town has in store for us [to celebrate]. But it’s nice to sit with the group and celebrate. This is a very special group and an amazing squad.”Ellyse Perry: “Amazing game. Huge thank you to the crowd for creating such an incredible atmosphere. I know it didn’t quite go the way they were hoping. But just to have the opportunity stand and be a part of this; right from the start – the national anthem. I knew it would be a great day. It was up and down in our bowling innings. [Laura] Wolvaardt batted exceptionally well and her partnership with Chloe [Tryon] put them in the hunt.”Felt like they were building the momentum. It was tense till we broke that partnership. It was nice to finish the way we did. I think it is nice to contribute in the game [when it comes to fielding]. It is a thing you do as a full team and it is about effort than skill.”Grace Harris: “You definitely won’t be able to wipe the smile off my face tonight, I’m just so happy about how we played throughout the tournament. I thought 156 it could be bit challenging, considering how the other two games were 170-plus score plus and they were close semi-finals. But to get the win against South Africa in front of the packed Newlands, who weren’t cheering for us, which is fair enough, this is outstanding and I love my experience here.”Lanning just said to back my skills and we needed a little bit of boost in the run rate to get to the 160 total, so I got the promotion up the order. Walking out to bat is something I look forward to in a game, I just loved it.”Jess Jonassen: “You can’t go into a World Cup or a final not thinking you are going to lift the trophy. To South Africa’s credit, they took it right to the end, and the crowd was amazing. Even though they weren’t going for us, it was an incredible atmosphere. So it was special to play in front of [them].”Relishing the opportunity to be back out here to represent my country. Have my parents and partner in the crowd, which is extra special.”

SA’s Luus expects more girls will play cricket

Sune Luus: “If you told me before the game that Australia were getting 156, I would have taken it. We lost wickets at crucial times, we knew they had a brilliant bowling attack as well. We lost at the crucial time but we can still be proud of the way we played in the tournament.”I don’t think women’s cricket is going backwards at the moment. I hope there is a lot of development in this front in the country. I hope so many girls want to pick up a bat and ball, so the schools have to get girls’ cricket. They got to be starting club cricket as well with more girls knocking on the door.”Firstly, you guys (Australia) are very annoying. But, congratulations to Meg and her team. You guys have been inspirational in world cricket for a long time and a lot of the players look up to you guys and you showed your class again. I think my wish is just to keep on growing. We have set the platform today. We can’t go backwards. The pressure is on women’s sports in his country, on the minister of sports, CSA and everyone to keep growing women’s sport in this country, whether it is financially or the pipeline, just need to keep growing and pushing.”Laura Wolvaardt: “It’s been such an incredible tournament to be part of. Australia are always going to be a tough side to beat in the final.”We didn’t get off to a great start and was always tough to catch up towards the end. You could hear every single cheer. It’s something I’ve never experienced – a crowd like this. I could do this every day. Very cool experience.”

It doesn’t seem unreasonable to hope a new generation watched and thought, ‘I’d like to try that’

George Dobell09-Feb-2021It was, pretty much, the perfect performance. It wasn’t just the result, or that England put into action all the plans they had devised ahead of the series. It was that they achieved this victory – a result which may well be remembered as among their best overseas for many years – on free-to-air television. They even polished the game off on the final day before home-schooling had to start.You wonder what those seeing this great game of ours for the first time will have made it. Will they have deemed it too slow or too complicated? Will they have yearned for different coloured shirts or balls? Will they have thought ‘if only it were rooted more in a decimal system’ or have hated almost everything about it except the horn sound when a no-ball occurred? We may never know.The experience feels like an opportunity. For while England has had numerous players who might have captured the public imagination over the last few years – the likes of Kevin Pietersen or Stuart Broad, for example – their exploits have, all too often, been hidden behind a paywall.This time? Well, many of us fell in love with the game having been exposed to a few moments on television. It doesn’t seem too unreasonable to hope that, somewhere in Luton or Liverpool, a new generation were marvelling at James Anderson’s skill or Ben Stokes bravura and thinking, ‘I’d like to try that’.Related

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There are several inspirational figures in this team. There’s Anderson, for example, with his extraordinary longevity and commitment to self-improvement. There’s Jofra Archer, with his pace and skill. There’s Stokes, with his extravagant talent and personality to match. And there’s Joe Root, who has just provided the cream of Indian batting with a masterclass on how to bat in Asia and has shown you can be a ruthless captain without denigrating the game or the opposition.All are, to greater or lesser extent, blessed with a bit of genius. All are obvious candidates for the sort of promotional material the ECB puts out to ‘inspire generations’.You wouldn’t describe Jack Leach in quite the same terms. England have had more talented players. England have had more glamorous and exciting cricketers. He wouldn’t claim to be a genius and the papers couldn’t give a toss whose shirts he wears.But if you were looking for a demonstration of resilience, if you were looking for an example of how to deal with adversity or how to cope with disappointment and setbacks, then Leach is your man.For this is a man who was once obliged to get a job parking trolleys in a supermarket as the county contract he hoped for didn’t materialise. A man who, on the brink of international cricket, was forced to remodel his action after he was judged to be throwing. A man whose first eight overs of this match cost an eye-watering 77 runs. A man who has had to manage Crohn’s disease throughout his career – and through a pandemic, in particular – and who, little more than a year ago, lay in a hospital bed wondering if the sepsis he had contracted was going to kill him. For a few hours, it could have gone either way. If you’re looking for an example of an ordinary man achieving extraordinary things, if you’re looking for a role model, Leach is your man.It was probably fitting that he and Anderson played such prominent roles on the final day. Like the team they represent, both had been dismissed by some ahead of the series. Anderson for his age; Leach for his perceived lack of quality. But they combined here to claim seven second-innings wickets and underline the folly of underestimating them.Anderson’s first over of the day, the over in which he bowled Shubman Gill and Ajinkya Rahane, will be talked of for years to come. Harnessing the reverse swing and worn pitch to perfection, he proved – yet again – that he requires neither a Dukes ball or a green surface to be dangerous. Neither batsmen had much reason to rebuke themselves.The ball to Rishabh Pant, while less eye-catching, might have been even better. Knowing the batsman would come at him, Anderson delivered a cutter – a relatively new weapon in his armoury – which gripped a little in the surface and came through slower than Pant anticipated. As a result, he was through the shot early and his leading edge ballooned to short extra-cover. This was a master at work.Anderson, aged 38, has now taken 11 wickets in his two most recent games in Asia at an average of 9.90 apiece. In terms of his remarkable ability to stay at the top of the game for a long time, he surely deserves to be bracketed alongside the likes of Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Tom Brady. No overseas player has won more Tests in India this century.So, what of those who refuse to acknowledge his value? Well, some people still insist the world is flat and deny climate change. Sometimes you just have to let people go and hope they don’t run with scissors.It was Leach who made the breakthrough, though. Producing a beauty which drifted in, turned sharply and bounced, he dislodged Cheteshwar Pujara with a ball as perfect as the one which accounted for Rohit Sharma the previous day.Jack Leach struck the first blow for England in the fourth innings•BCCIIndia came into the game with several players coming back from injury and having had little time to readjust after recently returning from Australia. Ravindra Jadeja was greatly missed, too.But England’s preparation time had hardly been ideal, either. And they were obliged to change their side at the last minute due to injury, too. They won the toss the last time they were in Chennai; it didn’t stop them falling to an innings defeat.Make no mistake: this is a dauntingly strong India side. They had lost just one of their previous 35 home Tests and they had won 12 of those – including the last four – by an innings. They had just beaten Australia in Australia and they are arguably still favourites for this series.But England have now won six away Tests in a row – and six away Tests in Asia, too – and are unbeaten in 11 under Root (defeat against West Indies came when Stokes was captain). This was a result that brings Root level with Michael Vaughan as the captain with the most victories in England’s Test history. His reputation – his team’s reputation – will be defined by what happens in the rest of this long, tough year. But it’s possible – just possible – that Root will be remembered as one of England’s best captains.Joe Root led from the front again•BCCIVictory here was all the more impressive as it was achieved despite the unravelling of Dom Bess in the second innings. Indeed, as Virat Kohli swatted three successive full tosses to the boundary – some of them hideous, chest-high full tosses at that – memories of Scott Boswell and his yips at Lord’s came to mind. It really was a tough watch. England have a tough decision to make over Bess in the next few days; from a distance, it looks as if he needs some time out of the firing line.That apart, this was a game that provided an almost perfect template for England. It included big first innings runs; it included a batsman converting a good innings into a match-defining one; it included early inroads from the fast bowlers; contributions from the spinners; reverse swing and some outstanding catches. It was as proficient, professional and accomplished an away win as England could hope to achieve.Everyone – including Bess – contributed at one time or another. Dom Sibley, something of an unsung hero, continues to build foundations, Archer continues to add a point of difference and Root, leading from the front, scored 156 more runs than anyone else in the match.It was revealing to hear Root’s tactics questioned so forcibly by such well-known cricketing figures on the fourth day. They didn’t like the pace of England’s batting and they didn’t like his refusal to declare. Some of them still insist they were right despite England winning with half-a-day to spare.But Root is doing things his way. And while his soft voice and easy-going personality might not fit the stereotype of what some feel captains are meant to look like, there is no doubt he has the fulsome support of his side and is coaxing out of them a succession of outstanding performances. It was encouraging, too, to hear him call on his team for improvement ahead of the second Test. No one is under any delusions about the magnitude of the challenge that still awaits.But maybe it’s Leach that most accurately embodies this side. And maybe, in parks and yards around England, kids will be trying to emulate his skills over the next few days. He really does have an inspirational story. You underestimate him, or this England side, at your peril.

Rangers players and staff were informed that a new manager had been chosen over the weekend, with Heart & Hand sharing insight into the message given by the club.

Rohl chosen as new Rangers manager

It has taken the Gers some time to bring in their next manager, with both Steven Gerrard and Kevin Muscat deciding against taking the job, in two blows for the Scottish Premiership side.

It is Danny Rohl who will be Russell Martin’s successor at Ibrox, with the 36-year-old most recently in charge of Sheffield Wednesday, producing a miracle escape act with them in the Championship in 2023/24, before steadying the ship further last season.

The German is an exciting young manager with fresh ideas and a ball-playing approach, and while the Rangers job has become something of a poisoned chalice, supporters will be desperately hoping Rohl is the right man to take the club into the future.

Rangers players were told about new manager on Sunday

According to Heart & Hand Podcast, Rangers’ players were told that a new manager had been picked on Sunday evening, prior to Rohl being revealed as the man to take charge, so it seems the club’s leadership had already been closing in on the deal over the weekend, with just the finer points left to iron out on Monday.

Any Gers fans is likely going to feel trepidation about who the club appoint, considering the reigns of both Philippe Clement and Martin have been unsuccessful.

To some, a more experienced head than Rohl was needed – Sean Dyche had been mentioned, but he is becoming Nottingham Forest’s next boss instead – but to others, the German is a young coach with a huge amount to offer, having learned from Hansi Flick at Bayern Munich.

Rangers supporters should be buoyed by what Barry Bannan said about him recently, having thrived alongside one another at Wednesday.

“If he’s appointed, I definitely think he’ll go in there and get results right away. For me, he’s up gather with the very best I’ve worked with during my career. I know Glasgow can be a difficult environment because of the expectation at the Old Firm. But I would expect him to really hit the ground running because he’s the type of man people respond to.”

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Hopefully, this is the moment that Rangers change for the better, following a dreadful start to the season, but Rohl has a massive job on his hands, not least clawing back 13 and eight points on Hearts and Celtic, respectively, at the top of the table, and impressing in Europe.

Their win at The Oval is a reminder that conversations about saving the game can begin with recognition that there is a great world out there

Andrew Fidel Fernando09-Sep-2024If Test cricket is constantly on the therapist’s couch trying to work through its never-ending existential crises, Sri Lanka are the 11 trishaws outside, incensed that Test cricket’s SUV is blocking half the lane, honking up a storm.This, at least, tends to be the Sri Lanka men’s Test side’s vision of itself, forever outsiders, forever straining against bigger powers than they could ever meaningfully have sway over.They are often justified in feeling this way. Their schedule is largely dictated by when other teams would like to play them. They would like more Test cricket but their board has genuine trouble organising a busy schedule for them. (Their own board doesn’t merely schedule the profitable tours, by the way; Sri Lanka have hosted both Afghanistan and Ireland for Tests in the last 18 months.)Related

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But this is an island of 22 million whose economy has crashed since 2021, and as such has limited financial clout, as far as brodcasters are concerned. It is also a team that fans in the biggest cricket economies – England, Australia, India – do not necessarily believe are particularly serious rivals.And so every big tour becomes a de-facto referendum on their invite-ability. Are they up to adapting to these conditions? If they won’t beat an imperious England, can they at least sufficiently resist them? Will they compete? For the first time ever, Sri Lanka were in England for the fancy part of the English summer – their August/September fixtures. For the first time in almost six years, they were playing a three-Test series.There is the pressure you feel when you go out to bat and the ball is hooping, and the slips are licking their lips. Then there is this pressure: don’t let your team down here, because if you do, no team from Sri Lanka may ever get the chance again.Sri Lanka lost day one at The Oval, their bowlers fruitless in many spells, England easing to 221 for 3 in 44.1 overs by stumps. They closed down England’s innings quickly early on day two, but still were themselves 93 for 5 in response to England’s 325, in serious danger of crashing to a 3-0 defeat.And yet there Sri Lanka are, on so many of these fighting-for-their-lives tours, finding startling comebacks, discovering bright new gems, raging against the mere idea that there should be a dying of the light. On day three, their seam-bowling demolition of England was so spectacular, and so conseqential to the outcome, it gains immediate entry to the highest halls of the nation’s Test-cricket lore. Pathum Nissanka’s ice-cold 127 off 124, bears comparison to some of the greatest Sri Lanka innings in England – particularly those played by Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva in that 1998 Test at the same venue.Asitha Fernando finished as the top wicket-taker of the series•Getty ImagesAnd do Tests really want to sideline, or shunt into a second tier, the likes of Asitha Fernando, who would never get called up to a Test side merely on the basis of his height and his pace – as Josh Hull sort of has for England – and yet has blasted out 17 batters to sit atop the wicket-takers list in an away series?Can it really do without the likes of Kamindu Mendis, who has struck two fiftes and a hundred across five innings in his first series in England, averaging 53.40 and striking at almost 63?How about Nissanka, who began his international career as Sri Lanka’s premiere first-class batting talent, before taking a long detour through white-ball formats to return to Tests as a fearless, and dynamic opener?There is only so much a single Sri Lanka victory can achieve. But with luck, this will be some reminder that what is good about Test cricket isn’t only a conversation about scoring at more than four runs an over. It’s not just about reverse-sweeps, reversing pressure, scooping over the shoulder, bludgeoning the bouncers, never letting the bowlers settle.Perhaps it is a reminder that conversations about saving Test cricket can begin with recognition that there is a great world out there, in which teams concoct all sorts of mad new narratives. That there is a world beyond The Ashes, or the Border-Gavaskar, or England vs India series, that is full of life and vibrance that is worth taking more seriously than cricket currently seems to be.

They’re like oil and water, they’re the top two teams on the WTC table, and their meetings usually fill both ends of the newspaper. What more can you ask for?

Firdose Moonda13-Dec-20224:29

Elgar: T20 World Cup is water under the bridge

In the home corner, in the off-white with yellow trim, with the leading two batters and top-ranked bowler in the long format, the World Test Championship table-toppers Australia, await their next bout.In the away corner, with pristine white shirts and no team sponsor, with only one superstar in their squad whose shine has dimmed somewhat, are second-placed South Africa, tiptoeing into the ring.Related

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The three-Test series has all the makings of a heavyweight fight, with the trash-talk to match. Words like “cowards” and “confrontation” have been used before any mention of cricket and there’ll be as many sports fans’ eyes scanning the front pages as the back ones from December 17. Meetings between these two teams, especially over the last decade, have usually been worth writing about on both ends of the newspaper.This is their first meeting in Test cricket since the biggest of their scandals: Sandpapergate in 2018. In Australia, it was an event that shook the game to its core as characters were scrutinised and sanctioned and a culture shift propagated. South Africans have never really understood any of this. Why would they?Prior to Sandpapergate, South African players had been caught tampering three times in as many years, Faf du Plessis twice (in 2013 and 2016, the latter as captain) and Vernon Philander in 2014, and were defended, not punished, by their board. In du Plessis’ cases, CSA mounted the everybody-does-it-defence strongly; in Philander’s, they threatened the broadcaster not to air footage of him gouging the ball with his thumbnail. It was shown anyway and Philander was fined 75% of his match fee but there was no contrition from South Africa. To see the Australians launch an investigation, to hear their prime minister speak on the matter and to discover the sentences handed out to the guilty was bemusing for South Africans. There are actual criminals in this country that get off lighter.Steven Smith will face South Africa in a Test match for the first time since the events of Newlands 2018•Gallo Images/Getty ImagesNow, four years and a global pandemic later, to find Australians still talking – no, handwringing – about Sandpapergate and how it will affect the mood ahead of this series has left South Africa, as Rassie van der Dussen put it, “amazed”. It returned to the forefront in recent days with David Warner’s shock statement about withdrawing his appeal against his leadership ban.When pressed, Test captain Dean Elgar and interim coach Malibongwe Maketa have called Sandpapergate “unfortunate”, but listen to the tone and the totality of their answers and what they’re really saying is that it’s just not such a big deal to South Africans. A bit like the debates over run-outs at the non-striker’s end, it’s a cultural difference.That may seem surprising because, on the face of it, Australians and South Africans would appear to be quite similar. They’re both from sunny, outdoorsy places with the best beaches the world has to offer, and they both regard the ceremony of cooking meat over open coals (the Aussies say barbecue, the Saffers say braai) as a social occasion. Their cricket teams are built on big, bad fast bowlers and a crew of steady batters, with the occasional sensational one. They are the teams that made fielding as much a discipline of the game as batting and bowling and put emphasis on fitness before others did. But, like oil and water, though South Africa and Australia’s cricket teams have obvious similarities in structure and consistency, there’s some things about them that just don’t mix.Australia have always had more bite and bark than South Africa. They are the inventors and masters of the sledge. Over the years, South Africa have tried to match them but until they started beating Australia, their words had little effect. And then in 2018, they had maximum effect, but we’ve already covered that ground. Similarly, South Africa have attempted to match Australia’s body language, and again, in 2018 it went too far.Kagiso Rabada’s shoulder brush against Steven Smith in Gqeberha earned him sufficient demerit points to result in a ban, although he was able to get it overturned on appeal. Rabada has since acknowledged “some sort of feud between South Africa and Australia”, but also prefers to view this series as an opportunity to “just focus on cricket.”In essence, that sums up South Africa. Despite Elgar all but baiting Australia to bring the fight to them, they actually prefer to keep the cricket on the field, often tunnel-visioning themselves as sportspeople only and it’s as much as a strength as it is a shortcoming. Unlike Australia, whose captain Pat Cummins was vocal in his opposition to an energy company sponsoring the team because their business is in conflict with his climate consciousness, South Africa have yet to utter a word against their own power regulator, who have plunged the country into a record year of rolling blackouts. Cricket is only inconvenienced in a very minor way – with the occasional domestic day-night match being rescheduled as a day game – and cricketers are among the privileged classes who can secure a back-up system but it is precisely that kind of silence that can make the team appear disconnected from the people they play for. And that was never more evident than when the team tried to confront racism.Dean Elgar has promised plenty of chitchat with Marnus Labuschagne in Afrikaans•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesIt was against Australia at the 2021 World Cup that South Africa’s disjointed approach towards showing support for anti-racism was at its starkest. While the entire Australia team took a knee, only some South Africans did as others raised a fist and the rest stood to attention. Cricket South Africa’s board was understood to be angered by this image and went on to issue a directive compelling the team to collectively take a knee for the rest of the summer. Initially, Quinton de Kock refused and sat out the next match but then apologised and joined his team-mates in making the gesture, only to retire from Test cricket less than three months later.There’s some irony in all this because Australia is a place where South African cricketers have reported being racially abused, and a place that became a popular immigration destination for mostly white South Africans as Apartheid was being dismantled. Australia are also a step ahead when it comes to recognising indigenous rights. Australia’s players stand in a barefoot circle before all home matches, in acknowledgment of the indigenous land which they occupy. In South Africa, discussions around the recognition of the Khoi and San people (the First Nations’ people of the geographic areas of the Western and Northern Cape) remain in their infancy.All that may sound like too much intellectualising, but take it as a palate-cleanser before what we could see plenty of over the next few weeks: emotion. This series is going to be full of it. Recent history means it’s unavoidable and the current context makes it inevitable. On paper, this is Test cricket’s closest rivalry – No.1 plays No.2 in a championship race – and even though in reality, the Ashes and series involving India could be considered bigger for both sides, the context to this series means it will be the headline act of the summer.One of the most anticipated match-ups will be between Elgar, who is also South Africa’s most experienced player, and his opposite number Cummins, who is recovering from a quadriceps injury. Of South Africa’s batters, only Elgar and his deputy Temba Bavuma have played Test cricket in Australia before. Many eyes will be on Bavuma, who endured a torrid T20 World Cup and has yet to add a three-figure score to the Test century he celebrated at Newlands in 2016 but has been South Africa’s best long-format batter in the last two years. The only other batter to have played against Australia is Theunis de Bruyn, who featured in two of the four Tests in 2018, and is not guaranteed to start this series.Contrastingly, the only batter of Australia’s top four who has not played against South Africa is South African: Marnus Labuschagne, and he is also the top-ranked batter in the format at the moment. Labuschagne has played against South Africa in ODIs and gone from the lows of a first-ball duck to the highs of a first international 50-overs hundred. He knows what it feels like to play against people he could have been playing with, but that doesn’t make it any less of a talking point. Elgar even expects some of it could be done in Labuschagne’s mother tongue. “My last encounter with him was in a county game, and he spoke Afrikaans to me,” Elgar said.Labuschagne against Rabada and Anrich Nortje is the kind of story that could define the series. And there will be others. Smith and Warner’s comeback against the team who witnessed their lowest moment nearly five years ago is a must-watch; the contest between Cameron Green and Marco Jansen is as much about height as allrounder ability; and whether the spinners on either side, Nathan Lyon and Keshav Maharaj, will have a say is an interesting subplot. Whatever you’re doing this festive season, this series must be on your to-do list.

ESPNcricinfo’s staff picked their Test, ODI, T20 and women’s T20I teams of the year. Do they resemble yours?

Matt Roller30-Dec-2020Even including the three Boxing Day fixtures, there have been fewer men’s Test matches played in 2020 than in any year since 1991, and the same is true of men’s ODIs. Even still, that hasn’t stopped ESPNcricinfo’s staff from completing an annual ritual: testing our ability as selectors and picking our teams of the year. Don’t forget to let us know where we’ve got it wrong.Girish TS/ESPNcricinfo LtdOnly four teams played more than three men’s Tests in 2020 before our Christmas cut-off date, so it is no surprise that their players dominate the team of the year. England lead the way with four players included, and three New Zealanders, two Pakistanis, a West Indian and an Australian join them.
Dom Sibley is an automatic selection, having scored more than twice as many runs as any other opener in the year, while Shan Masood joins him at the top thanks to hundreds at home against Bangladesh and away in England. Kane Williamson slots in behind them, following his masterful 251 against West Indies, while Babar Azam and Ben Stokes, who had prolific years, are in at No. 4 and 5. Zak Crawley, whose 267 against Pakistan was the biggest innings of the year, is a notable omission.Jos Buttler’s place in the England side was under immense scrutiny back in January, but he put doubts over his Test credentials to bed with a superb series with the bat against Pakistan. He also led the way for most dismissals behind the stumps, helping him earn selection ahead of Quinton de Kock in this side. Jermaine Blackwood would have seemed an unlikely candidate for this XI at the start of the year but he earned a West Indies recall thanks to four-day runs for Jamaica, and played two of the most entertaining innings of the year: a match-winning 95 in England, and a counter-punching 104 in New Zealand.The three front-line seamers were easy picks, all averaging around 15: Stuart Broad passed the 500-wicket mark in Tests, dominating the English summer after being left out at its start, while Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson tore India and Pakistan to shreds. In a year dominated by seamers, Nathan Lyon takes the spinner’s berth despite only playing two Tests.Girish TS/ESPNcricinfo LtdAfter losing series to India and South Africa at the start of the year, Australia have been dominant in post-lockdown ODIs, winning both in England and at home against India. As a result, their players make up the majority of this team, with Aaron Finch and David Warner in as openers.It speaks volumes about Virat Kohli’s lofty standards that even in a year in which he has seemed to underachieve, he still managed five half-centuries in nine ODI innings and averaged a shade under 50 to slide in at No. 3 in this side, while Steven Smith and KL Rahul were both popular selections in the middle order. Glenn Maxwell brings his power-hitting to the No. 6 role, with a strike rate of 145.26 and an average above 70 in 2020, while Ravindra Jadeja slides in at No. 7 to balance the XI.Adam Zampa is the leggie to complement Jadeja and Maxwell’s fingerspin, leading the wicket charts for the calendar year with 27, and he is joined by his two closest competitors on that front in Alzarri Joseph and Josh Hazlewood. Jofra Archer played only three ODIs, but terrorised Warner sufficiently to earn a place in this side.Several players’ cases would have been stronger if the pandemic had allowed them to play more games, with South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen, Bangladesh’s Liton Das and Oman’s Aqib Ilyas all impressing with the bat in their limited number of games.Girish TS/ESPNcricinfo LtdWhile there was a Covid-induced pause in the otherwise relentless calendar of T20 tournaments, almost all major leagues were held at some stage in the year, meaning this XI did not suffer from a small sample size to the same extent as the others.Look away now, Pakistan fans: there is no place for Babar Azam in our side. He was beaten to the opening slots by only a couple of votes. In his place, de Kock takes the gloves after a stellar year for both South Africa and the Mumbai Indians, while Buttler made up for his hit-and-miss IPL with some belligerent innings at the top of the England batting order.Rahul’s orange-cap-winning IPL and consistency for India pushed him ahead of Mohammad Hafeez for the No. 3 slot, while AB de Villiers, Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard’s middle-order fireworks form the side’s engine room, from No. 4-6.Shadab Khan’s breakthrough year with the bat combined with his wicket-taking threat sees him picked at No. 7, forming a mouth-watering legspinning partnership with Rashid Khan, the year’s standout spinner as usual. Haris Rauf may have been the leading wicket-taker for 2020, but his relatively high economy rate means he misses out to three seamers who form a compelling trio: Shaheen Afridi and Archer take the new ball, with Jasprit Bumrah doing the heavy lifting at the death.Andre Russell, Mushfiqur Rahim, Marcus Stoinis and Dawid Malan are among the honourable mentions with the bat, while Sandeep Lamichhane, Samit Patel and Kagiso Rabada had successful years with the ball.Girish TS/ESPNcricinfo LtdWith a T20 World Cup at the start of the year and most nations frustrated by a lack of playing opportunities since, performances in that tournament, unsurprisingly, carry plenty of weight among these selections. Six Australians from their World Cup-winning side make it to this team, with three of them – Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney and Meg Lanning – forming the top of our batting order.Sophie Devine averaged 54.66 and scored 492 runs in the year – comfortably twice as many as any of her New Zealand team-mates – but she moves into the middle order thanks to the quality of Australia’s top three. Heather Knight, a transformed T20 batter in recent times, slots in at No. 5, following her best year in the format by a huge margin, and the middle-order batting is rounded off by Ashleigh Gardner, who edged out Nat Sciver by a single vote.With the ball, Katherine Brunt and Megan Schutt form an enticing new-ball partnership after leading the wicket-taking charts among seamers for the year, while Sophie Ecclestone and Jess Jonassen with 19 wickets apiece, are both picked as left-arm spinners. Poonam Yadav’s beguiling start to the T20 World Cup – and her four-wicket haul against Australia – earned her inclusion as the main legspinner.Fellow leggies Sarah Glenn and Amelia Kerr are both unfortunate to miss out, after finishing the year with 18 and 14 wickets respectively and economy rates below 5.5. Despite India’s run to the final, Yadav is their only representative in the XI, with Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma both overlooked.More in our look back at 2020

No bowler before Jasprit Bumrah has got to 200 wickets with an average of less than 20

Shubh Agarwal29-Dec-2024For a bowler whose Test career is laden with breathtaking dismissals, Jasprit Bumrah’s 200th wicket was relatively tame – Travis Head flicking straight to midwicket. Bumrah, however, got to the landmark with incredible numbers, reiterating his status as one of the greatest bowlers.Of the 85 bowlers to have taken 200-plus Test wickets, 12 got there in fewer games than Bumrah, who was playing his 44th Test at the MCG.