Surrey quick’s stock is rising fast, and England are already watching his progress closely

Cameron Ponsonby06-Jul-2023Gus Atkinson’s stock is rising. Fast. He started the season outside the Surrey team, but three outstanding County Championship performances were all that was needed to propel him to being a whisker away from the Ireland Test squad, and only a handful of slips on the golf course from an Ashes debut.Atkinson’s rise is testament to England’s new mantra that how does, in fact, matter as much as how many. At 25 years old, Atkinson has played just 13 first-class matches and only recently become first-choice for his county, but in a running theme, people don’t need to see much of him to decide they’re a fan.A smooth run-up, a quick action and an even quicker short ball combine to make a player who is fast enough as it is and yet is legally obliged to be introduced by any commentator on radio or television as: “Gus Atkinson, right-arm-seamer, who’s just that bit faster than you think.” Comparisons to Jofra Archer, made at first by friends in jest, are now said with a straight face by those who actually know what they’re talking about: “Quite a few people have said that to me,” Atkinson smiles when asked. “A lot, actually.”His list of admirers extends from the revered old school of Michael Atherton, to the new-age number crunchers including England’s recently appointed white-ball analyst Freddie Wilde, who signed him twice in the last year, first for Oval Invincibles and then for Desert Vipers in the ILT20, before he joined the ECB. Over the winter, Atkinson also got deals to play in the Abu Dhabi T10 and was signed by Islamabad United in the PSL. And now he’s spearheading Surrey’s push for a place in the Vitality Blast Finals Day. With friends like these, who needs an IPL deal?It would be wrong, however, to say that Atkinson has come from nowhere. Surrey have been excited about the player ever since he returned to training as a slender 14-year-old and started hitting the coach’s mitt in bowling warm-ups far harder than the biology of his slight frame should have allowed.

I watched a video of myself bowling in 2020 or 2021 and I couldn’t believe it. I was like, oh my god, is that me? I was running in really slowly, it almost looked like I wasn’t trying.

In the same age-group as Ollie Pope, Sam Curran, Ryan Patel, Amar Virdi and Will Jacks, Atkinson for a while threatened to be the black sheep of this mystical, magical cohort. From signing as a professional in 2017, he watched on as all of his contemporaries debuted for Surrey by the end of 2018 – and in the case of Curran and Pope, for England – all while he sat on the sidelines nursing the unwanted fast-bowler threepeat of suffering a stress fracture in each of 2017, 2018 and 2019. It wasn’t until 2020, almost three years after putting pen to paper, that he would finally make his professional debut, but in 2022 the intangible qualities that Surrey had long seen in him started to turn into tangible results.”I wouldn’t say it was hard,” Atkinson reflects about watching his contemporaries move ahead of him. “Because they earned that and performed well. But I was always sort of thinking, ‘ach’, I was not where I wanted to be and I just felt like my career’s not flourishing. And obviously, you’re still young, but you do think that your career doesn’t last forever.”Fears over contract renewals were natural, but from Surrey’s end, the risk of letting Atkinson go far outweighed the cost of keeping him. There was a serious player in there, with the likes of Vikram Solanki, at the time the 2nd XI coach, being a vocal supporter and the instigator of a net that changed the trajectory of his career.”Two or three years ago, I had a bowl at LSE [London School of Economics] New Malden. Just me and Jordan Clark went down with Vikram Solanki and Vik was like, ‘run in and bowl as quick as you can’ and something just sort of clicked.”My run-up didn’t feel as good and we just sort of lengthened it out a bit and when I did that, it was like, pfff, it’s coming out well…let’s go for it.”Atkinson’s first-class career has taken a while to take off, but he’s getting noticed now•Getty ImagesCut to 2022 and the private school Bieber mop was gone, and in came a skin-fade, a beard and a pair of biceps. The result was a summer where Atkinson no doubt turned as many heads in Cafe Sol as he did in the ECB offices. He may have only played four Championship games and six Vitality Blast matches, but it was enough.”I watched a video of myself bowling in 2020 or 2021 and I couldn’t believe it. I was like, oh my god, is that me? I was running in really slowly, it almost looked like I wasn’t trying. And that obviously wasn’t the case, but I think I was holding myself back because of maybe a fear of injury or a fear of not performing.”In my head, before, I wasn’t not trying, I just didn’t really know how much I could.”At this point it is probably best to admit a personal bias here. Hailing from the same club and two years apart in age, Atkinson and I have known each other for roughly a decade. Near enough the last match we played together was when a 19-year-old me tricked a 17-year-old Gus into playing for the 3rd XI by not revealing the team in question until after he’d got the green light from his mum, Caroline, that he was available. Opening the batting, Gus scored zero runs. And opening the bowling, he took zero wickets. The match was later abandoned after one of our fielders hit his head on the ground whilst dropping a catch and an ambulance had to be called. Gus did not play for us again.Around that same time, I was coaching at the Stewart Cricket Centre, an academy run by Alec Stewart’s brother, Neil, where you-name-him-and-he’s-been-there has passed through. I asked Neil who the one player was, who he’d been sure would make it as a professional, but hadn’t, and his answer was Atkinson. Not because at that point Surrey were planning to release him, but simply because they never saw him. With his mum in London and dad overseas, summers were spent between the two, with cricket not necessarily left behind, but harder to be front and centre.”It’s the same for me!” Atkinson laughs when trying to make sense of the black hole in his cricket timeline that occurred from 16 to 19 years old.Related

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“I played [at Surrey] since Under-11s but I was never one of the main guys because there were other lads who were better than me.”I always wanted to do cricket, but I don’t reckon I actually believed I could until after school and I went to Adelaide and did well.”The story goes that after duffing his A-Levels – “To be honest, I was never… school,” Atkinson grimaces in an incomplete sentence that millions would relate to – it was his mum who kept the Surrey wheels turning.”I think she sort of did that behind my back,” Atkinsons says. “Mum would email… just trying to keep me in the loop as much as possible, because I wasn’t ever really on the Academy. Like I would play Academy games and I would train every now and again, but I was never signed.”Through Caroline, Surrey stayed in contact and it was pre-season 2017 when Alec Stewart had a look and liked what he saw – “So I stuck around, played, and got a contract that summer.”Caroline would see Gus make his long-awaited debut for Surrey three years later, when he dismissed former England captain Alastair Cook, but was tragically killed in a car crash later that same year.”It’s obviously difficult,” Gus explains. “My sister started a Master’s a few weeks after it happened and she did that. My brother’s also started at university. We’ve just sort of, just carried on our lives really, there’s not really too much you can do apart from that.”I went into training three, four days after because I needed to get out of the house. I just needed to get away and escape.”As a player, Atkinson has a huge amount of goodwill surrounding him. And as a person, so does Gus. Introductions to people with the reference that “I know Gus Atkinson a bit” bring a smile, and depending on the company, a follow-up comment that “he’s a serious bowler.””You know,” Gus ponders on the England talk now following him. “Probably if you asked me six months ago, I would have said my goal is to just play cricket for England. And now, I probably go, ‘I would like to play for England in the next year’.”So, yeah,” he finishes with a smile. “I guess it is a big change.”

Also: what’s the highest Test score to include a duck, and the lowest without one?

Steven Lynch26-Mar-2019I saw that Suresh Raina became the first to score 5000 runs in the IPL. Is this the most for any T20 competition worldwide? asked Ashok Mithunali from India
Suresh Raina nipped past the 5000 mark in Chennai Super Kings’ first match of the new IPL season when he reached 15 of his eventual 19 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai on Saturday. Barring accidents, Virat Kohli will be next to the landmark: after that Chennai match, he was just 46 short of 5000. Next come Rohit Sharma (4498) and Gautam Gambhir (4217). The leading non-Indian, in seventh place with 4099 as I write, is David Warner.Helped by the fact that the IPL teams play so many matches, Raina’s haul is the most for any senior T20 tournament. Next comes the English Twenty20 Cup, in its various guises: Kent’s Joe Denly leads the way here with 3927 runs since his debut in 2004; he is ahead of Luke Wright (3699), Riki Wessels (3495) and Samit Patel (3465). The top scorer in the Caribbean Premier League is Chris Gayle, with 2111, while Michael Klinger tops the charts in the Australian Big Bash with 1947 runs, two more than Chris Lynn. The leader in the Bangladesh Premier League is Tamim Iqbal, with 1825.Was Isuru Udana’s score the other day the highest by a No. 8 in a T20I? asked Savo Ceprnich from South Africa
Isuru Udana’s blistering unbeaten 84 – from 54 balls – for Sri Lanka against South Africa in Centurion last week was easily the highest by a No. 8 in a T20 international. There had been only two previous half-centuries: Simi Singh made 57 not out for Ireland against Netherlands in Rotterdam last June, while Kenya’s Rageb Aga hit 52 not out against Scotland in Dubai in November 2013.I noticed that Ireland’s team for their second Test showed five changes from their maiden one. Was this a record? asked David O’Connor from Ireland
Ireland’s side for their second Test match – against Afghanistan in Dehradun earlier this month – did indeed show five changes from the team for their inaugural Test, against Pakistan at Malahide last May. Part of the reason for this was that Ed Joyce and Niall O’Brien have retired, but the other changes were largely tactical.The only other team to make five changes between their first and second Tests were India, in matches against England at Lord’s in 1932 and in Mumbai in 1933-34. England, in Australia in 1876-77, are the only team to go into their second Test with exactly the same team as in the first.England’s total of 903 at The Oval in 1938 included Len Hutton’s 364, but also Eddie Paynter’s four-ball duck and Denis Compton’s 1•Getty ImagesWhat’s the highest Test total that included at least one duck in an innings? And conversely what’s the lowest score without one? asked Sukrit Jaiswal from Singapore
The highest Test score that included a duck is England’s 903 for 7 declared against Australia at The Oval in 1938. Len Hutton grabbed the headlines with 364 – but Eddie Paynter bagged a four-ball duck, and Denis Compton didn’t do much better, being out for 1. England’s total remained the Test record until 1997, when Sri Lanka piled up 952 for 6 against India in Colombo in 1997.The lowest total without a duck is Australia’s 75 against South Africa in Durban in 1949-50. No one was out for 0, but six men made 2 (including a not out) and Colin McCool managed only a single. Remarkably, Australia won that match despite a first-innings deficit of 236, reaching their target with five wickets to spare, thanks mainly to a magnificent unbeaten 151 from Neil Harvey.Is Ramnaresh Sarwan the only batsman to have made unbeaten scores of 99 and 98 in ODIs? asked Davo Kissoondari from Guyana
The short answer is yes, Guyana’s Ramnaresh Sarwan is the only player to have suffered this particular fate in one-day internationals. He made 99 not out for West Indies against India in Ahmedabad in 2002-03, and an unbeaten 98, also against India, in Kingston in May 2006. If we include dismissals, the leader in the oh-so-close stakes is Sachin Tendulkar, who was out for 99 three times and 98 once. Sanath Jayasuriya made two 99s and a 98. Michael Clarke (99 not out and 98), Adam Gilchrist (99 and 98), Matthew Hayden (99 and 98), Dean Jones (99 not out and 98), Mushfiqur Rahim (99 and 98) and Marlon Samuels (two 98s) all had two near-misses.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Once again, England have slipped behind after the first Test in Australia. The recent omens aren’t great

Andrew Miller13-Dec-2021England have not won a Test match in Australia for 11 years and counting, in which time they have lost ten and drawn one across three separate series. As the attention shifts to the second Test at Adelaide, here’s a run-down on a decade of defeat … ranked in order from the moderately competitive, to the downright hideous10. Second Test, Adelaide 2017-18
Lost by 120 runs Two pink-ball Tests in this Ashes series could in theory play to England’s advantage, but aside from speculating about the cooler evening conditions and the sense that swing is good for England and bad for Australia, all there is to go on is a solitary precedent on the 2017-18 tour. And seeing as England’s 120-run defeat in that match is their narrowest loss in Australia this decade, then they might as well consider it a floodlit life-raft. More pertinently, the match featured a James Anderson masterclass in the second innings – his 5 for 43 routed Australia for 138 and briefly aroused hopes of a miracle, much as his impending recall is likely to do now. Mitchell Starc, however, is still around to ensure it won’t be forthcoming.9. First Test, Brisbane 2017-18
Lost by 10 wickets England still wonder how this one got away, let alone with such a gory final margin. From first day to last, Australia absorbed England’s energies as if it was fuel to their own internal fires – most extraordinarily Steve Smith, whose magnificent 141 not out from 326 balls included a passage of play so glacial that he added just 17 runs on the third morning. With Pat Cummins alongside him, he turned what looked like being a 100-plus deficit into a lead of 26, and so drained England’s bowlers in the process that David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were able to knock off an eventual target of 173 with contempt. The first day, meanwhile, had been lit up by the most sumptuous 83 of James Vince’s life. Had he not been run out in full flow by Nathan Lyon’s direct hit, who knows where this one would have ended up. (With an Australian victory, probably…)Ben Stokes made his maiden Test century at Perth in 2013-14•Getty Images8. Third Test, Perth 2013-14
Lost by 150 runs Sometimes all you can ask is for someone to put up a fight. That, frankly, is all that England got to take home from the 2013-14 Ashes – the cast-iron proof that, in Ben Stokes, they possessed a gem of a Test cricketer, even if it would take a few months of false starts and punched lockers for his raw ability to be fully harnessed. Elsewhere on a WACA flyer, Australia’s dominance was unequivocal – James Anderson was ransacked for 28 runs in an over by George Bailey, after centuries from Warner and Shane Watson had broken all resistance, then Alastair Cook was bowled by Ryan Harris’s ball of the century for a first-ball duck. But Stokes fronted up in pursuit of an impossible 504 target, driving with a clean straight blade and leathering the short ball with fearless resolve. The battle was lost but the respect was won.7. Fourth Test, Melbourne 2013-14
Lost by eight wickets The Ashes were gone, and Kevin Pietersen was weeks away from banishment too – the Melbourne Test of 2013 was the scene of the infamous team meeting at which his fate as an England cricketer would be sealed. But before all that blew up, KP’s twin scores of 71 and 49 gave England just something to work with, as Mitchell Johnson ripped another gale through a shellshocked batting line-up. Their first-innings 255 seemed typically insufficient, until Anderson and Tim Bresnan – in an echo of the efforts that had routed Australia for 98 in the previous Boxing Day Test – combined with Stuart Broad to seal a handy lead of 51. Nathan Lyon, however, popped up with five second-innings wickets to limit the target to 231 and make it clear that his fellow offspinner Graeme Swann, who had retired mid-series with an elbow problem, was likely to be a significant absentee. Sure enough, a Chris Rogers century and 83 for Watson rushed Australia to a 4-0 lead.Mitchell Johnson was startlingly rapid during the 2013-14 Ashes•Getty Images6. First Test, Brisbane 2013-14
Lost by 381 runs Ah, the innocence of Brisbane 2013 … when England arrived in Australia with designs on a fourth Ashes victory in a row, only months after securing a misleadingly absolute 3-0 win at home. The build-up was dominated by a media vendetta against Broad, who took a rolled-up copy of the Courier Mail into his first-day press conference after starring for England with five wickets. Heady days … and then, mayhem. Johnson, so often a figure of fun, bowled like a banshee for match figures of 9 for 103; Warner and Michael Clarke piled on second-innings hundreds to confirm the gulf between the sides. Soon after the rout, Jonathan Trott quit the tour citing burnout, the first fatal crack in the disintegration of a world-beating Test team. Objectively it deserves to be lower in this list, but England were genuinely caught cold.5. First Test, Brisbane 2021-22
Lost by nine wickets In terms of wickets, this was England’s least-worst defeat at the Gabba for 35 years, which isn’t saying much. The series build-up was extraordinary – a combination of Covid and rain kyboshing both teams’ preparations, but Australia’s residual faith in their home conditions shone through as England faltered fatefully in the contest’s clutch moments. They were 11 for 3 inside six overs after winning the toss, then lost 8 for 74 on a miserable fourth morning, just when it seemed that Joe Root and Dawid Malan had set the stage for a fightback. A first-innings deficit of 278 was too much to overcome, however, as Warner rode his luck for 94, before Travis Head slaughtered a tiring attack for a 148-ball 152.That lonely feeling: James Anderson wanders off as Australia seal the Ashes at Perth in 2017-18•Getty Images4. Third Test, Perth 2017-18
Lost by an innings and 41 runs England’s record in Perth, with one win in 14 visits and eight consecutive losses since 1990-91, is about as abject as their recent run across the whole of Australia, so it’s potentially a relief not to have to venture out west on this latest tour. That said, on their last trip four years ago, the now-defunct WACA ground was the scene of perhaps England’s most dominant position of the whole tour, as Malan and Jonny Bairstow racked up a fifth-wicket stand of 237 to give the impression that the series was still alive. It didn’t last long. England’s last six wickets tumbled for 35 runs for a total of 403, and the inadequacy of their efforts were confirmed as Smith alone surpassed that partnership with a career-best 239. Mitchell Marsh, a WACA homeboy, also climbed into a toiling attack with a Test-best of 181 as Australia declared on 662 for 9. Josh Hazlewood’s five-for confirmed they wouldn’t need to bat again.Related

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3. Fifth Test, Sydney 2017-18
Lost by an innings and 123 runs The most crushing defeat of the era, and the most evocative one as well, thanks to Root’s exhaustion at the end of his futile attempts to keep pace with Australia’s juggernaut. He missed the post-match presentations after passing out in the dressing-room, his twin fifties in Sydney’s furnace-like heat no match for an Aussie line-up in which both Marsh brothers made centuries and Usman Khawaja top-scored with 171. Mason Crane, the Hampshire legspinner, was clonked for 193 runs in his only appearance to date. Australia’s victory was so clear-cut from so far out, there was time even to erect a provocative victory podium, featuring a four-fingered salute for each of Australia’s wins, and a clenched English fist to confirm, once again, they hadn’t even made it on to the board.Australia celebrate their 4-0 Ashes victory in 2017-18•Getty Images2. Second Test, Adelaide 2013-14
Lost by 218 runs Squelch. Forewarned for England most certainly was not forearmed, as Johnson followed up his Brisbane onslaught with one of the greatest displays of flat-deck fast bowling in Test history. England had been ground into the dirt over the first two days, with centuries apiece from Clarke and Haddin in a massive total of 570 for 9 declared. But Johnson ignited expectations by beating Alastair Cook for sheer pace before the close, then transcended the conditions with irresistible heat on day three. Armed with a 50-over-old ball, he torched England’s middle and lower order with five wickets in the space of 18 balls, including a triple-wicket maiden, en route to innings figures of 7 for 40. England’s second whitewash in three tours had been ordained there and then.1. Fifth Test, Sydney 2013-14
Lost by 281 runs Probably the most dysfunctional performance in England’s history. By the fifth Test in 2013-14, the mighty Test team that had ruled the roost for the previous three years had been ransacked and into the fray came a trio of debutants – two of whom, Scott Borthwick and Boyd Rankin, were so horribly exposed that they would never play another Test for England. The rancorous mood within the squad spilled into every facet of the performance, with the honourable exception of Stokes, whose 6 for 99 in the first innings was followed by a top-score of 47 in England’s first innings. He made 32 from 16 in the second as well, but by then his team-mates were on the plane home. England were rolled aside for 166 in 31.4 overs, nearly a run a ball of slap-happy surrender.Alastair Cook poses with his name up on the wall at the MCG’s Percy Beames Bar•Getty Images

And the one that got away…

Fourth Test, Melbourne 2017-18
Match drawn Cook batted, and batted, and batted, his 244 from 409 balls setting a new highest score by a visiting Test batter at the MCG. Unfortunately no one else in England’s line-up managed more than 61, meaning that the weight of England’s eventual 174-run first-innings lead was insufficient to force any pressure on a soporific drop-in wicket. Smith, inevitably, responded with a hundred, as the match died a death on a tedious fifth day.

Marsh terms his team’s batting “as good as it gets” after Head blazes away followed by hundreds for Warner and Labuschagne

Andrew McGlashan10-Sep-20231:04

Warner: Labuschagne is putting his hand up for World Cup selection

It is hardly revolutionary to see a team blaze away at the start of a one-day innings, but Australia’s mindset in the first two matches against South Africa has given a clear indication of how they will approach the World Cup. And it won’t involve seeing out the new balls.Their gameplan also brought two contrasting outcomes in Bloemfontein. In the opening match their scorecard read a somewhat bizarre 113 for 7 in the 17th over chasing 223 before Marnus Labuschagne, who himself had rattled along to 36 off 20 balls after being subbed into the contest, and Ashton Agar settled into a more conservative tempo to secure victory.It was notable after the first game how stand-in captain Mitchell Marsh, who is leading in place of the injured Pat Cummins, made a point of saying he was pleased with the intent shown even though it left the team in trouble.Two days later, just about everything clicked as David Warner and particularly Travis Head cantered to 102 in the first ten overs. There was some loose stuff served up by South Africa’s attack but sustaining 10 an over was still a notable achievement.Related

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Even when Head, after making 64 off 36, and Marsh fell in consecutive balls there wasn’t really sustained consolidation. Warner and Labuschange added 151 in 20.4 overs, the latter playing as freely as he ever has in ODI colours to leave the selectors plenty to ponder in the next few weeks, and Warner needing just 33 balls for his second fifty. After a sluggish start, Josh Inglis also joined in with a maiden ODI fifty off 36 balls having been 13 off 19 at one stage.”We saw the lack, probably, of intent from South Africa the game before, so for us we had to get on the front foot,” Warner said. “Our goal is always to try to target the first ten. Then from there try to build a partnership outside of the powerplay. We got a couple of probably free shots outside the off stump, especially with Travis, his leg stump is his off stump, he can create that off-side play whenever he feels like it, but our gameplan was to take the first ten on and build from there.”Over the last couple of series, as attention has turned more specifically to the ODI World Cup, Australia’s ten-over powerplays have produced some hefty returns. In the last eight games, their lowest score in that period has been 53 for 2 against England in Sydney; on six occasions they have gone at better than a run a ball and twice have flayed over 100.David Warner needed just 33 balls for his second fifty•AFP/Getty ImagesAside from yesterday in Bloemfontein, the other triple-figure return came in Visakhapatnam when Head and Marsh crunched 112 in ten overs to almost complete a chase inside the powerplay. With such a small target there are fewer consequences should it go wrong, but the success Head and Marsh had together in India briefly raised the question of who should open at the World Cup. When Warner returned for the final game of that series he batted No. 4.But Warner and Head have a formidable record together: after their latest partnership the pair’s average is 100.55 with four century stands. Since returning to the ODI side in 2022, Head has had a phenomenal impact with 736 runs at a strike rate of 117.76. And for all the angst over Warner’s Test performances, his white-ball cricket has never provided the same concern. They will be together for the World Cup.”He [Travis] had a bit of a crack at me from the last game getting out on zero, it killed our partnership average he said,” Warner joked. “We know each other’s game plan very well, we are trying to put the pressure back on the bowlers and today, without swinging conditions, it probably enhanced that a little bit for us to go after them. If there is a bit of swing we’ll have to deal with that.”The desire to embolden the top order to keep playing with freedom is a big reason why Australia are stacking their batting down to at least No. 8, although on Saturday the lower middle order was the only part of the game that did not quite click with Tim David, Alex Carey and Aaron Hardie making 10 off 19 balls between them, but it was the smallest of blemishes.”Thought the way they batted was just outstanding to have 110 [102] off the powerplay, Heady and David Warner were amazing, then for Marnus to bat the way he did just carried it on,” Marsh said. “Thought our intent throughout the whole innings was something that we’ve spoken about and our execution today was as good as it gets with the bat.”It was, in fact, only Marsh who really missed out on the fun. “I’ll probably put the reverse sweep away first ball, I think,” Marsh, who now has five wins from five matches as Australia captain, said.

Promising signs for the future after first glimpse of England’s new quicks

Cameron Ponsonby17-Mar-2022England’s new generation of Saqib Mahmood and Matt Fisher have known each other for years. Playing their junior cricket for rival counties Lancashire and Yorkshire, they encountered each other regularly, with one scorecard from an Under-14 game in 2011 reading Fisher 31 (64) b Mahmood.Eleven years later, they made their debuts together as England players – and almost before they had had time to sample the nerves of their first stint in the field, Fisher was in the thick of the action, with the eventful figures of 0.2-0-4-1.A Test debut at 24 would be a fast rise to the top for most. But Fisher made his professional debut as a 15-year-old in 2013. He’s been playing professional cricket for the last nine years of his life. In that context, his debut switches from being one of a youngster breezing through to the top and instead becomes a long-awaited one.What’s more, that doesn’t speak of the pressure that accompanies a debut at 15. Whether you like it or not, from that moment on you’re anointed as a future England player. And failure to reach that level will result in murmurs of wasted potential and a place in the pub-quiz annals of the Yorkshire Dales. Alongside the joy, pride, nerves and excitement that Fisher must have felt when he was told of his impending Test debut, you can only imagine a fair element of relief was involved as well. “I’ve done it.”When Fisher took his wicket – luring John Campbell in the channel outside off, one ball after being steered through third man for four – he did so with an explosion of joy before a sustained release of emotion as he pointed to the sky in memory of his dad, who died shortly before he made his professional debut nine years ago.Speaking on TalkSPORT 2, Darren Gough mentioned how impressed he’d been with Fisher’s maturity, having spent time together at Yorkshire through Gough’s role as Interim Managing Director. He spoke of Fisher’s clear abilities with the ball but mostly of his abilities as a leader who is able to mix confidence with empathy. Fisher may only be 24, but he’s already a seasoned professional who has been through more than most.”Everyone has something which means something to them,” Ben Stokes said at the close, after making his own gesture to his father following his second-day hundred. “It’s great to see someone like Fish – he’s had a difficult lot of years since his debut at 15 with injuries. To watching a young lad make his debut, bowl well and get his first Test wicket is quite special.”Matt Fisher and Saqib Mahmood made their England Test debuts•Getty ImagesA penny, however, for Mahmood’s thoughts when that wicket fell. Joy mixed with a tinge of envy, perhaps? After all, his debut was the one that had been trumpeted in advance, following the decisions to leave out both Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood. Fisher’s opportunity only arose on the morning of the match, when Craig Overton also pulled out with illness.Mahmood’s debut has hardly been diluted because of starting alongside Fisher but he does lose the intangible benefit of being the newest kid on the block. The two are different bowlers, one new-ball and one old-, but nevertheless, they’ve been dragged into a shootout whereas previously Mahmood’s rival bowler was unarmed and out of the team.Mahmood, however, proved with the excitement that he generated in the ODI series against Pakistan last summer that he’s unlikely to stay in the shadows for long. His action is 50% Brett Lee and 50% Shoaib Akthar, but his beard is 100% Brad Pitt. To watch Mahmood bowl is exciting. A bowler like Glenn McGrath would impress you over time with relentless accuracy, and a steady realisation that this is what elite performance looks like. But with Mahmood it takes just one ball. What is this? And where can I get more?Related

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His first wicket failed to arrive on Thursday evening but it’s surely only a matter of when and not if. Four overs of good pace were delivered in which he conceded just three runs. Mahmood is the fastest bowler in the team, now that Wood is out of action, and though he failed to breach 140kph in his opening gambit, there was at least one occasion when the ball seemed to gather pace through to Ben Foakes behind the stumps, in a way that has not often been seen over the past two days.”He came in and hit the wicket really hard,” Stokes said of Mahmood. “He got a few balls to go off the deck and going through a bit, considering what it was like on day one. I don’t want to eat my words here but I can’t see [the pitch] getting any better. I think the spinner is in the game and the seamers felt in the game the whole way, so it’ll be an exciting day tomorrow.””Seeing two lads get presented their caps, and being lucky enough to present one of them – I gave Saqqy his cap – there’s a lot of great things that can happen and memories that you can create playing international cricket,” Stokes added.”Seeing the excitement on Fisher’s face even when he got his cap, his smile was ear to ear for 15 minutes – and then obviously you could see how excited he was when he got his wicket today. It means a lot for him and a lot of other people – family and friends, everyone that has supported him.”After a somewhat false dawn for England’s new era in Antigua, circumstances have conspired to unleash the “good young bowling talent” that Andrew Strauss, the interim managing director, had referred to before the series began. And to judge by this most fleeting of first glimpses, it looks likely to be a fun one.

With rumours swirling, vultures hovering and the sword of Damocles hanging over him, Babar simply batted, and bat well, he did

Danyal Rasool15-Mar-2022The rumours swirled late into a wretched evening for Pakistan cricket, as they stared at just their third ever defeat at the National Stadium Karachi. The vultures hovered on the morning after, as the sun rose on what were to be the finishing touches of a Test match Babar Azam and his side were being taken apart in. This was Pakistan’s immovable fortress, an oasis of stability in a metropolis of perpetual change. And it was here that Australia were outplaying Pakistan, and it was Babar, the man from that other city, who apparently stood so thoroughly exposed in Karachi.What did he know about captaincy, after all? Wasn’t it the bowlers who had spearheaded Pakistan’s Test series victory over South Africa here last year? Wasn’t it Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi’s sensational form that had lifted Pakistan to the World T20 semi-finals on a tidal wave of exultant emotion?What, indeed, did he know about batting? Wasn’t he the bloke who played that rather sluggish innings in that semi-final that saw Pakistan eliminated? Isn’t it him who last crossed three figures in Test cricket before the world knew what Covid-19 meant? Didn’t he, one purple six-month patch aside, always struggle in Test cricket anyway? Who, after all, was this man at the helm of Pakistan cricket, given the reins to do as he pleased, projected as the face of a rejuvenated side that has such renewed ambitions to sit among the leaders of the food chain in the cricket economy?Related

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There is a naïve savagery to the way Pakistan cricketers are built up and brought down. There are shades of overbearing smugness in the way we think of Babar, primarily informed by the striking disparity between his suave self-assuredness on the field and its complete absence off it. Behind the mic at presentations and press conferences, there’s a coarseness to his delivery, and in this most English of games, his discomfort in that language can sometimes be confused with a lack of sophistication. He never appears quite at ease in TV commercials, which, as the face of Pakistan cricket, he’s asked to do plenty of. The smoothness that seems to come to Virat Kohli by nature, for example, Babar is frantically learning on the job.And so, when things aren’t quite going his way, the stick to beat him can easily be fetched from the lowest common denominator, and its method of deployment will necessarily be particularly savage. At 27, Babar has been entrusted the role of all-format captain in a country where the position comes with a sword of Damocles that doesn’t even hang over the country’s Prime Minister as ominously.It’s not a role he organically grew into over time, instead finding it thrust upon him by circumstance when first Sarfaraz Ahmed, and then Azhar Ali, were dispatched after loss of form with the bat. The departure of the PCB chairman who elevated Babar with a man perhaps not quite as overwhelmingly enthusiastic was an inevitable added stress. For a man never quite accustomed to the camera as he is to the batting crease, the burden to bear is heavy, the support with which to bear it in Pakistan extremely light.The buzz of activity that currently permeates Pakistan’s political ambience felt like it had infected its cricketing atmosphere as Babar walked out at the NSK. Azhar had just fallen in a manner whose farce was a tidy microcosm of the contest, ducking a Cameron Green bouncer that struck him on the gloves which, for some reason, he didn’t review. Babar was walking out to take his place, but would someone be replacing him soon enough?

There is a naïve savagery to the way Pakistan cricketers are built up and brought down. There are shades of overbearing smugness in the way we think of Babar, primarily informed by the striking disparity between his suave self-assuredness on the field and its complete absence off it

Babar began tentatively, as you might when you need nearly 500 runs to win and almost 150 overs to survive. Besides, Pakistan were slinking along at a run an over, so Babar could hardly be accused of inducing lethargy into the innings. But Mitchell Swepson dropped one short, and in that moment, Babar’s worries melted away. The length was picked up early, and there was a swish and flick of the blade. He might not have muttered an incantation, but as if by magic, the weight of the world on his shoulders suddenly vanished.The conditions might not have been as treacherous as yesterday; the reverse swing Australia’s quicks found yesterday wasn’t as palpable this afternoon. But what was absent in sideways movement was compensated for by a deteriorating pitch, where the uneven bounce and darkening patches of rough lay in wait like freshly laid traps. Australia were cornering Pakistan, who certainly didn’t feel like tigers.But even as Babar gained confidence, there was no guarantee of a rescue act. Babar the fourth-innings batter has been a deceptively ordinary batter, averaging 21.63 across his career. There’s almost no body of evidence to support any hopes that might be pinned on him for a miraculous final-innings rescue act. Time and again, an attack as balanced and potent as Australia’s sniffed around for vulnerabilities.It’s easy to forget how sensitive the shield sportspeople put up to protect themselves can be, and the damage any breach can do•AFP/Getty ImagesBut young men in Pakistan – particularly Pakistani cricket – get a lifetime’s practice of concealing weakness. Australia prowled around. Swepson bowled length, exploiting the pitch’s wear and tear while testing Babar’s footwork and patience; one run in 21 balls showed Babar was up to the challenge. Starc went full, only for Babar to punish him with two boundaries, beating him back. Cummins went short, but only for four balls, because Babar pulled three away for four. Green wandered full in search of the movement he found the previous day. Babar refused to engage, scoring no runs of the nine balls. The weaknesses hadn’t gone away, but for the moment, put to one side, not to be talked about.That shield of self-preservation never quite left Babar throughout the evening as the shadows lengthened. A score of 100 might be an arbitrary figure, but there was nothing arbitrary about the psychological shot in the arm it appeared to give Babar when, five overs out from the end of the day, a sweep off Swepson got him there. Even as the crowd roared, the celebration was somewhat subdued; a man with as many responsibilities as his knows when a job hasn’t yet been done.It’s easy to forget how sensitive the shield sportspeople put up to protect themselves can be, and the damage any breach can do. Pakistan’s best batter in more than a generation might have had his broken recently, but a superb knock from a cricketer still close to the top of his game will have gone a long way towards repairing it.On a day when the rumours swirled and the vultures hovered, Babar simply batted. That may be all he can do, but on days like these, boy can he do it well.

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