And in conditions that didn’t offer the bowlers much, this exorcism was distinctly Australian: disciplined, clinical, perfect

Alex Malcolm30-Dec-2024Australia’s cricket team performed an exorcism at the MCG on Monday. They exorcised the ghosts of the Gabba.Modern Australia is one of the most secular societies in the world. Most wouldn’t know what an exorcism is, let alone ever need one performed.Cricket isn’t a religion like it supposedly is in India. But it is fundamental to the national psyche, even if at times Australians show a clear indifference.Related

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Regardless, this exorcism wasn’t sacramental. It was very Australian; disciplined, clinical, perfect. A bowling unit working as a collective. No dropped catches. No wasted reviews. Some Joel Wilson decisions got in their way, like at Headingley in 2019. Australia might have exorcised that ghost as well keeping all three reviews intact and overturning two key decisions that made victory possible.It was fitting too that Nathan Lyon claimed the winning wicket. Having been denied at Headingley and nullified at the Gabba, there was special feeling in the celebrations of both his wickets, snaring India’s first-innings hero Nitish Kumar Reddy before pinning Mohammed Siraj lbw for the win.That it all happened in front of a final-day crowd of 74,362, in a week where the Australia-Test-attendance record was smashed, added to the sweetness of the victory for Pat Cummins and his team.”When you take all that into account, it’s probably the best Test match I’ve been involved in,” Cummins said. “Eighty thousand [each] in the first three days, don’t know what the crowd was today but it was huge. It felt like [the Test] swung a lot as well, never felt like we were so far ahead of the game that it [a win] looked certain. So overall, just one of those great wins.”Sam Konstas and Pat Cummins celebrate Australia’s win•Getty ImagesIt was clear that the Gabba ghosts weighed heavily on Australia’s minds. This surface did not appear to suggest a similar chase was possible. Plenty of rational judges thought Australia were exceedingly conservative in not declaring last night, and even batting on again on the final day with 333 already in the bank. But three of the four key bowlers had been in Brisbane in 2021. They knew what Pant was capable of, what India was capable of. Only two days earlier they had India 221 for 7 and Nos. 8 and 9 combined for a 127-run stand to drag them back into the game.In the end Australia had around 13 overs up their sleeve and didn’t even need the second new ball to take all ten wickets.”I thought the wicket was pretty good,” Cummins said. “You saw our tail bat reasonably comfortably on it. So I felt like we needed at least 300-odd. It wasn’t playing too much tricks. You saw today, it didn’t really spin heaps, didn’t play too many tricks.”We had 90-odd overs that gave us 12 or so overs with potentially a second new ball today. So I felt like there was enough time. And also it felt like the way it had played out, [if] we had a good first session and kind of took the win out of the equation for them, then we could really go in for the attack with plenty of catchers, and didn’t have to worry about the runs as much.”

“Eighty thousand [each] in the first three days, don’t know what the crowd was today but it was huge. It felt like [the Test] swung a lot as well, never felt like we were so far ahead of the game that it [a win] looked certain. So overall, just one of those great wins.”Australia captain Pat Cummins

That is where this exorcism was distinctly Australian. Unlike the Gabba four years ago where India made an aggressive start reaching 132 for 1 to set up the chase, Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland sucked the life out of India’s chase with a suffocating spell of sustained fast bowling. For 26.1 overs before lunch the trio hammered away with pristine lines and lengths, and only four overs of support from Mitchell Marsh and Lyon. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma survived 16 overs without losing a wicket, but had progressed to just 25 for 0. Starc, bowling in pain with a sore back, beat the bat eight times, all past the edge of Jaiswal with 140kph outswingers. Boland beat the edge five times and Cummins once.Rohit was 9 off 39 and his patience eventually cracked, slicing a catch to gully trying an expansive whip wide of mid-on. Cummins breached the resolute defence of KL Rahul five balls later. Starc got his reward on the stroke of lunch as Kohli nicked another wide one. Usman Khawaja, who had dropped three critical catches early in the series, pouched two sharp ones at first slip. India were 33 for 3 and going nowhere.”I reckon that first session today was close to perfection from a bowling point of view,” Cummins said. “I thought we were excellent. All the guys didn’t really give any bad balls away. I don’t know what their plan was going to be but, honestly, I don’t think we really gave them a chance to fight back at us too much.Two hours later though the win looked improbable. India were still three-down at tea with Jaiswal and Pant cruising. Australia had one moment where they could have lost all hope. Starc thundered one into Jaiswal’s pad only to see Wilson shaking his head to a huge lbw shout. The review showed two reds and an orange. You could almost see Australia’s souls leave their bodies as the ball-tracking projection showed what looked like 49% of the ball smashing leg stump.Australia fans in the stands react to a close call•Associated PressThe pitch looked slow and flat. On the same surface yesterday Australia had been cruising at 85 for 3 and Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets in 11 balls to change the course of the match. Australia did not have Bumrah. They instead conjured some ethereal magic from an unlikely source: a Travis Head long hop, which Pant hoicked down Marsh’s throat at long-on.It opened the door and Cummins seized the moment. He pulled Head from the attack and brought back Boland. The MCG specialist extracted life from a lifeless surface to spit one at Ravindra Jadeja’s gloves on the way to Alex Carey.Lyon then roared as Steven Smith held a gem at slip to claim Reddy.Then Cummins dug deep as only he can. A brute of a bouncer off the pillow-like surface hurried Jaiswal hooking on 84. Wilson kept his finger down. Cummins, armed with three reviews had no hesitation. Jaiswal protested the third umpire’s finding but even Rohit admitted he had hit it after the match.

The pitch looked slow and flat. On the same surface yesterday Australia had been cruising at 85 for 3 and Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets in 11 balls to change the course of the match. Australia did not have Bumrah. They instead conjured some ethereal magic from an unlikely source: a Travis Head long hop

A similar sequence happened when Boland had Akash Deep caught at short leg. Smith then held another beauty at slip to remove Bumrah before Lyon roared again. It was shades of Old Trafford in 2019 when Australia got to celebrate twice, first with Michael Gough’s raised finger and then again when the DRS showed three reds.But just like 2019, Australia’s job is not done. They blew a 2-1 lead with an emotional let down in the final Test on a short turnaround. They face the same challenge here.”It’s a short turnaround,” Cummins said. “I think we’ll definitely savour this one. You work so hard over five days to win a Test match like this, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot of sitting around tonight and a couple of beers, a couple of boys might have a beer, some others might have water and some protein shakes and an early night. But we’ll savour this for a couple of hours at least, and then it’ll be recovery for the next few days. I’m sure the batters will have a hit. The bowlers, I dare say, will be very light on [training], and then you gear up again for the last Test of the [home] summer.”The ghosts of Gabba might have been exorcised, but the Border-Gavaskar series and a World Test Championship final is still up for grabs. A weight has been lifted off Australia’s shoulders for now, but they must put their shoulder to the wheel again in Sydney if they want to claim the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time in a decade.

England’s range of standout players, and speed of turnaround from white-ball, augur well for Australia mission

Firdose Moonda17-Dec-20242:03

Heather Knight: SA Test win builds confidence for Ashes

No trees were ripped up but some seeds were planted, as England won their first Test in a decade before looking ahead to the women’s Ashes.Let’s be honest: while they’d never use the words warm-up, this multi-format series in South Africa was part of the preparation for next month’s Ashes, a series which England have not won for 10 years. Incidentally, that’s the same amount of time England had gone without a Test win until a memorable afternoon in Bloemfontein. So apart from cleaning up with series victories in the T20I and ODI contests (which included five out of six wins for England), the Test triumph tastes a little sweeter, because it shows England what they are capable of.”We take great confidence from it,” Knight said at the post-match press conference. “Whenever we play Test cricket, because we play it so scarcely, we’re always learning about how to go about the different tactics; the different periods of the game that you have to manage and how that varies as conditions change. We take a huge amount of learnings from it.”It was a brilliant Test match – the ebbs and flows. There were times where we had to really hang in there and control the rate and obviously jump in when we were in with a sniff. We take a huge amount from it.”England’s Ashes assignment will conclude with a pink-ball Test at the MCG, and Knight may only have been polite when she said it will be, “slightly different” to the Tests they’ve had so far. The teams will have four days between the end of the ODI series on January 25 and the start of the Test on January 30 and, if anything, Knight believes they can learn from the quick turnaround they had in South Africa.Lauren Bell was named player of the match for her eight wickets•Gallo Images/Getty ImagesThere were three days between the end of the ODI series on December 11 and the start of this Test, with travel further cramping their training in between. “The fact that we were able to play like we did with only two days’ preparation should be a thing of confidence for us because obviously that Test match in Australia is going to be exactly the same,” Knight said “That mentality to be able to flip between is a really hard thing to do, so getting more experience of doing that as players will hopefully stand us in good stead.”But Knight and her team will have learned about more than just time between games over the past few days – there’s also time in game, and that is undoubtedly where England were superior. There were two passages of play where England completely took the game away from South Africa: in the second session on day one when they scored 189 runs in 33 overs, at a rate of 5.7, and the third session on day two, when England took 7 for 56 to send South Africa freewheeling from 225 for 3 to 281 all out, to take a 114-run first-innings lead.In the first of those, Maia Bouchier, on debut, and Nat Sciver-Brunt both scored centuries, which underlines how inexperience and experience combined for England.”A couple of days out, Maia was a bit unsure about how she wanted to go about it, purely because of the unknown of not playing any multi-day cricket ever in her life really,” Knight said. “So for her to go out and do that and show the clarity of decision-making, the simpleness that she did, and to bat for long and really make hay in that middle session was a great period for us.Related

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“We were able to capitalise on some poor bowling and to really put the runs on the board and score at a good rate, and that allowed us to control the rest of the game. So kudos to her (Bouchier) and obviously Nat, who goes under the radar sometimes because you expect her to score runs, but a remarkable innings again from her.”In the second innings, another debutant Ryana MacDonald-Gay made important breakthroughs with the old ball which allowed Laurens Bell and Filer to use inswing and pace with the second new ball to unsettle the South African middle- and lower-order.These performances showed Knight the full range of their fast-bowling potential. “They both bring something different, the two Laurens,” she said. “Filer just seems to make things happen, which is amazing. But there’s a real temptation sometimes to want to bowl her longer because you always feel like she’s going to take a wicket when she’s on, but I think she’s at her best when she’s fresh and she bowls sharp spells.”Lauren Bell at the other end was outstanding, the way she was able to control things. It’s a really prime example of the work that she’s done to become a better cricketer and have different skills in her toolbox, and use those skills in different conditions when she needs them. And Ryana as well, special mention for her on debut. She was outstanding. I’m really impressed by her temperament and her character. It’s an exciting place to be, having lots of bowlers, particularly quicks, at our disposal with Australia to come.”Having the players is one thing, but having different ones perform all through a game is another, and Knight was among them. Her second-innings 90 prolonged the South African fielding effort and played its part in fatiguing them, as they were asked to score the highest fourth-innings total in women’s Test history.She knows she did her bit. “I loved contributing today,” she said. “I felt like there were still runs out there and I felt I really needed to stretch the lead a little bit and be in a position where we could dictate and control and attack at the right times, and have enough runs on the board to do that.Maia Bouchier and Nat Sciver-Brunt put on 174 for the third wicket in England’s first innings•ECB/Getty Images”Any time after you’ve fielded for a long time, going back mentally and physically is a really tough thing to do and even harder when you don’t do it very often. That’s why I wanted to score big today, to try and really push that lead up quite high, put a little bit more time into their legs, a little bit more mental fatigue, and also give our bowlers a little bit more of a rest,”In the end, England didn’t need the runs or the time. They finished off South Africa in less than 20 overs and bowled them out for their lowest Test score.”Obviously it happened quite quickly,” Knight said. “We got a bit lucky with a few things and our bowlers were hitting really hard. Once we picked up a few, we felt like we could really capitalise and jump in, and really attack and put them under the pump. It’s a really hard thing to do as a batter when you’re coming in under that sort of pressure.”South Africa know that and have to deal with the fall-out from a massive Test defeat, but it won’t be too harsh. They won’t have another red-ball game in 2025 and new coach Mandla Mashimbyi, contracted until 2027, has time to build his team. So far, he is saying all the right things, especially about the way it ended. “We competed nicely. If I had to take away this last session, the girls actually fought all the way. Maybe our breaking point was just a little bit earlier than the England breaking point. And that’s something that we’re going to have to work on because it’s a mental thing,” he said. “I can promise you now, what we’ve seen here today will never happen again.”But no trees will be ripped up, only seeds planted for a future in which South Africa will play six Tests in the next four years, two against England. Until they meet again…

For all the flutter the revelation of the plan has created, it remains to be seen how far it will go if the BCCI isn’t on board

Osman Samiuddin19-Mar-2025Plans for a new Grand-Slam-style circuit of T20 tournaments, with financial backing from Saudi Arabia, based on a blueprint drawn up by player associations, represents a bold attempt at an incursion into cricket by forces outside the closed shop that is traditional cricket governance.But for the all the flutter the revelation of the plan has created, it remains to be seen how far it will go if it fails to co-opt, or at least interest, the organisation that holds the key to cricket’s biggest market: the BCCI.Talk of a Saudi Arabian entry into cricket is not new, of course. It’s been a fixture for two years, with only the precise mode of entry a variable: a stake in an IPL franchise, an entirely new league, an unspecified but wholesale takeover of the sport, take your pick. Meanwhile, the country’s actual entry has been far more gradual. Sponsorships at the IPL, a partnership tied up with the ICC and, most recently and definitely most prominently, as host of the IPL auction.Related

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It’s about time, some will argue, given its impact on other major sports. It’s always been a footballing nation – a major Asian force – but it is its forays into boxing, tennis, F1, MMA and golf that have signalled its wider intentions to become a sporting force.At the moment, there is little detail to these plans. Seven to eight teams from around the world, playing four tournaments in a year, each tournament envisaged to last 10-12 days. These are early sketches with little detail on how such tournaments will fit into what is already a calendar bursting at the seams. For it to be incorporated successfully, it would almost certainly need to cause collateral damage, most likely to some formats of international cricket, such as context-less bilateral ODIs and T20Is. Which countries will be involved? And which teams will they send? National sides, as seems to be one suggestion, or those from already established T20 franchise leagues (and so, is this a revival of the Champions League?), or some other elite geographical representation?The IPL apart, how many leagues have actually brought in big broadcast money?•BCCIAs significant as the involvement of SRJ Sports Investments, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund’s sports arm, is that of the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) and the World Cricketers’ Association (WCA). The idea is said to be the brainchild of Neil Maxwell, the former NSW and Victoria all-rounder and former ACA board member who is now a prominent player manager. It’s been brewing since at least last year, if not earlier. The ACA has confirmed to the that it was behind the idea: “The ACA’s early interest in exploring this concept is motivated by a desire to develop and normalise best-practice collective bargaining and an international gender-equity pay model for male and female cricketers. And to develop a competition creating value for distribution to cricket’s governing bodies to protect and subsidise Test cricket and the continuing growth of the women’s game for all nations.”WCA, which has been advocating for change to the broken international calendar for a number of years, is believed to be taking the lead on plans now. It as offered no comment on the matter, but is busy at the moment with something not entirely unrelated: a comprehensive review of the game’s global structure, the results of which it is due to release imminently. Is more cricket the answer? No, but perhaps the first player-led tournaments in the cricket calendar, somewhat like tennis’ ATP, is (although the tour is currently the subject of a lawsuit by players).This is not unimportant. Players are at the sharpest end of the impossibilities of this calendar and have been vocal about needing change. Given the player associations involved, some of the world’s leading players will be behind this. But this won’t be exactly like the ATP, because the plans also envisage a stake for the ICC. According to some accounts, Danny Townsend, the chief executive of SRJ, is believed to have interacted with Jay Shah on the sidelines of the IPL auction and brought up, albeit briefly, these plans. It would suggest that Saudi Arabia does not want to make the kind of turbulent and disruptive entry into cricket that it has in golf, for example, where it has created a parallel circuit altogether.The talk so far has been that revenue from the circuit will be split in some formulation between SRJ, the player associations and the ICC. The ACA’s statement acknowledges that earnings will find a way back to governing bodies, in the hopes that Test cricket can be subsidised.That revenue, of course, will be the thing because it isn’t clear how and how much of it such a league can generate. The IPL apart, how many leagues have actually brought in big broadcast money? And there are plenty of signs that cricket’s broadcast rights market may have peaked and that the ecosystem is now under stress, as the ongoing tension between the ICC and JioStar over their rights deal suggests. The Saudis can put in the kind of money to start up a league, but what are the prospects of making it – and much more – back?Saudi Arabia’s most prominent incursion into cricket so far was its hosting of the IPL 2025 player auction•BCCIAnd, of course, the reality is that, for that to happen, the circuit will need Indian players. That is why Shah was sought out at the IPL auction, given he was BCCI secretary at the time, as well as the ICC chair-elect. Few things of this magnitude can happen successfully in cricket without Shah – or the BCCI – buying into it. And why would the BCCI buy into a concept that, in its fullest ambitions, actually rivals the IPL?The earliest noises from another major board have been of extreme scepticism. The ECB’s chief executive Richard Gould has told the unequivocally “there is no scope or demand for such an idea,” emboldened, no doubt, by the injection of a half-billion-pound private equity bounty into the Hundred. Other member boards could be swayed by the prospect of another revenue stream, but the bottom line is, if the BCCI is not on board with the plan, a big broadcast deal becomes that much more difficult.A final point to ponder is the idea of the WCA and the ICC working together. The WCA has become increasingly – and justifiably – frustrated with the way the game is being run by the ICC and its members. When it launched its review into the structure, the chair Heath Mills said it had “given up hope” that the game’s leaders could establish a “clear and coherent structure” housing both international cricket and domestic leagues.The relationship has, at times, been adversarial. A number of full members, including the BCCI and PCB, don’t even have player associations. Both the ICC and WCA recently sparred over the former’s use of player image rights. It led to WCA signing a long-term deal with Winners Alliance (an affiliate of the Novak-Djokovic-backed Professional Tennis Players Association, the body currently suing the ATP), which will negotiate collective commercial deals for players who are members of WCA-affiliated players’ associations. A player-led league would be a win for the WCA, but how easy is it going to be when a lot of those players remain contracted to the various member boards that constitute the ICC?It’s almost inevitable that Saudi Arabian money will come into the game. It has broken through into most other major sports and given that attracting Indian tourism remains a key goal, cricket is an obvious in. It’s just far from certain whether this is that way in.

He is finally reaping the rewards for his consistency and fitness but can he sustain this intensity for longer formats for India?

Sidharth Monga10-Apr-20251:36

What’s working for Prasidh Krishna this season?

Gujarat Titans (GT) have shown themselves to be a pretty ruthless and unemotional side.Washington Sundar finally got a chance to play – the Impact Player rule has ruined it for even slightly imperfect allrounders – in the last match, put in a match-winning innings that had commentators and experts calling him too good to be left out, but when GT returned to a red-soil pitch at home, they left him out. They didn’t get carried away. They trusted M Shahrukh Khan, a specialist batter, to do the job. They also saw the conditions called for an extra fast bowler. They didn’t try to accommodate Washington.R Sai Kishore was GT’s second-highest wicket-taker before this match. “Probably the best spinner in the tournament so far,” according to their mentor Parthiv Patel. He didn’t get to bowl until this match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) was practically over as a contest.Related

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This is a squad that has lost Kagiso Rabada after three games, and yet they seem to be able to field different attacks for different conditions almost effortlessly. They go to Bengaluru where new-ball movement can be crucial, they add Arshad Khan. They see the one sluggish track in Hyderabad being used, and they bring in Washington. They roll out the slow and low black-soil pitch at home, they go for taller bowlers. On red soil, back comes Arshad. And Shubman Gill almost always has six nearly genuine bowlers at his disposal.However, apart from the resurgent Mohammed Siraj and the all-time-great Rashid Khan, there has been one constant in the GT side that has made this versatility and ruthlessness possible. He is tall, finally fit and quick, he goes by Skiddy on Instagram and with his team-mates, but he is anything but. This version of Prasidh Krishna is the one that India hoped for when they backed him.

The reaction Prasidh is getting from the pitch is a sight for sore eyes. The bounce is steep and unbecoming of the lengths he is bowling, drawing poor connections from the batters

Without taking anything away from Siraj, he does get the new ball to play with. Prasidh is playing the other role of making something out of nothing when the movement has died, and you need some other point of difference. He has now had four straight matches in which he has gone under seven an over. He has taken wickets in each of these games.Nothing quite sums up Prasidh’s impact more than GT’s last two home games. Against Mumbai Indians (MI), they played on the black-soil pitch because MI are used to the red soil at Wankhede and are built for quick and bouncy surfaces. His figures: 4-0-18-2. Against RR, GT went back to the pace and bounce of red soil. His figures: 4-0-24-3.A lot of top-level cricket is about feeling good about your body and executing your plans well, but don’t underestimate the value of knowing what to do in different conditions. In these two games, Prasidh has shown the awareness of his own game that only comes with experience. On the slower, grippier surface, Prasidh went into the surface more and bowled more slower balls. Both his wickets in that match came off slower balls. Every fourth ball he delivered in that game was a slower one.Prasidh Krishna enjoyed a productive outing against his old team, Rajasthan Royals•IPLOn the quicker pitch, not only did Prasidh crank up the pace, he also didn’t bother with the slower balls. He tried just one against RR as against seven against MI. Six balls went above 145kph and 14 above 140kph against RR, as against just one and eight against MI. Against MI, he went short of a good length 15 times, against RR only 12.Reaping the rewards for his consistency and fitness, Prasidh has probably been the best fast bowler outside the powerplay in this IPL so far. Even if it is over a period of four overs, the reaction Prasidh is getting from the pitch is a sight for sore eyes. The bounce is steep and unbecoming of the lengths he is bowling, drawing poor connections from the batters. The pace is up perhaps because he feels good about his physical fitness.Too often, India have been edged out of Test matches because their bowlers are shorter and skiddier, thus extracting less from the surfaces in South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia. India’s next big Test tour is in England, two months away. Can Prasidh sustain this consistency and intensity for longer formats?

New white-ball captain prepares to turn team’s results around in first assignment at the helm

Vithushan Ehantharajah28-May-2025During last year’s men’s Hundred, Harry Brook received a light-hearted but necessary reprimand from Sky Sports commentator Mel Jones.Brook, in his first season as captain of Northern Superchargers – his first leadership role in professional cricket – had made a habit of forgetting team news. On one occasion, Jones offered some polite advice: “Come on Harry, you need to get better at this – you’re going to do a lot more of them!”On Wednesday in Birmingham, in Brook’s first pre-match press conference as white-ball captain, he flexed his improvement, running through the XI for Thursday’s series opener against West Indies. Barring a momentary hesitation when moving from the middle order into the tail – “Bethell six… Jacks seven… ermmm… Overton eight” – a full team, in order, was read off the dome.Granted, this is the least you’d expect from an England captain in a sport so beholden to detail. But the bar is on the floor as far as English white-ball cricket goes. Every win, no matter how menial, should be savoured.Related

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Even more so on the field. Three poor global outings, an ODI record of 13 lost out of the last 17 – seven of them in a row – and the loose threat of not qualifying for the 2027 ODI World Cup mean the issues of the last era hang over this group. The first job of any new leadership team is to fix previous mistakes.And yet, arguably the biggest part of the last regime remains integral to this revamp. Jos Buttler’s part in the solutions to the problems he failed to avoid has him back in his most comfortable position behind the stumps. He has not kept in ODIs since 2023’s tour of West Indies, though he did marshal from that position during last summer’s T20 World Cup.”I think Jos is the best white-ball batter in the world,” crowed Brook. Whether that remains true, the fact is his numbers bear out that he is a better player with the gloves and without the captaincy, in every metric. His work with Gujarat Titans – “he’s been banging it in the IPL,” – is further testament to this particular combination of keeping without wider responsibility.Buttler was not at Edgbaston on Wednesday, another perk of being unburden by captaincy meaning he can lean on the fact sessions are optional. Having trained on Tuesday, Buttler opted for an extra night at home having only just arrived back from India at the start of the week.Both Jacob Bethell and Will Jacks got back to the UK in the last 48 hours, which is far from ideal but with them comes the variation in the slow-bowling department which was absent during the Champions Trophy and high on the wish list when Brook had his initial conversations with managing director Rob Key. Bethell’s return comes after injury, and as such is as you were. But Jacks’ – high-class and under-utilised – is a nod to doing things differently.Jamie Smith as an opener that straddles both camps, as a newer take on an old thought. An inkling head coach Brendon McCullum had during the Champions Trophy – where Smith averaged 8 at No.3 – that moving further up the order might suit him better. Pushing Smith towards the danger which, in this case, seems to be the new ball.”He [McCullum] actually said it in Pakistan to me, and a few lads… he just had this burning desire (sic) that Smudge could be an amazing opening batter in one-day cricket. So, we’re giving it a crack and see how he goes, hopefully he does well.”The travails at first drop against the white ball highlight the punt being taken. Smith’s professional opening experience amounts to 22 T20 and three first-class innings. Set against his success down at No.7 in Test cricket, and the fact a swap with Jacks, who is actually an opener, puts players in more familiar roles – it seems a peculiar move. But, crucially, a positive one in the minds of a captain, coach and management set-up who cannot quite fathom why a bunch of undoubtedly talented players have been in such a funk.The group will be challenged early on under Brook, as is his wont, and the loose promise to England’s new skipper at this juncture he will be afforded his full wares for each series. And while that is clearly at odds with the lay of the land, notably limited overs tours of New Zealand and Sri Lanka that sandwich the Ashes, patient improvement is the name of the game. Returning to those glory days set in motion by Eoin Morgan will take time.Nevertheless, West Indies arrive respectfully wary of their hosts for that recent history. Shai Hope had no problem lauding England as trend-buckers while also reiterating they are not here simply to be a character in someone else’s story. Indeed, they have their own redemption having missed 2023s ODI World Cup altogether. Now ninth in the ICC rankings, three points behind England, automatic passage to 2027’s edition is far from guaranteed.”As a opposition coming in to play against them, you certainly want to showcase your best skills because they kind of set the benchmark of one-day cricket,” Hope said.”But again, I’m not going to focus too much on what they’ve done in the past. I know they’re going to be looking at us as trying to start their new winning streak. It’s within our power to make sure that we don’t let it happen.”