The WTC mace may have gone to the deserving victors, but only one man was really competing for the other crown

Andrew Fidel Fernando01-Jul-2021True love
Through the course of its life so far, the World Test Championship has been kicked at, spit on, and abused. Back in November, the ICC’s chairman claimed he wasn’t sure if the Test Championship had “achieved what it intended to do”. As recently as March, Virat Kohli said it didn’t really motivate his team any more than usual. More recently, Stuart Broad asked why the Ashes couldn’t be worth more points than a two-match Test series (the old “our series should count double” argument). All this while the competition survived a global pandemic, which threatened seriously to end it.In the end, though, Test cricket’s biggest prize found its way to a team that truly adored it – New Zealand, who have invested heavily in red-ball cricket, frequently treated the format with the dignity it deserves, and never spoken ill about the league. After everything the World Test Championship has been through, the mace is currently where it deserves to be, cradled in the ultra-soft hands of BJ Watling, like Jenny at the end of .Bad-behaviour bros
Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella and Danushka Gunathilaka have been sent home from the tour of England after having gone out towards the city centre in Durham, despite being told explicitly that such an excursion would violate the team’s biosecure bubble. They were discovered after videos were posted on social media of them out in public.The whole thing didn’t even seem to be worth it – they were merely snapped looking around the city’s market square, with Mendis fiddling with what appeared to be cigarettes (though this has not been confirmed). If you’re going to be sent home from a tour, you should at least have been at a raging party, right?The most embarrassing thing, though, was that despite clearly being on the lookout, these players didn’t spot the person who was recording from just metres away – practically from short leg – which, uh, should probably be handed over to the team analyst as footage that might explain some batting averages.Bad-behaviour king
But in the grand scheme of bad behaviour, Sri Lankan bubble poppers are probably small fry. They thought they could get away with it until someone recorded them. Shakib Al Hasan, meanwhile, knew for sure cameras were rolling and media were in attendance when he let his temper explode at a Dhaka Premier League game, first kicking the stumps when he had an appeal turned down, then uprooting them and throwing them into the pitch when the umpire dared to take the teams off the field for rain.It’s hasn’t even been two years since Shakib was banned for failing to report a corrupt approach, on top of which he has angrily threatened walkouts, cussed out umpires, allegedly beaten up a fan, and more, in a rap sheet that is truly something to behold. If there was a World Bad Behaviour Championship, this is the winner. Just race out of the room as soon as you award him the trophy, because of course he will throw it.The long wait
The Hundred is finally set to begin in July. It’s been so long since the tournament was announced, everybody seems to have by now run out of comic material to throw at it. Kudos marketing geniuses who foresaw this.Next month on The Briefing:
– As punishment for the bubble-popping trio, SLC invites Shakib to gruffly pluck each of them up and fling them to the ground.- The Hundred matches attract tens of thousands people in their 40s, with the kids the tournament had set out to attract at its inception having by now become middle-aged slobs with beer guts.

With the IPL set to resume, we look back at five defining moments from the first chunk of the season

Hemant Brar14-Sep-2021Samson refuses a single
Chasing 222 against Punjab Kings, Sanju Samson scored 119 scintillating runs but it was the single he did not take that remains the abiding memory of his innings. With Rajasthan Royals needing 13 from the last over, Arshdeep Singh conceded only two singles from the first three balls. Samson hit the fourth ball for a six to make it five required from two balls, and then drilled the penultimate ball towards long-off. Non-striker Chris Morris, no slouch with bat, charged halfway down the pitch before realising Samson wasn’t interested in the run.That meant Royals needed five off the final ball. Arshdeep bowled it full outside off, almost in the slot but Samson could only slice it into the hands of deep cover.Related

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• The ever evolving genius of Kieron Pollard

• Jadeja is already changing games – in 3D

Jadeja tears apart Harshal
In his first four games in IPL 2021, Harshal Patel had bowled seven overs at the death at an economy rate of 5.85 while picking up nine wickets. Then came the game against Chennai Super Kings. Harshal bowled the 18th over of the innings, conceded only five runs and dismissed Ambati Rayudu. His figures at that stage were 3-0-14-3. Giving him the 20th over was a no-brainer.Ravindra Jadeja, though, had other plans. Harshal tried offcutters, yorkers and a slower bouncer but nothing came out right as Jadeja stood deep in his crease, cleared the front leg and launched everything over midwicket. The first four balls, including a no-ball, were all hit for sixes. The next produced a brace before Jadeja finished it off with another six and a four, making it the joint-most expensive over (37 runs) in the IPL.Shaw’s six fours in an over
While Jadeja’s onslaught against Harshal came in the last over of the innings with the batter well set, Prithvi Shaw did something similar to Shivam Mavi in the first over itself.Kolkata Knight Riders had set Capitals a target of 155. Not a daunting task but Shaw reduced it to a cakewalk just after one over. Mavi’s first ball was a wide down the leg side; each of the next six was dispatched for a four via an array of shots – loft, flick, punch, drive and cut. Shaw didn’t premeditate. All he did was reacted to the ball and hit it either in the gaps or over the infield. He and Dhawan added 132 for the first wicket as Capitals cruised home with seven wickets and 21 balls to spare.Kieron Pollard hammered a 17-ball half-century to pull off an improbable heist against Chennai Super Kings•BCCI/IPLBrar gets Kohli, Maxwell and de Villiers
Halfway into his third IPL season, Harpreet Brar had no wicket to his name. And then, in a single match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, he dismissed Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers. All in a span of seven balls. Without conceding a run.In Brar’s earlier overs, Kohli had hit his first balls for a six and a four. At the start of his third over, Kohli once again stepped out but this time Brar shortened his length and castled him. On the next ball, he beat Maxwell’s outside edge to hit the off stump. de Villiers prevented the hat-trick but with the first ball of his next over, Brar snared him as well, caught at extra cover by KL Rahul. That all but sealed Kings’ victory.Pollard stuns Chennai Super Kings
Set a target of 219, Mumbai Indians were 81 for 3 in the tenth over when Kieron Pollard came to the crease. The asking rate was already above 13 and soon crossed 15. That’s when Pollard started the boundary-fest. He bludgeoned Jadeja for three sixes in an over and Lungi Ngidi for two before meting out similar treatment to Shardul Thakur.Still, Mumbai needed 16 from the last over, bowled by Ngidi. With Dhawal Kulkarni at the other end, Pollard decided to face all six deliveries. He refused singles on the first and fourth balls while squeezing out two fours in between. With eight needed from two, Ngidi bowled a juicy full toss that Pollard pulled for six. Then he dug out the final ball towards wide mid-on and sprinted back for the second to seal the match and finish unbeaten on 87 off 34 balls.

It’s rare to have a genuine fast foursome, but when you do, it’s a recipe for success

Ian Chappell04-Jul-2021New Zealand’s well-deserved win in the World Test Championship final highlighted an accepted adage in cricket: fast bowling rules.New Zealand’s pace quartet – Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Kyle Jamieson – made possible their presence in the final. Then in the prolonged battle with India for supremacy, the quick bowlers led the last-day victory charge. Such was the influence of the New Zealand attack that there was even a comparison with the formidable West Indies quartets that ruled from the late-1970s to the mid-1990s.To my mind, the best combination from those fearsome quartets was Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and Joel Garner.Related

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WTC team of the tournament

If it’s pace you’re talking about, the West Indies quartet wins hands down. However, if you look purely at results, the New Zealand four take the prize – five matches together for a 100% winning record. That West Indies combination only played together in six matches and while never beaten, they were held to three draws.New Zealand played four of those five matches at home and then the final at the Ageas Bowl, all favourable venues for swing and seam bowling. West Indies’ three draws were all affected by inclement weather in an era when time lost was exactly that.Statistically the leader of New Zealand’s group is undoubtedly Jamieson, with 28 wickets at the uncovered-pitches-average of 12.07 in these five Tests. However experience-wise, it’s swing bowler Southee who leads the way.For the West Indies foursome, there was never any doubt about their leader – spiritually and on the rare occasion he spoke, verbally. It was Roberts who confidently assured his batters: “It doesn’t matter what the opposition bowl us out for, we’ll bowl them out for less.”He lived up to that promise and even though he was the veteran of that foursome, he stood out in the six matches they played together, claiming 33 wickets at the miserly average of 17.48.Andy Roberts knocks over Brian Close’s stumps at Old Trafford in 1976•PA PhotosRoberts and England’s John Snow were the two best opposition fast bowlers I faced.There haven’t been many pace quartets. The concept was only made popular by West Indies captain Clive Lloyd after his team took a hammering from Australia’s demon pace bowling duo of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in 1975-76. The pace quartet became standard fare for West Indies in their period of dominance but no other team has adopted the policy to that extent.However, Australia did feature a formidable pace quartet for seven matches in the mid-1950s. Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller, Bill Johnston and Ron Archer were all genuine new-ball bowlers in their own right and operated at considerable speed.Thanks to the presence of one genuine allrounder (Miller) and three bowling ones in Lindwall, Richie Benaud and Archer, the attack also included two spinners. This has to be one of the best balanced attacks of all time.Pace bowling trios are more prevalent and there have been quite a few successful ones. These include Pakistan’s Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed; South Africa’s Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Brian McMillan. Surprisingly, England didn’t use Fred Trueman, Brian Statham and Frank Tyson’s considerable pace in tandem; they only played together in one Test.When it comes to high-speed threesomes, Lillee, Thomson and Len Pascoe played four Super Tests together during World Series Cricket in 1979. That would have had a speed gun whirring.Spin bowling has been more a case of working in pairs. There have been some mighty successful ones but India did break the mould for a decade with a highly successful spin trio in Erapalli Prasanna, Bishan Bedi and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar.While a Test match success rate of just below 30% doesn’t fully reflect that trio’s ability, it does hint at the advantage of the intimidation factor pace bowling provides.In recent years India have joined the ranks of pace-bowling proficient teams. As a consequence, they have enjoyed success in Australia, reached the final of the WTC, and now have an even-money chance of beating England on their home turf.Good pace bowling definitely has its advantages.

The Jammu and Kashmir bowler hadn’t played with a cricket ball until he was 17. Now he’s in the IPL, and bowling in the nets for India at the T20 World Cup

Mohsin Kamal02-Nov-2021″India soon,” Umran Malik wrote in his Instagram bio in 2018. He was 18, part of the Jammu & Kashmir Under-19 squad, and had started playing leather-ball cricket just a year before. He was still to get a game in the Cooch Behar Trophy, but his bowling in a practice session left India’s U-19 selectors stunned.”They had come to visit Vaishno Devi Mandir,” Malik says. “They saw me bowling in nets on a cement wicket and asked, ‘Who are you? You are bowling so fast! Why are you not playing matches?'”The selectors approached a J&K U-19 coach and advised him to give Malik a game. It was the first time Malik realised that he could make it big.Last month Malik, now 21, became only the fourth cricketer from J&K to play in the IPL. As soon as he ran in to bowl in his opening game, for Sunrisers Hyderabad, the speedometer came into focus. He touched 150kph several times in his spell. In his second match, he bowled the fastest delivery by an Indian in the tournament’s history – 152.95kph.Related

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Hailing from a family of modest means in Jammu’s Gujjar Nagar, Malik began playing at a young age. His father, Abdul Rashid, a fruit-seller in Shaheedi Chowk, his mother and two older sisters, were all supportive of his passion.”After playing in school during the day, he would leave the bag at home and go to play cricket in the evening as well,” says Rashid. “I used to tell him, ‘Play cricket but pay some attention to studies as well.’ I never refused to buy equipment or other things for him.”Malik’s long, steady run-up and smooth, explosive jump had commentators and fans liken his action to that of Waqar Younis. “I used to bowl fast from the very beginning,” he says. “I had a natural action. I didn’t copy it from anyone.”At 17 he ventured beyond gully cricket, into competitive tennis-ball tournaments around Jammu. The matches usually took place in the evenings and drew big crowds. Batters relished these games – ten overs an innings, short boundaries – but Malik’s pace often stole the spotlight.”Every team wanted him in their side,” says Raman Thaploo, a J&K cricketer who has watched Malik’s cricket journey closely.Malik would practise in the nets with the J&K senior Ranji Trophy team•Sahil Magotra/JKCA video analystHis growing popularity in tennis-ball cricket made him give leather-ball cricket a try. In his very first local match with a cricket ball, in 2017, he hit some huge sixes and bowled a fiery spell.As his reputation spread, he acquired the nickname “Ghajini”. Like Aamir Khan’s character in the hit Bollywood film of that name, he had close-cropped hair and a strong physique. Thaploo remembers: “People used to say, ‘ bowling [Ghajini hits huge sixes and bowls very fast].”Soon Malik’s friends suggested he go to a coach to improve his skills. He made his way to MA Stadium, where Randhir Singh Manhas, a local coach, trained young cricketers. “I remember it was the morning session, and as usual, I didn’t have many bowlers,” Manhas recalls of Malik’s first time there. “When he came to me, I said, ‘Okay, you can bowl.'”He had just bowled a couple of balls when Ram Dayal, a senior J&K cricketer, walked in. He stopped at the nets and watched for a while. “He [Dayal] asked, ‘Who’s this guy? He has raw talent and bowls around 135 to 140kph,'” Manhas says.Manhas asked his new pupil to come to the stadium daily. While much about Malik was in place, Manhas worked on a couple of things. “He was a natural talent. Usually players with Cosco [tennis-ball] background are quick through the air.”However, his jump and landing weren’t that perfect, so I worked with him on it. Later, when Irfan Pathan came here [as J&K mentor], he too helped him a bit.”Another player who practised at that ground was Abdul Samad, younger than Malik but a more seasoned cricketer, who would go on to play for J&K and Sunrisers Hyderabad before Malik. The two began training together every day. “I knew Samad earlier but we became best friends in 2018,” says Malik. “We’re now more like brothers.”Malik’s career was still not quite on track. When he went for the J&K U-19 trials, he was in for a surprise. “I was told that I haven’t played at district level, so I can’t appear in the trials.”Still, he decided to show up again the next day. “I went to nets and as they didn’t know whether I had played district or not, I started bowling. I just bowled one ball and the selector came to me and said, ‘You will be in the team, don’t worry. Just keep yourself ready.'”The many trophies Malik picked up in local and domestic matches are displayed proudly in his home•Courtesy of Umran Malik”He played his first match here at Jammu,” Thaploo remembers. “When he bowled the very first ball, it went above the keeper’s head after bouncing. Umpires were stunned. They asked him if he had played any nationals before.”The following year, Malik was rejected at the U-23 trials. In February 2020, Samad, now a part of J&K Ranji Trophy team, met the J&K U-23 team coach to plead Malik’s case. It was Samad, too, after being picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2020 IPL, who suggested Malik’s name to the franchise as a net bowler. “I told Samad to send my videos to them,” says Malik.Soon Malik was in the Sunrisers camp, surprising elite batters with his pace. On one occasion Kedar Jadhav asked him whether he was in the team or a net bowler. On another, Thaploo recalls proudly: “He was bowling very fast to Jonny Bairstow in the nets, and he told him to bowl a bit slow. However, as Malik doesn’t understand English much, he continued bowling fast. Then someone from the SRH camp came to him and said, ‘He is asking you to bowl a bit slow, you’re bowling too fast!'”Malik’s impressive show as net bowler in the 2020 IPL prompted the franchise to continue with him in 2021. In September this year, during the second leg of the competition, he received a call from the state cricket association, asking him to report back to Jammu for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy trials. Instead he found himself included in the Sunrisers team as a short-term replacement for T Natarajan, who had tested positive for Covid-19 in Dubai.”Alhamdulillah, I was included in the team, else I had to travel back the next day,” says Malik. “It was an amazing feeling.”Once Sunrisers had lost the race to the playoffs, they provided Malik an opportunity in the playing XI, against Kolkata Knight Riders. He had just bowled three balls when the cricketing world started asking: who is this guy?Malik clocked 150kph in his very first over, and a couple more times in the game. He was, until then, unaware of the speeds he bowled at.Malik impressed Virat Kohli enough in the IPL to merit a call-up as net bowler with the Indian team at the T20 World Cup•BCCI”I thought I could bowl around 140-145kph max. I hadn’t checked my pace before playing in IPL,” he says. “Making my debut in the IPL and performing well in the first match was the most special moment of my life.”In the next game, against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Malik went a step further by bowling the second-fastest delivery of IPL 2021 – the 152.95kph-ball. At the post-match presentation, Virat Kohli spoke in support of the youngster: “Whenever you see talent like this, you are going to have your eyes on them and make sure you maximise their potential.””I really felt proud on seeing such a big player talking about me,” says Malik. “Nobody knew me a day before and now the world was talking about me.”Back home, Abdul Rashid’s phone didn’t stop ringing after his son’s IPL debut. From journalists turning up at his house and shop to relatives paying congratulatory visits, it was a busy week for him and his family.”Not only my family but whole Jammu-Kashmir and India is happy after seeing his bowling,” says Rashid emotionally. “His hard work has paid off.”On the basis of his IPL outing, Malik was included in the Indian contingent as a net bowler for the T20 World Cup. While pace is his major weapon, he can also generate swing into right-hand batters, and likes the bouncer. He is working to improve his skills, and is focusing on his yorker.”My first dream would be to see our team lifting the World Cup,” he says. “I will try to bowl well in the nets and impress selectors, so that they pick me for any of the future series, Inshallah.”That “India soon” bio could become reality sooner than expected.

While Harmer and Maharaj have done the bulk of the bowling for the home side, the visitors’ quicks have shared 11 wickets

Mohammad Isam03-Apr-2022The standard fare in a South Africa-Bangladesh Test match is pace, movement and bounce. It is usually the home side that has blown away these infrequent visitors with these weapons. These ingredients have, of course, been on display in the Durban Test, but it has come from the opposite direction.It is to the Bangladesh fast bowlers’ credit that they have so far outbowled South Africa’s fast bowlers. They have taken 11 wickets collectively, as Bangladesh took 20 wickets in an overseas Test for only the eighth time in their history.Related

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Just as out of the ordinary, however, has been South Africa’s almost total reliance on their spinners in this Test match. Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer and Dean Elgar have combined to bowl 84 overs so far, the most by South Africa’s spinners in a home Test in 57 years. Thanks to Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s efforts, the total from both sides is the highest number of overs of spin in South Africa since 1998.Harmer, playing his first Test in seven years, led the South African attack with four wickets on the second evening while Maharaj supported him with inch-perfect lengths for 37 overs, albeit wicketless. Maharaj and Harmer, who became the first spin pair to open the bowling in South Africa, then took three Bangladesh wickets within the first five overs of the fourth innings.Spin will continue to play a major role on the fifth day, and not just because of how the Kingsmead pitch has played. South Africa have a severely depleted pace attack in the absence of Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi, who are playing the IPL, and Anrich Nortje, who is injured.Bangladesh, meanwhile, have begun developing a good fast-bowling unit. They didn’t even miss Shoriful Islam, who has been critical to their recent success, as Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain and Khaled Ahmed combined brilliantly twice in the game.The role reversal has left both camps slightly bemused. South Africa batting coach Justin Sammons said the team had expected the Bangladesh fast bowlers to do well after their exploits in the ODI series, given their ability to bowl hard lengths and use reverse-swing.”It is interesting, it is quite funny actually,” Sammons said. “You’d think it will be the other way around. From our perspective, the guys have put in a lot of work against spin. We do back ourselves in turning conditions. Their seamers hit good lengths. They made scoring tough for us.”There was an expectation that their seam attack was going to be a challenge. We knew we had to bat really well against them. Their seamers bowled brilliantly in the ODI series. Their lengths were brilliant in the ODIs, and they showed that skill in this game. They also showed the ability to tail towards the end. We also can’t take anything away from Mehidy at the way he bowled. He has shown great discipline and control. We couldn’t underestimate any of their bowlers.”Simon Harmer has already bowled 43 overs and picked up five wickets in Durban•AFP/Getty ImagesBangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud said the visitors had come prepared to face a battery of fast bowling, but ended up succumbing to good bowling from the South African spin twins.”Certainly we didn’t expect it if you consider how the last few series panned out here,” he said. “We trained on bouncy and pacy pitches back in Bangladesh thinking we will obviously get those conditions here. A team however has to accept the conditions and adapt itself. We are used to spin conditions. I think [Yasir Ali] Rabbi’s run-out [in the first innings] was very costly. We may have taken the lead if he was around for a bit longer.”We didn’t execute well against their spinners. Harmer and Maharaj are really good bowlers. I don’t want to think too much about the three wickets today. We want to be as positive as possible tomorrow.”Mahmud said Bangladesh would have always picked the extra batter given Shakib Al Hasan is not around, but they don’t regret picking only one specialist spinner, and pointed out that they had picked the same combination when they had beaten New Zealand in Mount Maunganui earlier this year.”I think the bowlers came back strongly today,” Mahmud said. “Despite his shoulder injury, Taskin bowled really well today. He taped up his shoulder and took painkillers.”I don’t think we misread the conditions. They have picked three seamers and two spinners. We are missing Shakib quite a lot. Whenever he is not playing, we usually play an extra batter. We also had Taskin injured, so thankfully we picked three seamers in total. We also picked three seamers and one spinner in Mount Maunganui.”

Root insists he wants to continue, but who are the other runners and riders?

Andrew Miller18-Jan-2022As England begin their inquest into another abject Ashes campaign, one of the key issues is bound to be the captaincy, especially with the tour of the Caribbean beginning in March. ESPNcricinfo identifies six of the front-runners, for want of a better word, starting with the man who may yet remain at the helm…

Joe Root

At least he still wants the role … or claims to, at any rate. Joe Root has been England captain for five years and 61 Tests, more than any of his predecessors, and yet not even his second 4-0 Ashes thrashing can persuade him it’s time to jack it in. Whether that makes him heroic, pig-headed, oblivious or a prisoner of conscience, only he can truly say. But given his deep-seated concerns about the quality of the young players being sent to join his ranks, he clearly sees it as his duty to hold the line in the manner that serves his team best.The case against his retention is two-fold. Firstly, he has looked shattered after each of his Ashes beatings, and if he spends the next two years averaging in the low-30s, as he did in 2018 and 2019, then England’s batting will be in an even deeper hole. Secondly, aside from the loyalty he engenders as a thoroughly good egg, there’s nothing about Root’s leadership that would be missed if he returned to the ranks. Tactically he’s still a “craptain” – the self-deprecating nickname he resurrected for himself in 2017 – while more damningly, his crass handling of Jofra Archer (and latterly Ben Stokes, though doubtless Stokes was complicit in his own injury) is a serious black mark against his tenure.

Ben Stokes

Stokes’ only Test as captain ended in defeat•Getty Images, where England allrounders are concerned. Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff have been there and done that, and both men crashed and burned after being asked to lead their country while remaining the team’s brightest star. And yet, there are many reasons to believe that Stokes is cut from a different cloth to his predecessors. First and foremost, he is the ultimate team man – an unfailingly loyal deputy to his friend and captain Root, but ever-ready to answer the call when needed, most extraordinarily last summer, when he defied the pain of his as-yet unhealed broken finger and led a scratch ODI team to a 3-0 series win over Pakistan, in the wake of the main squad’s Covid outbreak. Botham and Flintoff in their pomp were their respective teams’ heartbeats. But that’s not quite the same thing.Secondly, the longer Stokes’ career goes on, the more his pre-eminence as a batter comes to the fore. Pat Cummins has shown that fast bowlers are perfectly capable of leadership (more of which later…) but they are also more liable to suffer tenure-interrupting injuries. The fact that Stokes played on this winter in spite of his side strain suggests that he’ll be better placed to resist the Botham/Flintoff folly of assuming they, and only they, can be the matchwinner in any adverse situation. He’s unlikely to be as shy about bowling himself as Root, England’s premier allrounder in 2021, but after a gruelling and confused Ashes performance, it’s probably in England’s wider interests that Stokes spends 2022 rediscovering his game, rather than worrying about taking on more responsibilities.

Rory Burns

Burns captained Surrey to the Championship in 2018•Getty ImagesA County Championship-winning captain with Surrey, and not only that, a man whose returns in that 2018 season were so far and away beyond any other batter – by runs scored and minutes batted – that no-one else on the circuit was remotely qualified to fill Alastair Cook’s immense shoes after his retirement that same year. And though Burns’ returns haven’t been stellar in recent seasons, he’s still been the best of the rest of England’s batting. He was the only man bar Stokes to make an Ashes hundred in the 2019 series, and the only man bar Root (with six) to reach three figures in 2021, against the world champions New Zealand at Lord’s.However, Burns seems all of a sudden to be on borrowed time in the England set-up. His first-ball duck at Brisbane was an indignity to scar even the most resilient of characters, but his dropping for the Boxing Day Test, with the series on the line, was a dramatic indication of how his stock has fallen. His failure to communicate like a senior player appears to have told against him, which effectively means his captaincy card is marked too. His attitude towards the media has also been deeply frosty for months, ever since his Twitter spat with the former England women’s player-turned-commentator Alex Hartley – the sort of PR gaffe that is unlikely to sit well with the ECB’s all-inclusive vibe.

Sam Billings

Billings has captaincy experience with Kent and Oval Invincibles•PA Images via Getty ImagesIt’s a measure of how far England have fallen that a player who, a week ago, was 90 minutes away from boarding a flight back to the UK, has not only driven 500 miles and nine hours to make his Test debut, but has emerged from the Ashes rubble as a viable captaincy candidate. That prospect was stepped up a notch after his first-innings 29 at Hobart (yes, things are that desperate …), then receded somewhat after his flaccid flick to mid-on in the final-day collapse. But in between whiles, Billings carried himself with composure, most particularly behind the stumps, where his sheer glee at being involved was radiated across England’s fielding effort – a devastating counterpoint to Jos Buttler’s self-absorbed misery of the first four games.In terms of his actual credentials, Billings is a curious case. He’s been around the England set-up for seven years now, having made his white-ball debut amid the post-World Cup reboot in 2015, but has played just 58 games out of a possible 185 – the sort of record that would be fittingly augmented by a one-off Test cap. Either way, that familiarity meant he was able to saunter into the dressing room as an old lag, and “add a bit of experience around the group” while placing his arm around a few battle-weary shoulders as well – including, you presume, his young team-mate Zak Crawley, whom he has skippered at Kent since 2018. In between injury, England and IPL call-ups – and despite some heat from one or two of the more county-militant members – Billings has a decent record in the role, having helped to keep the club in the Championship top flight, while taking them to the Blast title last summer too.

Stuart Broad

Broad has experience of captaining England, albeit in a different format•ICC/GettyFor 15 minutes at the end of the first day in Sydney, Stuart Broad demonstrated precisely why he will make such an outstanding pundit, as and when he trades the dressing-room for the Sky Sports commentary box. After delivering on the field with England’s first five-for of the series, he delivered off it too in front of the assembled media, with nothing less than a manifesto for the reboot of England’s Test fortunes: stop planning for tomorrow, start focussing on today. If a player performs, let him “own the shirt”; if he doesn’t, expect him to work for it. And for God’s sake, start scoring some runs…Frankly his address was as inspirational as anything England had hitherto produced on the field, and it awakened a dormant truth about a Test team that is sleepwalking to oblivion despite containing four of its greatest players of all time: the solution to their current troubles may lie deeper within. At the age of 35, Broad is two years older than Bob Willis was in 1982, the last time England picked a fast bowler as captain. But he’s still four years shy of his sidekick James Anderson, and besides, it’s been 11 years already since Broad was considered worthy of the T20 leadership. With the Ashes now gone, there’s a stark choice to be made about England’s old boys. Use their unrivalled knowledge to the max, or lose it. There’s certainly little point in preserving their energies for future engagements, which begs the question, why not let them leave their mark in the most indelible fashion possible?

Alex Lees

Alex Lees captained England Lions in Australia•Getty ImagesIt’s a thoroughly left-field notion, and it surely will not happen, but given how much value the ECB has placed in the England Lions set-up in recent times, is it out of the question that they might promote the current Lions skipper – a man who has already been tipped for a Caribbean call-up? Yes, it probably is – although England’s Test cricket has arguably not been at such a low ebb since 1988-89, so it would be fully in keeping with the current 1980s vibe for the selectors to go the full Chris Cowdrey.Lees enjoyed a passable season for Durham in 2021, averaging 39.06 with a solitary century against Warwickshire. However, he’s not even his club captain (that honour belongs to another Ashes-disaster cast-off, Scott Borthwick, and what a story that would be!) At present, the most accomplished England-qualified county skipper is arguably Somerset’s Tom Abell, but he’s just suffered a knee ligament injury during the Big Bash, so bang goes that notion. In fact, it’s probably best to pretend this paragraph never entered the public discourse…

A statistical review of the tournament and what made it unique

Sampath Bandarupalli31-May-2022Dominance of wrist spinners
The battle for the purple cap between Yuzvendra Chahal and Wanindu Hasaranga defined how wristspinners dominated through the tournament. Kuldeep Yadav was also in the race but finished fifth, while Rashid Khan found a place in the top ten wicket-takers.