The Blue Jays host the Dodgers in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night, with a shot at taking down the reigning champions and winning their first title since 1993.

While this year’s Blue Jays have had their fair share of “team of destiny” moments already in the postseason, the challenge of the Dodgers is simply on a different level. Los Angeles sports a lineup that can go bat-for-bat with Toronto, and a pitching staff the likes of which the Jays have not yet faced in the postseason.

Taking the mound for the Dodgers in Game 1 is two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, who so far this postseason has pitched 21 innings and given up just six hits and two runs while striking out 28. Will the Blue Jays be able to break through against Snell? Or will the lefty continue his dominant run with another great start on the road?

Below we take a look at how some of Toronto’s best bats match up against Snell.

All stats come with the help of StatHead.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is in the midst of one of the greatest postseason runs we have ever seen from a hitter, and looking worth every dollar of the $500 million contract extension he signed back in April. Vladdy is slashing an absolutely absurd .442/.510/.930 so far this postseason, with six home runs, 11 runs scored and 12 RBIs. He has struck out just three times.

The Blue Jays will need Guerrero to keep up his hot streak if they are going to take the title, but the slugger will have his work cut out for him against Snell on Friday night. Guerrero is just 2-for-9 in his career against Snell, with three walks and no strikeouts. He has not produced a hit against Snell since the 2020 season.

Obviously we are working with small sample sizes here, and it’s possible that Guerrero’s current hot streak is more indicative than any stats on previous plate appearances vs. Snell could be, but it’s worth noting that Toronto’s best hitter will be facing his toughest competition yet on the mound.

George Springer

The former England batsman looks back on 60 years in the game, including trying times as England coach in the 1990s 

Ivo Tennant20-May-2020This springtime, Keith Fletcher, who turns 76 today, celebrates 60 years of continuous employment as a cricketer and coach for both county and country.His longevity is remarkable. At the age of 16 he was on the Essex ground staff, wearing winkle-picker shoes and living on a pittance at Gants Hill, near the ground at Ilford. Now, he still runs his beloved county’s Under-15s, having represented, captained and coached England along the way.ALSO READ: Essex’s ebullient eighties (2016)Quite a life, and one he would choose all over again. He says there are “only three or four” individuals he has encountered whom he would not want inside his home in Newmarket, where Michael Holding and the racehorse trainer Sir Michael Stoute are friends and neighbours. Away from cricket he is to be found walking on the gallops, fishing, gardening, bird-watching, drinking wine, supporting Manchester United, and socialising with David Acfield, Dennis Amiss, Geoff Arnold, David Brown and plenty of other old cricketers when circumstances permit. He and his wife, Sue, go to Cyprus to visit Alan Knott – although he draws the line at Greek dancing. Fletcher is a highly contented old pro.The premature loss of both the England captaincy, in 1982, and the position of England head coach, in 1995 after just two years and a record of 15 defeats and five victories, did not embitter him. There were circumstances beyond his control. The sides in the 1990s were arguably the weakest in English history. “You play the cards you are dealt. We weren’t the greatest side,” he admits. “There were only four or five genuine Test players – the rest were not good enough.

Illy even suggested in interviews he should replace me as coach, seeing nothing wrong with such behaviour. I came to realise that is merely an attitude of mind in YorkshireFletcher on his relationship with Ray Illingworth

“When I was captain and coach, I was on my own. There was no sports psychologist – not that I’m a great believer in them – or bowling and batting coaches. You need someone to organise net sessions for you and go ahead to the grounds and see if the nets are prepared and to put them up. We are light years on from that and central contracts was the right way to go, but these days the set-up has gone too far because it stops people thinking for themselves. An approach between that of my time and now would be ideal.”I got on very well with Mike Atherton, my captain. He is a proper person, totally trustworthy and a really good bloke. I’m delighted about the success he and Nasser Hussain have had as commentators. Nasser could have captained Essex for a lot longer than he did. He was a fiery bugger, for sure, with a steely streak, which he needed, and he had a cricket brain about him and got everything out of his ability. You can’t ask for more.”If Fletcher has a regret now, it is not choosing Hussain ahead of Mark Ramprakash against West Indies in 1993-94. “Ramps technically was brilliant. You couldn’t pick a fault with his technique. He was technically a far better player than Nasser, but Nasser wanted to succeed. That is not saying Ramps didn’t, only that there had to be something going on between the ears. Thinking back, Nasser could have played in three Tests in the Caribbean.”There were others, Graeme Hick and Chris Lewis in particular, who did not excel as they were expected to do. “I started to get quite a bit out of Graeme. He could play but he needed people to believe in him. If he thought you wanted him in the side, he would play a lot better. Against fast bowling he couldn’t get his hands out of way, they got caught up in the body and he was too square-on against the short ball coming up into his ribs. West Indies’ fast bowlers were pretty good as well. It was difficult for him as he’d come into an England side without being an Englishman [having qualified after arriving from Zimbabwe]. Lewis was multi-talented but in some ways too nice. He could do it all, bowl, bat and field. We could have been talking about him as one of the top allrounders.”Mike Atherton and Fletcher got on, but did not enjoy much success•Getty ImagesOff the field but not necessarily in the background was Ray Illingworth, omnipresent in Fletcher’s career as his England colleague, captain and now chairman of selectors. It is fair to say that “the Yorkies”, as Fletcher calls them, are not his favourite people – not since he was jeered on his Test debut at Headingley in 1968 for dropping difficult catches that the crowd felt their own Philip Sharpe would have held.Illingworth, Geoff Boycott and Fred Trueman – one of the three players he would most like to watch again (Garry Sobers and Dennis Lillee being the others) – were “proper cricketers”, which in Fletch-speak is the ultimate compliment. But they were not “proper people”. Fletcher could not work out why Illingworth, having criticised him publicly, would then treat him as a long-lost friend whenever they met. “Illy even suggested in interviews he should replace me as coach, seeing nothing wrong with such behaviour. I came to realise that the scheming that went into his elevation in the game is merely an attitude of mind in Yorkshire.”There was no such scheming at Chelmsford. Doug Insole, Graham Gooch, the 1979 side who became champions for the first time in Essex’s history, Acfield (a long-time dining companion), Alastair Cook and plenty of others are indeed “proper”. Hussain tells, against himself, the amusing story of when he and Fletcher were watching the young Cook bat in a 2nd XI match. “Don’t worry about your game, watch him,” said the Essex guru, Fletcher. “He’s going to be a superstar.”

Ravi Bopara was more talented and could have become a better player, but Alastair [Cook] got everything out of his ability

“I don’t think so,” responded Hussain as the gawky left-hander struggled to get the ball off the square. Fletcher knew. He had coached Cook in the county’s U-15s. “Ravi Bopara was more talented and could have become a better player, but Alastair got everything out of his ability. I used to do one-on-ones with him in the winter nets, throwing down a soft ball and saying, ‘Hit the bloody thing to cow corner.’ Far safer to hit the ball there than to extra cover. He was a public-school batter and I’d tell him he couldn’t hit every ball to mid-off and mid-on because there would be fielders there.”In fact, Alastair had a better technique when he was 20 than when he ended his Test career. Obviously as you get older you develop different habits, bad habits. When I told Goochie, by then Essex first-team coach, that he was ready to play, Graham said, ‘Well if that’s what you think, he’ll play.'”Other than a wish to watch Sobers once more, Fletcher generally does not constantly revisit the past. He harbours no resentment that Mike Denness and Mike Brearley led England ahead of him, even though he was patently a better batsman. “I didn’t think about it and I wouldn’t have gone behind their backs,” he said. “I always thought like a captain and I would talk to Tony Greig, a very good friend, about tactics. But it would have been nice if I had been given the captaincy younger than when I was 37. By then your eyes go a little bit. For the four years I was at my peak, through to 36, I didn’t play Test cricket.”Fletcher captained England on their tour of India in 1981-82•Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesFletcher feels now that it was “mad” helmets did not come into the game earlier, although when they did, in 1978, he struggled to adjust to wearing a grille and could not sight the ball properly. “We never talked about head protection, not even after Ewen Chatfield nearly died in New Zealand in 1974-75. After being hit by Peter Lever he was saved only by Bernie Thomas, our physio, being on the ground. When we played against Lillee and Jeff Thomson in Australia that winter, the pitches were quick and they were also uneven and difficult to play on. But I never felt in danger. It was harder for Arnold and Derek Underwood – we should have thought more about those down the batting order.”He would have liked to have been better paid. “When I was in digs at Gants Hill I was on £4 a week and my rent was just under £3. When I started playing Test cricket, I was paid £100 a match. We were taken advantage of, although we didn’t realise that. The administrators still wanted to run cricket as an amateur game and not pay people. I would certainly have joined World Series Cricket if I had been asked in 1977. I would have gone to South Africa with Gooch’s party in 1982 had I not been England captain and had a benefit from Essex, which I had to run. I was offered nearly £50,000 to go and politics wouldn’t have affected my thinking.”ALSO READ: Gary Ballance: ‘If I don’t play for England again, I’m satisfied with the career I’ve had’As it was, Peter May, his boyhood hero and the chairman of selectors, sacked him after just one, dull, series in India in 1981-82, seemingly without considering that Fletcher had remained loyal to his employers.None of these occurrences dampened his enthusiasm for the game. When he eventually ceases to work as a coach, he will continue to go to Chelmsford to pass on his assessment of Essex cricketers. He will be in the committee room with Acfield or behind the arm in the press box, where he is held in great affection. If pressed, he will see in the mind’s eye Trevor Bailey, who took him on the staff and who would drive him all the way to Headingley in third gear and give him his first-class debut in 1962. “On and off the pitch I’ve loved every minute of the last 60 years.”

The three, and James Anderson, have been in the spotlight this summer

Mark Nicholas13-Aug-2020Stuart Broad has been much in the news – his runs and wickets the result of a special talent, his fine and demerit point the result of petulance. His father Chris, the match referee in this case, answers for both. Stuart is 34, too old for either, you might argue, and something of a Peter Pan. He talks about the possibilities of life as if it is just beginning and accepts challenges without the doubts that hover above most others who have been around since the days before Lalit Modi announced “Lights, camera, auction” in the build-up to the first IPL in 2008. Broad made his debut as an England one-day cricketer in 2006 and followed with a Test cap in 2007. It’s a long time ago for one still steaming in. He has become an example to the rookies around him who see a man 14 years on from his first ball in the colours of his country and who still so desperately cares.An attraction in this England side is the wide range of ages. The bright faces of youth cannot help but display enthusiasm and joy at their luck; Jimmy Anderson, now 38, cannot help but emit irritation at his lack of it. It seemed reasonable for Anderson to point out that he had one bad game, though closer analysis of recent figures suggest that the kryptonite is taking hold. To some degree he is a victim of his own success: after all, 600 wickets creates high expectation. Almost inevitably, he is now trying too hard and has therefore found his usually efficient rhythm elusive.This is perhaps the most infuriating thing about sport: the more you know, the less able you are to apply it. Tiger Woods holes fewer putts now than in his pomp because he is tight. Why should that be? Because he now knows the result of failure and because the next one – the one back in the old days – is no longer a given. At times in the last Test, at Old Trafford, Anderson appeared to be trying so hard that it hurt. Rhythm comes from relaxation in the moment of effort. Anderson has forgotten how to, or dare not, let go. Someone should remind him to loosen off those shoulders and find the rubber in that wrist before it is too late. Selectors tend not to find sympathy for age. Ask Broad.ALSO READ: Joe Root backs James Anderson to make amends for Manchester strugglesThree weeks ago, Broad was seething or, in his own words, “frustrated, angry and gutted”. Fair enough. Ben Stokes, captain for that first Test against West Indies, said he had no regrets about leaving out a bloke with 485 wickets and added how pleased he was with Broad’s punchy response. Broad, of course, was only revving up the engine when he spoke. Picked for the second Test, he took three wickets in each innings and made 11 not out – a significant innings against good fast bowlers. More of that in a moment, but for now, point made. The next Test led to one of his most memorable and satisfying games in an England shirt. There was a reason for this. Or another reason beyond the proof of his point.Who could have envisioned Ben Stokes climbing up from the ignominy of that Bristol bar fight onto a pedestal reserved for the greats of the English game?•Jon Super/Getty ImagesTo unravel the Broad of the last month we must go back to the same ground in 2014 when Varun Aaron hit him in the face. Twice in consecutive balls Broad had hooked Aaron for six but, rather as was the case with Andy Roberts, Aaron had another gear. The third ball in this trifecta was noticeably quicker and finding its way between the grille and peak of his helmet broke his nose and gave him a black eye worthy of the name. Worse, it gave him nightmares in the weeks and months which followed. Worse still, it put the development of his batting into reverse.Before that match, Broad had 2144 Test runs from 72 matches at an average of 23.82. (In 2008, nine Tests into his career, he averaged 37.) Since then, he has made 1164 Test runs from 68 matches at 13.85.”I have had nightmares about it. I have had times when I have felt the ball just about to hit my face in the middle of the night,” Broad has openly said. “After my operation – I don’t know if the drugs had anything to do with it – I would wake up feeling like a ball had actually hit me in the face. Often I see balls flying at me. My jaw clicks from it. Yes, it has affected my batting, but I am working with a psychologist on the process to deal with it.” That’s pretty heavy stuff. There’s no explaining the reaction: some get back on the bike, others just can’t.Cricket brings two fears, mental and physical. Dealing with one is okay – a rite of passage to all but a very few – dealing with both is a problem. They fight with each other and the mental usually wins. Broad’s batting became increasingly feeble until it was embarrassing. He knew it, we knew it. He tried new techniques but none with anything but the same humiliation when it came to lights, camera, action. A man who made 167 in a Lord’s Test match couldn’t make a trick.ALSO READ: Stuart Broad, England’s spring-heeled superstarThen, just the other day – the 25th July – he smashed nine fours and a six in a score of 62 that came in just 45 balls and included all the old free swings of the bat and gorgeous timing. His high backlift and open bat face are made for this sort of counterattack, and attack he did, as if possessed by a new mind. Confidence flowed from a performance that defiantly backed up the wickets on his return to the team and fuelled the engine for those who came next. Ten wickets came next, including the mark of 500 in total, the Man-of the-Match award and the don’t think of dropping me again statement. Oh confidence, you temptress! One moment there, the next gone to some other hungry fellow. Ask Jimmy. Come to think of it, ask Ben.Although captaincy has weighed on his batting, Joe Root (first from left) has grown into the role and cuts a calm figure on top•Gareth Copley/ECB/Getty ImagesWitness Stokes out of the box and batting as if each ball was the accuser. Witness Stokes bowling with pace but not quite with the full gamut of his personality. In the matches immediately post-courtroom, Stokes was understandably wary. Like all of these guys, he was on show and to be judged. Wisely, for a Test or two, he lay a little low. That’s hard, because as others question you, so you start questioning yourself. Throwing off the shackles of self-doubt is the magic trick. To be yourself is to be anyone and to achieve anything, even the magic. Put another way – inside the shell there is darkness, outside the shell there is light.It didn’t take Ben long, one discipline stoking the other, press conferences made easier, folk in the street all dewy-eyed again. Within 11 months he was a national treasure, heroically winning the World Cup final and the Headingley Ashes Test with performances of staggering quality, precision and self-belief. Taking him across the summer of 2019, has anyone ever played better cricket for England? Lord Botham perhaps. Andrew Flintoff? Probably not. This stuff rubs off on the others. Allrounders feed allrounders until they are all at it – Stokes, Chris Woakes, Ben Foakes, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran et al. And Stuart Broad. Mainly, good figures in one discipline will fire up the other but in Buttler’s case, a miserable match with the gloves inspired a brilliant one with the bat. It is, of course, where Anderson misses out. Why, he even dropped a sharp chance in the gully, one he’d reckon to take eight out of ten.Pulling these powerful men together is the captain, Joe Root, whose longer hair appears to have brought him gravitas. Root bats, bowls, catches at slip and calls the shots; he is crucial to the team’s equilibrium and widely respected for his honesty and loyalty. He stuck close by Stokes during the courtroom drama and wanted him on the field the minute it was done. “We are as one” was the message this sent, and it ensured that the impetus for the decision was shared rather than apportioned.ALSO READ: Joe Root’s legacy as captain remains undetermined, but he has credit in the bankHe has grown into the captaincy, as many do if it comes to them early. Graeme Smith says it took him four years to grasp the complexities of the job, and most particularly, the relationship between his responsibilities to the players and to himself. Root’s 42 in the run chase last weekend was a thing of beauty in its construction and pace, both setting the standard and offsetting the fear. When he was third out with the score on 96, he must have wondered if he had blown it. It niggles Root that the high scores have deserted him since his elevation to the captaincy. So eager is he to fashion the game that he forgets its tendency to look away.This is something Stokes does well. Root seems wedded to his chosen style of confrontation with each opponent, Stokes is more willing to think on his feet and adapt. They are quite a pair, captain and vice-captain, two superb cricketers who rank with any in England’s long history.Such a judgement applies to Anderson and Broad, of course. Anderson has been a master craftsman, one for the ages. Broad claims to be improving, an observation with which I would agree. His fuller length is more consistent than at any time in his career, and now that, eureka, he has seen the value in bowling straighter for longer, he will get greater return for movement both in the air and off the seam.The best things about these players is that they continue to learn. Broad has adjusted his run-up and wrist position in the last 18 months, initiatives that take courage and work. From knowledge comes understanding and from understanding comes power. He is an intriguing cricketer and one of the smartest bowlers to have played the game. Maybe the trick is to keep writing him off.

Meet V Ramesh Kumar, who went from handling a textile business to becoming a curator at Chepauk

Nagraj Gollapudi30-Jan-2021There will be a 42-year-old debutant in the first Test between India and England, which starts on February 5. He will also be part of the second Test, also to be played in Chennai, from February 13. In his hands could lie the script of the two Tests.In the first week of 2021, V Ramesh Kumar got a call from the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA). He was asked to take charge as the curator for the first two Tests of the England series. Ramesh was taken by complete “surprise”. He had never prepared a pitch for even a first-class match. In less than a month Ramesh now had to get Chepauk, as the MA Chidambaram Stadium is popularly known, ready to host two Test matches in a marquee series with World Test Championship points at stake for both contestants.”I was surprised,” Ramesh says, recalling the moment he was asked to be the curator for two Tests. “I asked TNCA for a couple of days because I needed to discuss it with my family because the big question was how would I manage my business if I took up the offer.”An accidental curator There is nothing about Ramesh that matches the traditional profile of a head groundsman in India. Normally curators at most Indian venues have learned the art of pitch-making on the run and have evolved with experience.In contrast, Ramesh, who comes from the textile manufacturing town of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, is a businessman and runs two successful apparel companies: Cosimo International, a garment manufacturing company that exports to firms in Europe, and Allwin Colours, a dyeing company. Along with his wife Malarvizhi Giri, who is a chartered accountant, Ramesh manages over 700 people at both companies. Ramesh also has an MBA in international business in addition to an MS in psychology.A successful athlete during his college days, Ramesh represented Tamil Nadu at the 110m hurdles and was part of the state’s relay teams and even won two medals at the national championships in 1996. About a decade ago Ramesh launched the Tirupur School of Cricket as part of his dream to help young boys develop into good players. He bought land and constructed a small ground with two matting pitches, one turf pitch and 12 practice strips surrounded by “lush green” outfield. To manage the ground and pitch he would need to recruit groundstaff from Chennai, which was proving difficult, so he decided to learn the craft himself. Luckily for him the TNCA had a suggestion.”I got a call from the TNCA, suggesting I attend the BCCI course on pitch-making,” Ramesh says. “I wanted to learn it in a professional way. I want to do something for the sport considering I am taking care of 80 kids at my academy.” The course was the brainchild of Daljit Singh, former Bihar cricketer and a well-known head groundsman at Mohali, who retired in 2019 as the head of the BCCI’s grounds and pitches committee.Ramesh started making pitches in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Salem, for Under-16, -19 and -23 BCCI tournaments after passing the BCCI course in July 2018. He also travelled to other Indian venues in the IPL to get more insights from senior curators. During IPL 2019, the TNCA wanted him to take charge at Chepauk, but business commitments did not allow him to.Ramesh reckons the TNCA might have been impressed by his working style which might have influenced them to assign him such a key job, where pitches not just need to be result-oriented but are also assigned ratings by the ICC based on their behaviour. “Having been running businesses I can manage teams and time. Once I had committed to TNCA I decided I will do the job. Also I can segregate things which is key in running a business. I am a curator and have to work as a groundsman. My business is different.”People who have seen Ramesh at work including senior TNCA officials point out that man-management is his biggest strength. Ramesh says he has a strong team of about 26 groundsmen who have been working hard for the past few weeks to prepare for the two Tests, India’s first international matches since the start of the pandemic last year.To ensure that things fall in place the BCCI asked Taposh Chatterjee, part of the board’s pitch committee, to base himself in Chennai to oversee the preparations and be the guiding hand and light for Ramesh.‘Chepauk pitch with English look’Traditionally the Chepauk pitch has worn a bald look. However this time around it has been lush green across the square and the outfield. The TNCA had hosted a few practice matches at the venue ahead of the group phase of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the first half of January.”There is no open spot. The outfield has a soft bed and is lush green,” Ramesh says.There are eight pitches on the Chepauk square. According to Ramesh, he’s working along with Chatterjee on four pitches, two each for each of the Tests.Ben Stokes trains in Chennai•ECBThe groundsmen are working on two different types of pitch with varying soil profiles. One is purely red soil, but its character is different to the red soil at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, which generally provides bounce and assistance to all bowlers. The red soil in Chennai, on the other hand, can become flat quickly once rolled. This is one reason – at the moment – the pitch will have a greenish cover on the first day. The second pitch has a mixed profile: a base with the local red soil of about three inches with a top layer comprising black clay. A final decision on which pitch will host the first Test will be made in the days leading up to the match.The immediate past is bound to have a bearing on the nature of the pitch. The last first-class match played at the ground was the Ranji Trophy contest in January 2020 between Tamil Nadu and Railways. That game, which also featured India’s main spinner R Ashwin, finished in two days. That pitch was understood to be purely red soil.The last Test match played at the ground was coincidentally between India and England in 2016, with the hosts winning in the final hour on the fifth day. It was the match where Karun Nair scored a triple century and KL Rahul fell one run short of a double century as India amassed their highest Test score.Ramesh is confident about what could be in store in the next two weeks. “We are working to get a sporting wicket,” he says. “It will be a typical Chepauk pitch with English look. It will work for all three departments. It will be a keen contest between bat and ball. First day, there will be something for the fast bowlers. Second and third days will favour batsmen. Fourth day onwards there will be wear and tear and support the spinners.”Ramesh is aware that he might be an established businessman, but as a curator he is inexperienced compared to his colleagues, several of whom are not just senior to him in age, but have been preparing pitches in first-class and international cricket for decades. He understands he might have the knowledge but lacks the experience that will come handy in crunch moments during a Test match.”Every day I am learning something now. I can’t say I am a specialist. As a groundsman, you must understand there is a different microclimate, different soil, different grass. A lot of groundsmen here are the son of the soil. They have been living here, worked here for the past 20-25 years. I take all their inputs. I always listen to what all they say. But the final decision is mine.”Under the guidance of Chatterjee, Ramesh has been understanding the intricacies of pitch-making: from fertilising the soil, to rethatching grass, to rolling and watering the pitches in a fashion where the surface does not become a dustbowl and crumble from first day. Ramesh says he is confident. “It should be a good contest. I am expecting good cricket. Both teams should enjoy. We are in safe hands. Our preparations are on the mark. I am ready.”In the next two weeks Ramesh is bound to get introduced to the pressures of Test cricket. “Once I completed my course I did have the ambition of making a Test-match pitch one day. This is very early. I never expected the day will come.”And Ramesh is anything but nervous. “No. The only thing is there is only a three-day break between the first two Test matches, but I’m very comfortable. Simultaneously I’m working on pitches for both matches. I have a plan, I have a system, I have a schedule. I am not nervous. This is my first assignment, that is the only thing. Straightaway I am making a Test pitch.”

He ended his innings on Friday with 1001 maximums to his name, 311 ahead of second-placed Kieron Pollard

Bharath Seervi30-Oct-2020When Chris Gayle tonked young Kartik Tyagi over the lengthy leg-side boundary for his seventh six of the night, for the Kings XI Punjab against the Rajasthan Royals, it took him up to an incredible 1000 career sixes in T20 cricket, the first to get to the mark. Already more than 3000 runs in front of Kieron Pollard when it comes to most runs in T20s, Gayle has – again – gone where no man has in the shortest format, stretching his lead at the top of the sixes’ chart to 311 by the time he finished up, with Pollard second at 690.”A thousand maximums – another record? Oh, man,” he joked when asked about the achievement on Star Sports. “I don’t know, I just have to give thanks. Have to give thanks for hitting it well at age 41. A lot of dedication and hard work has paid off over the years. Still here, still doing it, same way. Very grateful.”ESPNcricinfo LtdHere’s a look at Gayle’s incredible achievement, through numbers.1001 – Sixes for Gayle in T20s. His first six came playing for Jamaica against Bermuda in the Stanford 20/20 in 2006. He has 1041 fours in the format too, just 40 more than his number of sixes.349 – Number of sixes by Gayle in the IPL, which are the most by a batsman in any T20 league. He also has the most sixes in the CPL (162), Bangladesh Premier League (132) and T20 World Cup (60).263 – Sixes by Gayle for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the most he has hit for a single team, followed by 124 for the Jamaica Tallawahs, and 105 sixes for West Indies (in T20Is).61 – Sixes Gayle has hit against the Kings XI Punjab, his most against a single opposition. He has also smashed 84 sixes for Kings XI since he joined them in 2018.135 – Sixes hit by Gayle in 2015, his most in a calendar year. He next best is 121 in 2012. Overall, he has hit 100-plus sixes in six different years – 2011 to 2017, barring 2014.18 – Most sixes by Gayle in a T20 match, for the Rangpur Riders against the Dhaka Dynamites in the BPL final in 2017. He hit 17 sixes in his knock of 175* for the Royal Challengers in 2013. No other batsman has hit more than 16 sixes in a T20 match.17 – Sixes for Gayle against Dwayne Bravo in T20s, his most against a single bowler. He has hit 12 sixes against Imran Tahir and 11 each against Piyush Chawla, Rashid Khan and Shahid Afridi.18 – Number of times Gayle has hit ten or more sixes in a T20 match. No other batsman has done it more than three times – Evin Lewis, Andre Russell and Shreyas Iyer.

Statistical highlights from the four-match Test series between India and England

Sampath Bandarupalli09-Mar-202181.54 Percentage of reviews struck down in this Test series, the second-highest percentage among the 26 Test series with at least 25 reviews since September 2017. Only 12 of the 65 DRS reviews by India and England got upheld across the four matches. Of the 65 DRS reviews in this series, 31 alone were against Nitin Menon, easily the most for an umpire during a Test series in the past four years.ESPNcricinfo LtdESPNcricinfo Ltd46.6 Bowling strike rate during this Test series, the best in a Test series of four-plus matches. The Indian bowlers bagged 80 wickets at a strike rate of 42, while the visitors took 58 wickets at 52.8.ESPNcricinfo Ltd0 Instances of a player being the lone centurion and the only player to claim five-plus wicket haul(s) for his team in a four-plus match Test series before Joe Root did it against India in this series. Root scored England’s only individual century of the series, and also accounted for the only five-wicket haul by the visitors.ESPNcricinfo Ltd104 Wickets taken by spin bowlers in this Test series are the third-most number of wickets claimed by spinners in a Test series. The five-match Test series between India and England in 1972-73 saw as many as 109 wickets claimed by spinners, while 108 wickets went to spin bowlers during the India and England series in 2016.67 Wickets for the Indian spinners during this series, the most for any team’s spinners in a four-match Test series. India surpassed their record of 65 wickets during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home in 2013.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4 Number of fifty-plus partnerships for the first three wickets in this series, the second-fewest number of fifty-plus stands among the 220 Test series with 40-plus partnerships for the first three wickets . West Indies’ tour of New Zealand in 1955-56 had only three fifty-plus stands across 41 partnerships for the first three wickets.19.83 Average runs per wicket in this Test series for England, the third-lowest by them in a four-plus match Test series . The England team averaged only 19.11 in the four-match Test series during the West Indies tour in 1934-35, and only 19.1 in the five-match series in South Africa in 1905-06.31 Number of ducks across four matches in this series, the most ducks in a four-match Test series. The record was previously held by England vs Pakistan series in 2010 with 29 ducks.

Five matches give plenty of time for various strands to play out and here are a few things to watch for

Andrew McGlashan21-Feb-2021Australia’s finisherThere’s no shortage of options to bat at the top of Australia’s order – it’s almost a problem of plenty – but the big question is whether they can bed in a stable No. 6 ahead of the World Cup. Mitchell Marsh was recalled for the final match of the series against England last year and struck an unbeaten 39 to secure a consolation victory in the troublesome position. He has not played since, however, due to an injury which kept him out against India. If he’s able to bowl he brings further balance to the side so may get the first crack in New Zealand. Ashton Turner, the Perth Scorchers batsman, is another option having earned a place in this squad largely on the strength of being seen as a specialist finisher. There will likely remain some flexibility over who takes the role on a match-by-match basis depending on the circumstances of an innings, but Australia would like some clarity on their first-choice option.Martin Guptill’s formHe is under some pressure heading into this series having not made a T20I half-century in his last 10 innings and scoring 85 runs in five innings against West Indies and Pakistan this season. Four innings in the Super Smash last month brought three single-figure scores before injury curtailed his tournament and put him doubt to face Australia. Guptill’s overall record will buy him credit, but with the development of Glenn Phillips, Devon Conway, Tim Seifert plus the uncapped Finn Allen pushing very hard after a prolific domestic campaign a slump in form could prove costly – Ross Taylor has already been moved aside from the T20I squad this season. “Gup is a class player,” coach Gary Stead said ahead of the series. “If you watched him bat in the nets [on Saturday] you wouldn’t have known there was any issue at all. He hit it like a million dollars.”Related

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Plentiful pace bowlingPace bowling is another area where Australia do not lack for options. Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood are not on this tour because they had been due to be touring South Africa, but this squad features two recent IPL millionaires in Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith, the experience of Kane Richardson and the left-arm pace of Jason Behrendorff who has impressed in white-ball cricket for Australia before. Daniel Sams and Andrew Tye, the latter having found an extra gear to his bowling, have also enjoyed considerable BBL success. Even if the World Cup squads need to be larger later in the year due to Covid-19 there is huge competition for spots. Cases can be made in this series.Who makes way for Ferguson?New Zealand will have a bit to ponder as well when all their players are fit. Lockie Ferguson, who took 5 for 21 against West Indies late last year, is sidelined with a stress fracture of the back but will likely be a first-choice pick when fit. With two spinners almost a certainty in India, there will probably only be room for three frontline quicks – at most – in the final XI. Trent Boult will be a lock, so Tim Southee (nine wickets in his last four T20Is), Kyle Jamieson (another big IPL earner) and Hamish Bennett, plus a few from outside this current squad, including Adam Milne who was recently at the BBL, could be playing off for positions.Are the gloves on or off?Matthew Wade will be the first-choice Australia wicketkeeper in this series and would now appear to have the inside track for the World Cup following the dropping of Alex Carey (who was included in South Africa tour squad) during the series in England. It would now appear that Australia will look to have their wicketkeeper in the top three, although that’s still far from certain given the absence of David Warner and Steven Smith from this series. If Josh Philippe scores runs in New Zealand he will make a strong claim for further selection after two prolific BBL campaigns. Ben McDermott can also take the gloves but would appear to be a back-up on this trip and still an outside chance of the World Cup.New Zealand’s seam-bowling allrounderThis is Jimmy Neesham’s position at the moment but it’s a role that could come under scrutiny for the World Cup and it could come down to how New Zealand balance their side. Colin de Grandhomme, who isn’t part of this series, has been sidelined for much of this season and has only recently returned to bowling in domestic cricket but his T20I strike-rate (143.23) makes him an attractive option in the middle order although his last five T20I innings (albeit a long time ago) were 7,6, 0, 3 and 5. However, it could be that they look to Jamieson, who has yet to face a delivery in T20Is, and there is likely to be close attention paid to how his batting goes at the IPL as much as his bowling.

This may have been England’s most disappointing batting display of the series

George Dobell04-Mar-2021If you wanted to be positive – and you gotta be positive, right? – you might argue that England showed some signs of improvement on the first day of the fourth Test.They scored 200, for goodness sake. They hadn’t done that in their previous five innings. And, in making 205, they surpassed the 193 runs they made in both innings combined in the third Test. The especially upbeat might even take comfort in the likelihood that this game, unlike the previous one, will go into a third day. Indeed, there’s a chance India’s first innings might still be in progress by the time it does.But just because Titanic probably bounced a little when it hit the ocean floor, it doesn’t mean there was reason for celebrations on the poop deck. For this felt like a significant missed opportunity. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the pitches in the previous couple of Tests – really, let’s not get bogged down with that here – there could be no reasonable complaints about this surface. Indeed, offering something to bowlers of all types and a fair opportunity to score for batsmen, you might well argue it has been an excellent pitch to this point. And if a team wins the toss on such a surface, they surely need to be compiling a first-innings total in excess of 300 and batting into the second day.Related

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Seen in that light, this may have been England’s most disappointing batting display of the series. Again, whatever the rights and wrongs of those previous surfaces, few would dispute they have been hugely demanding. And while England’s scores – 134, 164, 112 and 81 in their last four outings – were no doubt inadequate, they were many mitigating factors. Batting has, at times, been desperately tough.There were few such mitigating factors here. Yes, this India attack is terrific. Mohammed Siraj, gaining movement both ways and generating a sharp pace, performed so well that Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t even missed. But you pretty much expect high-quality bowling at Test level. The points is: there were no puffs of dust when the ball pitched here; there were no devils lurking in this pitch.But perhaps there were in the minds of a few England players? Certainly Dom Sibley and Ben Stokes still seemed to be anxious about the one that turned sharply when they missed the one that went straight. And Zak Crawley looked so determined to hit Axar Patel off his length that he became the bowler’s second wicket within 11 balls of being introduced into the attack. On this surface, there was no need for a high-risk approach. On this surface, the percentage shot was less dramatic.And for all the talk about being “fearless” ahead of the match, there wasn’t much sign of confidence in England’s team selection. Instead, it suggested a lack of confidence in the ability of the specialist batsmen to get the job done. It looked as if they were still coming to terms with the challenge in the previous Test and over-compensating to the faults of selection in that game. You wonder what message such a selection sent through the team; it felt like seeing your pilot strap on his parachute.To make this performance more galling from an England perspective, they enjoyed some significant fortune in winning the toss. Had they been obliged to bowl first, the gamble of going into this game with only two seamers – one of whom hasn’t bowled 10 overs in a match, let alone an innings, since July – would have been exposed. It may yet be on the second day.There were some positive signs. Ollie Pope again looked quick on his feet and generally played the spin well, while Dan Lawrence looked busy and confident in registering the second-highest score of the innings. Most of all, Stokes looked, for a couple of hours, as if he were coming to terms with the conditions and the bowling more with each innings.Dan Lawrence started positively on his recall•Getty ImagesStill, it’s 10 innings in succession without reaching 40 for Pope now, while Lawrence’s dismissal, nowhere near the pitch of the ball after coming down the track, was just a bit soft. As Stokes accepted afterwards, scores of 50 don’t define Tests. England may have learned a little from their tour, but there’s clearly plenty more to learn.If England were going to claw their way back into the series, they really needed to make full use of this pitch at its most benign and post a match-defining first-innings total. As it is, they have allowed India an opportunity to bat before the anticipated deterioration has begun in earnest. They may already have surrendered the advantage of winning the toss.The truth is, you don’t always have to be positive. Not if it means taking chances and backing your attacking game, anyway. Very often, on good surfaces, you can simply be competent if you trust your defence. England had a terrific opportunity at the start of this day. They will know they failed to take it.

From Jos Buttler to Dom Sibley, we take a look at whose star has risen and which players missed out

Andrew Miller10-Oct-2021WinnersJos Buttler
More than anyone, Buttler epitomises the stand-off that England and Australia have endured in the run-in to this Ashes squad announcement. Of all the players who were uneasy about the quarantine restrictions in store, no one felt it more than England’s vice-captain – an integral member of the T20 World Cup squad, and also the father of two young daughters, the second of whom was born last month. With the prospect of three months on the road, his apparent refusal to travel unless the players’ families were factored into the plans was critical to a number of concessions being granted – even if a few “critical” details remain to be resolved. In a purely playing capacity, Buttler’s recent Test form is not a lot to write home about. He has passed fifty once in 10 innings in 2021 so far, although when he made his return to the Test team in 2018, you suspect that England’s Ashes tour was always the endgame. Rather like the absent Stokes, some characters are just the sort you need for the toughest assignments.Dom Bess
It’s been a rocky road for Bess in the past year. His anguish in India in the spring was palpable, as he became a rather unfortunate fall guy for England’s wider failings on spinning surfaces at Chennai and Ahmedabad – despite never looking at his best, he had fronted up with 17 wickets in England’s three consecutive wins in Asia, after all, including a five-for at Galle in his first outing of the winter. He never came close to a recall this summer despite being included in a handful of squads later in the summer, but then neither did his former Somerset spin-twin Jack Leach, as England chose to field a seam-only attack for their first three Tests, until an abortive return for Moeen Ali against India. But now, with Moeen retired, Bess has an unlikely chance to reassert his status as England’s No. 1 spinner – Australia is an unforgiving venue for such a comeback, particularly as a fingerspinner. But England admire his all-round package, including a compact and combative batting technique in the lower-middle order. In the absence of Stokes, Moeen, Sam Curran et al, the need for de facto allrounders may yet tip the scales in his favour.Dom Bess won a place in England’s Ashes squad•PA Images/GettyJoe Root
Talking of anguish, you could see it in Root’s features when he spoke to the media at the height of the Ashes impasse a fortnight ago. As England’s captain, his desire to present a united front on behalf of his players was visibly at odds with his “desperation” to take his sensational batting form back to the most notable country in which he has yet to make a Test hundred, and set about making amends for England’s 4-0 beating in 2017-18 – a tour which ended with him retiring with exhaustion during his final unbeaten half-century of the campaign in Sydney. At the age of 30, and with the World No. 1 batting ranking under his belt, Root travels as England’s best prospect of upsetting the odds – and as the Barmy Army have helpfully pointed out, he does so with more Test runs this year than his opposite number Tim Paine has amassed in his entire career. There’s nothing perfect about the circumstances of this tour, but for Root himself, this may be his greatest shot yet at Ashes glory.LosersBen Stokes
For the second time in the pomp of his career, Stokes looks set to miss an Ashes tour of Australia, one of the ultimate highlights for any England cricketer. In 2017-18, his availability – or lack thereof – was the subject of an intense and destabilising period of speculation in the wake of his arrest outside a Bristol nightclub, and so England have nipped all doubt in the bud this time round with a very to-the-point statement that he is “not available for selection”, given his ongoing break on mental health grounds. Nevertheless, after an apparently successful follow-up operation on his injured left finger, the ECB did state that he would undergo “intensive” rehabilitation “for the next four weeks” – an oddly specific timeframe given England’s departure date in early November.Dom Sibley
Eighteen months ago, Sibley looked like the coming man in England’s Test ranks. At a time when Chris Silverwood, newly promoted to head coach, was re-emphasing the virtues of batting time and posting 400-run first-innings scores, his bloodless crease occupation was just the ticket for a team whose middle order was still pumped with post-World Cup adrenalin and were rather grateful for the chill he brought to their tempo. A gutsy maiden hundred in Cape Town helped turned the tide on a thrilling South Africa tour in January 2020, and six months later he added another against West Indies – again enabling his team to come back from a first Test loss. This summer, however, his strokelessness became his undoing – in particular his inability to rotate the strike and release the pressure on his batting partners. He was ditched after two Tests of the India series, and despite a return to form in Warwickshire’s County Championship victory, he’s not yet being trusted for a return. Zak Crawley, in particular, can be grateful for the perceived higher ceiling to his talent, after his year from hell with the bat.James Vince made a memorable half-century in opening Test of the 2017-18 Ashes•Getty ImagesJames Vince
Let’s face it, it’s the one name we all secretly thought might be in with a shout on this tour. Dawid Malan is back in favour, after all, having proven relatively successful on the 2017-18 tour with a century in Perth, but without having featured in Test cricket since the subsequent summer. Similarly, Vince has been lying in abeyance ever since that trip too – and who knows how different history might have been had he not been run out for 83 on the first day of the series at Brisbane? After an innings of such pure and unfettered strokeplay, you wonder if he might still be batting now but for that direct hit. His most recent Test innings was 76 against New Zealand at Christchurch four months later, and he played a walk-on part in the World Cup win since then too. But despite some flickers of destructive intent for Hampshire this summer, including a lacerating innings of 231 from 220 balls against Leicestershire, and a maiden international hundred in the ODI series against Pakistan, it seems that Vince’s return, at the age of 30, would have been just a little bit too back to the future.

Much like they were in their respective T20 World Cup semi-finals, school-mates Mitchell and Stoinis were the heroes for Scarborough back in 2009

Alex Malcolm12-Nov-20211:42

Daryl Mitchell – ‘It never felt like it was out of our grasp’

In March 2009, Daryl Mitchell, Marcus Stoinis and Justin Langer sat together as team-mates in the changerooms at the WACA celebrating a first-grade premiership for Scarborough.On Sunday night in Dubai, Stoinis and Mitchell, school-mates and long-time friends will face off in a World Cup final in Dubai, with Langer watching as Australia coach.Just as they did in their respective T20 World Cup semi-finals over the last 48 hours, back in 2009 both Stoinis and Mitchell were heroes for Scarborough. Stoinis made 189 in the semi-final. Then in the final, Mitchell, just two months shy of his 18th birthday, produced a match-winning spell taking 4 for 26 to help Scarborough beat Bayswater-Morley to win the premiership.

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Mitchell’s captain that day, former Western Australia opener Clint Heron, remembers the gamble he took. Bayswater-Morley were 169 for 2 chasing 265 when Heron turned to Mitchell.”He turned the game for us big time,” Heron told ESPNcricinfo. “We obviously had some big guns in the team at the time and they had had a crack and not quite got through. I spoke a bit with Alfie [Langer] about it.”We threw the ball to Daryl thinking he just might be one of those guys that will make something happen. And he got a wicket almost straight away, I think it might have been the first ball of his spell. He’s just such a competitor, which is why we sort of thought it was a good sort of roll of the dice at that stage because we were right up against it at that point.”Mitchell had moved to Perth from New Zealand three years earlier when his father John Mitchell was appointed the inaugural coach of the Western Force in the Super 14 Rugby competition.He was enrolled at Hale School where he met Stoinis, two years his senior, and played in the school side alongside Stoinis and Australian Rugby Union representative Dane Haylett-Petty.Stoinis and Mitchell are kindred spirits in many ways. They trained together non-stop over a period of nearly five years. Whether it was at Scarborough under Heron and Langer, privately with Langer’s long-time batting mentor Neil ‘Noddy’ Holder, or on their own together in the nets and gym at Revolution Sports indoor centre in Perth, the pair were relentless in their pursuit of becoming the best cricketers they possibly could. Mitchell told ESPNcricinfo prior to the World Cup that both Holder and Langer were major influences on his career.”To be able to first of all work with Neil ‘Noddy’ Holder not just with batting but as a mentor as well… to be able to spend time with him has helped me grow my game not only as a cricketer but as a person,” Mitchell said. “Obviously, [I was] very lucky to play club cricket in Scarborough with Justin Langer in my first year out of school was really cool. I remember growing up watching him as a kid and to share a dressing room with him was awesome.”Ironically, both had to leave Perth to get an extended run at first-class level. Stoinis moved to Melbourne without a contract to try his luck with Victoria following limited opportunities with WA. Mitchell headed back to New Zealand in 2011 to play for Northern Districts.Stoinis had dominated grade cricket in Perth and Melbourne and his ascension to domestic and international ranks was less of a surprise than Mitchell’s, whose returns at Scarborough in his early days were relatively modest. But Heron believed there was something special there.”Knowing his character, he was always one of those guys that will just work out a way to get the very best out of himself,” he said. “And even since he’s been gone, he’ll be in touch to just ask questions about how you try and face an offspinner in certain conditions. And then you’d catch up for coffee whenever he’s back in town to literally just talk about batting and how he could possibly improve.”That’s where those two guys, Stoinis and Mitchell, were so similar that every stone that was left, they turned it to see what was underneath and how they could get better.”The amount that Stoin has done in the background and the different people that he’s got to help him in his game, to get to where he is, the fitness, etc, is incredible.”The club won four first-grade premierships in a row with Langer playing in three of them, captaining and starring in the first two after his international career had finished. AJ Tye and Marcus Harris are other international players to come through the club. Heron believes Langer’s impact on their careers can’t be understated.Related

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“Justin’s part to play was instrumental as well,” Heron said. “I know he’s caught some flak for being critical and harsh at times. But you know, it’s coming from such a good place and he set the standard like no one else does.”The fact that these guys could see how hard he worked when he’s coming back to Scarborough, even when he’s finished his career and was just playing state cricket, was I think probably instrumental to all three of those guys’ success, obviously the two in the World Cup now, but Harry [Harris] as well.”Mitchell said it is odd to see his former teammates playing for Australia.”Growing up playing club cricket with Marcus Stoinis and Marcus Harris and it’s quite bizarre now they’re playing for Australia (laughs),” Mitchell said. “But yeah to be able to grow up with those guys and practice with them definitely played a major role in my formative years as a cricketer.”Ahead of that 2009 grand final, Heron invited John Mitchell to a Scarborough team dinner to talk about his experiences of coaching in a World Cup with the All Blacks and how to handle finals pressure.”It was really good,” Heron recalls. “Everyone really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. It was just about backing yourself. Looking around the group, do you have trust in each other? But it was mainly coming down to just full trust, full commitment, and just go out and give it a red-hot dip. There was nothing to lose. If you back yourself, everything will work out well.”Stoinis and Mitchell are still following that advice.