Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs and Wiaan Mulder made merry as South Africa dominated the Chattogram Test

Sampath Bandarupalli30-Oct-2024575 for 6 South Africa’s total in Chattogram, their third highest in Tests in Asia. Their two bigger totals are 584 for 9 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in 2010 and 583 for 7 against Bangladesh in Chattogram in 2008.2020 Previous instance of South Africa going past the 500-run mark – 621 all out against Sri Lanka in the Boxing Day Test in Centurion. South Africa’s 575 for 6 in Chattogram is their highest total away from home since the 637 for 2 against England at The Oval in 2012.Related

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South Africa scored 95.83 runs per wicket in Chattogram, the highest by them in a Test innings since 2017, when they posted 573 for 4 against Bangladesh in Bloemfontein at 143.25 runs per wicket.3 Batters to score their maiden Test hundred in Chattogram – Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs and Wiaan Mulder. Only once before have three batters scored their maiden Test tons in the same innings – Gerry Gomez, Robert Christiani and Clyde Walcott for West Indies against India in Delhi in 1948.144.2 Overs batted by South Africa in their first innings in Chattogram, the most by them in a Test innings since their 146 overs against Bangladesh in Potchefstroom in 2017.1 Chattogram marked the first instance of three South Africa batters scoring hundreds in the same Test innings in Asia. It was also the first instance of three South Africa batters scoring a century in the same Test innings since 2017.Stubbs made the first century by a South Africa No. 3 since 2018•AFP/Getty Images201 Partnership between de Zorzi and Stubbs for the second wicket. It is South Africa’s first 200-plus partnership for any wicket in Tests since October 2017. South Africa had two 200-plus stands in the same innings against Bangladesh in the 2017 Bloemfontein Test.3 Century partnerships for South Africa in their first innings, the joint-most by them in a Test innings. They had 16 such instances previously, but only once since 2017 – against Sri Lanka in the 2020 Centurion Test.17 Sixes hit by South Africa in their first innings against Bangladesh, the most they have hit in a Test innings, surpassing their 15 against West Indies in 2010. Only two teams have hit more sixes in a Test innings – 22 by New Zealand against Pakistan in the 2014 Sharjah Test and 18 by India against England earlier this year in Rajkot.9 Sixes were hit off Taijul Islam’s bowling, the joint-second most conceded by any bowler in a Test innings. Rangana Herath was hit for ten sixes by India’s batters in the Brabourne Test in 2009.Paul Strang against Pakistan in Sheikhupura in 1996, Ray Price against South Africa in Harare in 2001, Dane Piedt against India in Visakhapatnam in 2019, and Ben White against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2023 have also conceded nine sixes in a Test innings.2018 The last instance of a No. 3 batter scoring a Test hundred for South Africa before Stubbs – Theunis de Bruyn scored 101 against Sri Lanka in the 2018 Colombo Test.

The Haryana quick talks about idolising Glenn McGrath, bowling Travis Head off a no-ball, and learning what it takes to bowl on flat pitches

Shashank Kishore18-Sep-2024Anshul Kamboj wasn’t even born when Haryana won their first (and only) Ranji Trophy crown in 1990-91. And he didn’t know until his debut in 2022 what it took to succeed in first-class cricket. Two years on, Kamboj has built on a superb 2023-24 season, in which he was Haryana’s leading wicket-taker during a victorious Vijay Hazare campaign.Last week, Kamboj, 23, picked up an eight-wicket haul for India C in the 2024-25 Duleep Trophy. On a surface where his side racked up 525, Kamboj, who describes himself as a hit-the-deck bowler, ran through India B after their openers Abhimanyu Easwaran and N Jagadeesan put on 129.Test batter Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan and T20 star Rinku Singh were among those Kamboj dismissed. His 8 for 69 in 27.5 overs are currently the second-best figures by a fast bowler in Duleep Trophy history. Three batters were bowled, and two – the Khan brothers – lbw.Related

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“On a pitch where there wasn’t much help, my job was simple: attack the stumps to bring bowled and lbw into play,” Kamboj tells ESPNcricinfo.”You can’t overcomplicate things. It’s easy as a fast bowler to say, ‘there’s no help in this pitch, what can we do.’ As a fast bowler, your challenge is to always look to create opportunities. That’s what I’m learning to do.”Kamboj loves watching videos of Glenn McGrath. But the time he spent watching him bowl on YouTube has been matched on the field by trying to emulate McGrath’s virtues.”He was known to keep hitting the deck with the perfect seam,” Kamboj says. “That’s what I’ve grown up learning to do. Pace is one aspect, but if you can be accurate and hit the perfect seam, you can make the ball talk.”Kamboj comes from boxing heartland, Karnal in Haryana, and began playing on open fields. It wasn’t until he was 14 that he began to take the game seriously. And in less than a decade, Kamboj hasn’t just progressed to his state team but has also broken into the IPL.”The turning point was in 2019,” he says. “I had just played for India Under-19. That was when I discovered what it takes to be a professional. While I could play just one series [for India Under-19], it was an eye-opener in terms of the areas I needed to improve – the fitness, the skill aspect, conditioning, everything.”

“The two IPL games gave me a lot of learnings on what it takes to play at this level. Nothing prepares you for it. When you’re in the middle, the experience and lessons you learn by playing – you can’t get it anywhere.”Anshul Kamboj

Kamboj has played a lot of his cricket in Lahli, renowned to be a swing bowler’s paradise. But it’s here he learnt two things about fast bowling. “The importance of not getting carried away when everything is going your way, and the need to vary lengths as per the surface,” he says promptly.Earlier this year, Kamboj earned his maiden IPL contract when Mumbai Indians signed him at the auction. Having waited right until the end of the season for his opportunity, Kamboj had a memorable initiation.”I’ve replayed that a fair few times in my head,” he laughs when asked of his IPL debut.After being slapped for six off his second delivery, Kamboj flattened Travis Head’s off stump three balls later, only to find out he had overstepped. Head would dispatch him to the boundary off the next two deliveries.”It was heartbreaking, I felt so bad. Everyone tried to calm me down quickly and told me to forget about it. How could I? You dream of playing in this tournament and when your first wicket is off a no-ball, it’s a terrible feeling.”There was more frustration in store when Head was dropped off his bowling in his second over. But agony turned into ecstasy two balls later, when he clean bowled Mayank Agarwal – “with a hit-the-deck delivery” – for his maiden IPL wicket.”The two IPL games gave me a lot of learnings on what it takes to play at this level. Nothing prepares you for it. When you’re in the middle, the experience and lessons you learn by playing – you can’t get it anywhere.”It’s almost always assumed a young player talks up his India ambitions when asked of the road ahead, but Kamboj is different.”We’ve won the Vijay Hazare, the Ranji Trophy is the next big goal,” he says. “We’ve won the title only once. I want to help us win another Ranji crown. And if I can keep improving from every game, it’ll go a long way in this journey towards contributing to Haryana’s success.”

UAE are returning to their favourite format after a poor run in ODIs, while Bangladesh are gearing up for a busy season against some strong teams

Mohammad Isam16-May-2025Are Bangladesh too top-heavy?Bangladesh have picked five batters that have to be fitted into the top four. Tanzid Hasan is likely to open with Soumya Sarkar with captain Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto likely to come in next. They will get first dibs before Parvez Hossain Emon, who is still in a development stage as a T20 opener. Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain and Jaker Ali have strong strike rates that should come in handy in the later overs, before Rishad Hossain and Mahedi Hasan come in as the designated hitters.Bangladesh’s pace attack is also quite full, with Mustafizur Rahman the most experienced, and Tanzim Hasan the most versatile. Nahid Rana, Hasan Mahmud and Shoriful Islam are also in the squad, while left-arm spinner Tanvir Islam is the back-up spinner to Rishad and Mahedi.Jaker Ali has been Bangladesh’s key batter in the middle order across formats•AFP/Getty ImagesJaker the in-form batterJaker has already bailed out the Bangladesh batting several times in his first year in international cricket. He made a bright start against Sri Lanka last year before losing his way during the T20 World Cup, but made important runs in both Tests and T20Is on the West Indies tour, striking the ball sweetly, especially on the leg side.Related

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Jaker is a heavy run-getter in the middle-order in domestic cricket, which has now translated into good form at the highest level. There are more attractive strokemakers in the middle order, like Shamim and Hridoy, but Jaker is the one Bangladesh rely on the most these days. He has earned that reputation.UAE would welcome T20 returnUAE will have little time to recalibrate to T20 mode after their trip for to the Netherlands for the Cricket World Cup League 2 matches, where they were beaten by both the hosts and Scotland, winning just one game in the last two weeks. Rahul Chopra’s century and Simranjeet Singh’s four-wicket haul in a match against Scotland were the only real high points from the tour for UAE. They should, however, feel better playing T20Is, their best format.Their good form in the format helped them qualify for this year’s Asia Cup after they dominated the Asian Cricket Council’s Premier Cup last year. But UAE haven’t really played a lot of cricket against the Full-Member teams. Afghanistan beat them 2-1 in their bilateral series in 2023-24. They also beat New Zealand in 2023, while they lost a similar two-match series against Bangladesh in 2022.Muhammad Waseem has been one of the star T20I batters since his debut•SLCCan Waseem live up to his reputation?Muhammad Waseem is the highest run-getter in T20Is in the world since his debut in 2021, but it hasn’t gone too well for him of late. Waseem went through the ILT20 without scoring a half-century – the last time he did was in December last year, against Qatar. He has also scored just a single ODI fifty in the last two years.Waseem, the UAE captain, had a very brief stint in the BPL, when he appeared for Chattogram Challengers in one game in the 2023-24 season. He made just one run then. However, Waseem is the most prominent UAE batter, so the Bangladesh analysts will rev up their laptops to show his footage to the bowlers. Waseem on song is a treat to watch, but it has been a long time since he has really taken on a top attack.Sharjah is steamingNight games will be welcomed by the players in Sharjah, which is very hot at the moment. The temperatures are in the high 30s (Celsius) this week.Bangladesh, though, have some idea about the Sharjah pitches, where they played the three ODIs against Afghanistan last year, while UAE don’t play much of their home T20Is in Sharjah. Generally, 170-180 would be seen as competitive totals; the two 180-plus scores were both comfortably defended in Sharjah in the last two years.

“There’s a real heartbeat of cricket that it’s our duty to tap into,” says new chief executive Dan Feist

Andrew Miller11-Mar-2025English cricket is rife with new realities as the 2025 season dawns. The success of the Hundred equity sale means that county cricket will soon be awash with untold (albeit one-off) riches, but for some clubs, the implications of a lower-profile but no less significant carve-up are already being felt.In April last year, the ECB embarked on its reboot of the women’s domestic structure by announcing the winning bids for eight professional Tier 1 county set-ups. And, while gender equality had never previously counted for much in England’s domestic circles, the outpouring of reaction from the bid’s winners and losers confirmed that, for several disorientated counties, this process had been their best shot at a renewed sense of purpose.Nowhere has this been more obvious than at Chelmsford – or the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, as Essex’s HQ will now grandiloquently be known when it plays host to 30 men’s and women’s county fixtures (plus four representative games) in the course of a bumper 2025.In February, that new naming-rights deal was unveiled on board Ambassador’s flagship Ambience, which had just arrived back at Tilbury Docks from the Caribbean and was due to set sail that evening for the Northern Lights. As metaphors go, this one was full steam ahead for the club’s new journey.Related

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Dan Feist, Essex’s new chief executive, is keenly aware of the role the women’s announcement played in securing this deal. “It has raised the profile of the region, and our opportunity within it, as well as doubling the number of activation days at the ground,” he tells ESPNcricinfo. “We understand that we’ve got a huge geographical reach in the East of England, in terms of businesses on our doorstep and the sheer weight of population. There’s a real heartbeat of cricket that it’s our duty to tap into.”There’ll be pressures in the season ahead, not least on the Chelmsford groundstaff, but the speed with which the mood at the club has changed is astonishing. In July last year, Essex was still in the throes of perpetual crisis. With further penalties looming from the Cricket Discipline Commission, at the conclusion of a long investigation into historic racism claims, the club embarked on a management restructuring that included the resignation of Feist’s predecessor John Stephenson, and the discontinuation of his role. Though that move was not directly connected to the CDC’s findings, the inference at the time was that a club as financially battered as Essex could not afford to carry on paying for a traditional chief executive.How different things look now – and not simply because Essex, as a partner club of the Hundred’s most valued brand, London Spirit, are due their share of a cool £144 million as and when MCC and their tech consortium bedfellows have worked out the finer details of their new arrangement.Last month, Feist stepped officially into Stephenson’s shoes as Essex’s CEO, having previously overseen the club’s day-to-day operations as general manager, while Chris Silverwood has also returned to the club as director of cricket, eight years after his transformational stint as men’s head coach.On the women’s side, Andy Tennant – the former head coach of regional team Sunrisers – came across to Chelmsford in October, along with 14 of the 16 players who featured in last season’s Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy and Charlotte Edwards Cup. And for all that the Hundred’s machinations have reinforced the sense that Essex are lightweights on the London scene compared to their richer neighbours at Lord’s and The Oval, the club’s new brains trust are confident that their traditional homespun strengths can meet the new realities head-on.”Essex’s success has always been built around developing our own players,” Feist says, with some justification. When, in 2017, Essex landed their first County Championship title for 25 years, four of their first XI were born in the same Whipps Cross hospital as the grandee of Chelmsford grandees, Graham Gooch. “The teams that create the best pathway for players tend to be the most successful.”Silverwood was widely credited for reinvigorating those pathways during his first stint as coach, and it was a point he leant back into ahead of his comeback season. “We have to be smart,” Silverwood says. “We’re not going to compete on the money front, but we can be good at what we do. We’re bringing people through that pipeline all the time, and if we can create an over-supply of good cricketers, we get to pick the cream of the crop.”If people go on and make a good career somewhere else, that’s brilliant as well. That doesn’t worry me, as long as we are producing good Essex boys and girls to come and play for Essex.”Essex coach Chris Silverwood poses with fans in 2017•Getty ImagesThis recognition of the club’s place in England’s pecking order could be the remaking of Essex. For all of the success of the Hundred in promoting the women’s game and, as of now, replenishing the sport’s coffers, the relative emptiness of that edifice has arguably been seen in England’s recent performances, across genders.The men’s hapless displays at the Champions Trophy betrayed their lack of familiarity with a format that none of the elite players ever play domestically, while the women’s desperate failures at the T20 World Cup and the Ashes are a warning that – despite the exposure the top players have received in recent years – the women’s game will lack robustness until there’s sufficient pressure for places from a broader base of credible challengers on the domestic circuit.”The wider you can build the pyramid, the higher that has the potential to go,” Tennant says. “We want to be the best player development program in England, and we almost have to build that trading model, because we don’t have the riches of some of the Test venues. But we’re confident that we can punch above our weight and be competitive at the top end of the game.”Essex certainly has the remit to be competitive. As Feist acknowledges, they share a geographical advantage with Somerset and Durham – two other clubs that have been granted Tier 1 women’s status but are not Hundred-hosting venues – in that their catchment area extends into swathes of the country, in this case East Anglia, that are not served by any other first-class county.But there’s the East London factor too – perhaps most keenly felt two summers ago when huge numbers of Bangladeshi fans made the 30-minute journey from Tower Hamlets (and beyond) to attend three sell-out ODIs against Ireland.Essex have been in conversations about similar initiatives in the future, particularly in the lead-up to next year’s Women’s World Cup, and also plan on creating a more dedicated East London supporters’ group to firm up that connection. There is, however, a keen recognition of the need to stay grounded, particularly when it comes to the limitations of a compact venue such as Chelmsford.Bangladesh’s fans get into the spirit of the occasion at Chelmsford•Cricket IrelandWhereas other comparable counties, most notably Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, are assessing their options when it comes to relocation, Feist is confident about leaning into the existing strengths of their existing 5,000-seater home – the smallest on the county circuit, even if it could conceivably be stretched to 10,000 capacity by 2030 if their plans for a redeveloped pavilion can come to fruition.”Chelmsford is our preferred option of where we want to stay,” Feist says. “The benefit here is that we’ve got very limited competitors for the facilities at our ground, whereas if we moved and ended up in the middle of nowhere, it’s quite hard to then get a secondary income. Cricket grounds can sit there empty like white elephants for a while, so we’ve got to make sure our venue is two-way facing, community focused, and representing the region it’s based in.”In cricket, it’s only really the Utilita Bowl [Hampshire] and the Riverside [Durham] that have successfully moved, but they’ve both had their challenges to be financially sustainable, and some of the football clubs have had the same struggles.”You have to be really clear about your business model in the landscape of sport. Whether it’s Brighton or Brentford, or the difference between Bath and Saracens, it’s about knowing your role and how to make the most of it to be successful.”In the short term, however, the excitement for the new season trumps any such long-term considerations – and Essex’s women’s set-up epitomises this mood change. For them, the chance to put down even the most exploratory of roots will be a step up from their previous nomadic experience at Sunrisers. Throughout their five seasons, Chelmsford still hosted more than half their games, but the team’s primary affiliation to Middlesex meant they were only ever passing through.”The regional model was good and of its time, but you did feel as if you were representing everyone and no-one at the same time,” Tennant says. “Having a headquarters will be gold-dust. We’ll be going somewhere that the girls know as their place of work, which is quite powerful, and the fortress Chelmsford moniker is live, isn’t it? It’s a great venue for women’s cricket. It’s a really good size. We’re looking forward to making it into our fortress too.”

ESPNcricinfo looks back at some of Rohit Sharma’s best innings in ICC knockouts

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Mar-202530*(16) vs Pakistan2007 T20 World Cup final, JohannesburgIn just his sixth international, a 20-year-old Rohit gave India a big finish after they chose to bat in the final of the inaugural T20 World Cup. Coming in at No. 6, he hit two fours, a six and four twos to ensure 27 came off the final two overs and India’s total was 157.Rohit Sharma gave a glimpse of his attacking batting as early as in his sixth international – at the T20 World Cup 2007•AFP137(126) vs Bangladesh2015 ODI World Cup quarter-final, MelbourneWickets through the middle overs slowed India’s scoring, and Rohit’s job was to bat deep as they aimed to build a big total that would take them through to the semi-final. On 90, Rohit was caught off a waist-high full toss that was called a no-ball, an incident that led to a furore in Bangladesh. From that point on, Rohit blasted 47 off 25, playing some exquisite shots, and India got to 302, a winning total.123*(129) vs Bangladesh2017 Champions Trophy semi-final, BirminghamWith India chasing 265, Rohit put on an exhibition, hitting 16 boundaries in his century and building a 178-run stand with Virat Kohli that took India home with nine wickets in the bag.47(29) vs New Zealand2023 ODI World Cup semi-final, MumbaiKohli’s 50th hundred headlined the day, but by the time he was in, a significant amount of the pressure on India had been relieved by Rohit’s whirlwind start. In their semi-final losses in the 2019 ODI World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup, India had made poor starts. Here, Rohit blasted four sixes early to make sure India were scoring at nine an over in the first powerplay.Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma added an unbroken 178 for the second wicket in the Champions Trophy 2017 semi-final•Getty Images47(31) vs Australia2023 ODI World Cup final, AhmedabadIn the final, with India put in, Rohit was off early. It was only Travis Head’s brilliance in the field that stopped his onslaught. Once he was out, India slowed down dramatically and ended up short of a winning total.57(39) vs England2024 T20 World Cup semi-final, GuyanaAgainst the same team they had stumbled in at the 2022 T20 World Cup, India lost the early wickets of Kohli and Rishabh Pant. With history weighing on him, Rohit embodied the bravery he had beseeched his team to have and continued to play his shots on a challenging track. His innings set the base for India to reach 171, which was more than enough on the surface.76(83) vs New Zealand2025 Champions Trophy final, DubaiWhile he had not registered a fifty in the tournament, Rohit had maintained his attacking intent throughout. In the final, with his side chasing 252, he laid down the marker for India’s approach by pulling the second ball of the innings for six. More boundaries followed off the seamers, and Rohit rotated well against the spinners, ensuring that even as India lost wickets in the middle, the asking rate never became daunting.

And who has the highest individual ODI score against England?

Steven Lynch04-Mar-2025Was Ibrahim Zadran’s 177 the other day the highest score against England in an ODI? asked Muhammad Sarfaraz from Pakistan

There have been only three individual innings against England in one-day internationals higher than Ibrahim Zadran’s sparkling 177 in Lahore last week.Joint top, with 189 not out, are Viv Richards (for West Indies at Old Trafford in 1984), and Martin Guptill (for New Zealand in Southampton in 2013). Another New Zealander, Ross Taylor, hit 181 not out against England in Dunedin in 2018.Zadran’s innings was the highest individual score in ODIs for Afghanistan, beating his own 162 against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in 2022, and easily their highest against England, which previously was Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s 80 in Delhi during the World Cup in 2023 . It was also the highest individual score in the Champions Trophy, beating Ben Duckett’s 165 for England against Australia in Lahore four days previously.Josh Hazlewood has a big percentage of his Test wickets caught behind. Is he the leader by that yardstick? asked Jared Marshall from Australia

You’re right that Australia’s Josh Hazlewood seems to pick up a lot of caught-behind dismissals in Tests: of his 279 wickets so far, 90 have been caught by the wicketkeeper. That’s 32.25% of his victims, the highest percentage for anyone with more than 100 Test wickets: next, with 31.70% (39 of 123 wickets) comes Ewen Chatfield of New Zealand. Third at the moment is India’s Mohammed Siraj at 31% (31 of exactly 100 Test wickets so far).If we lower the requirement to 50 Test wickets then Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz comes out on top at 40.96% (34 of his 83 wickets), just ahead of Chris Tremlett of England at 39.62% (21 of 53).Adil Rashid took four wickets in five balls in an ODI in 2018-19 without taking a hat-trick – has anyone else done this? asked Jamie Campbell from England

The England legspinner Adil Rashid achieved this unusual feat in St George’s(Grenada) in 2019 . It transformed the match: West Indies had started the 48th over needing 32 with four wickets left and Rashid nursing figures of 1 for 83. After the first ball was hit for two, the rest of the over went WW0WW: West Indies were all out for 389, and England had won by 29 runs.Rashid finished with 5 for 85, still the most expensive five-for in ODIs. He’s the only player to take four wickets in five balls in an ODI without a hat-trick: the four-in-fives of Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan vs Zimbabwe in Peshawar in 1996) and Dane van Niekerk (South Africa Women vs West Indies Women in Basseterre, St Kitts, in 2013) both did feature a hat-trick.Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka uniquely took four wickets in four balls against South Africa in Providence (Guyana) during the 2007 World Cup.In Grenada in 2019, four of Adil Rashid’s wickets came in his last five balls, but did not feature a hat-trick•Associated PressI noticed that in Barbados in 1983, West Indies needed just one run to win in their second innings, and it came from a no-ball. Are there any other instances where all the runs in a successful fourth-innings chase were extras? asked Chris Goddard from England

The match you’re talking about was the fourth Test against India in Bridgetown in 1983: West Indies needed one to win, and the visitors’ wicketkeeper, Syed Kirmani, was entrusted with the ball for the first time in a Test. Almost immediately he sent down a no-ball, and the match was over. Kirmani had two more bowling spells in his 88-Test career, and even took a wicket – of Azeem Hafeez of Pakistan in Nagpur a few months later.There’s only one other Test in which all the runs in a successful chase came from extras. In Mirpur in 2010 , India needed two to beat Bangladesh: the second ball of the innings, from Shakib Al Hasan, kept low, was missed by batter Virender Sehwag and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim, and scooted away for two byes to end the game.This is not quite the same question, but there are 19 completed innings in Tests in which the highest contribution came from extras. The highest total involved is England’s 339 against West Indies in Kingston in 2004, which included 60 extras.Abid Ali scored 225 in a total of 346 in a domestic match in Pakistan recently. Was this the lowest completed total to include a double-century? asked Ishaq Siddiqui from Pakistan

The former Pakistan Test batter Abid Ali carried his bat for 225 in Sui Northern Gas Pipelines’ total of 346 against Eshaal in a President’s Trophy match in Karachi last week. Rather surprisingly perhaps, this is quite a long way from the record for a completed innings: Namibia’s 282 all out against Kenya in an Intercontinental Cup match in Sharjah in 2008 included 230 from Gerrie Snyman (the next-highest score was 13).The only lower first-class innings to contain a double-century was Oxford University’s 280 for 1 (Micky Walford 201 not out) to beat MCC at Lord’s in 1938. The Test record for a completed innings is India’s 329 against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2008, when Virender Sehwag carried his bat for 201.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

England tested him, challenged him, and made him a hero. A month and a bit after being part of an epic Test series, Prasidh Krishna recounts the highs and the lows

Shashank Kishore02-Sep-202524:48

‘My god, that was one good series’ – Prasidh recounts the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy

Prasidh Krishna has had plenty of time to reflect on an unforgettable summer in England. Over the past month, he has swapped new-ball spells and short-ball strategies for mountain trails, hiking across Europe and unwinding with family.Now, he’s back to the grind, preparing for a busy home season. Although he isn’t part of the men’s T20 Asia Cup squad, he is expected to play a role in India’s upcoming Tests, two each against West Indies and South Africa starting in October.”I did take a week to ten days off [after the England series],” Prasidh tells ESPNcricinfo. “I was fortunate that the Mysuru Warriors [his Maharaja Trophy franchise] owner was kind enough to say, ‘You go have your time off, and when you’re back, you can get back to play’.Related

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“Even when I was on a break [after the series] – hiking and all that – I could actually feel my body hurting. I was still sore from that last Test [at The Oval] and the three hard days [during the vacation]. On the fourth day, I told myself, ‘I’m not going to do anything’. I let my wife go on her hiking trip. I stayed back for a day, and actually felt my body recover a little bit more.”Prasidh played in three of the five Tests in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, making a big impact in India’s series-squaring win at The Oval. He bowled 43 overs in the match, claiming 8 for 188 as part of a three-pronged pace attack with Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep.The performance was all the more satisfying as it came just after he’d been left out of the fourth Test in Manchester, with the team management opting for debutant Anshul Kamboj straight off a flight.”Physically, it took a lot out of me,” Prasidh says looking back at the series. “It took me about a week to shake it off. Then I came back, played a few games in the Maharaja Trophy. It felt good to go back to my state, be with my statemates, chat with the youngsters, and just get that feeling of being back in cricket again.”Once that was over, I got back to training in Bengaluru, started bowling, and we had a few [BCCI-mandated fitness] tests over the last two days. And now, this morning when I woke up, I felt really good – like, ‘Okay, I’m ready to go play some more cricket now’.”

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The English summer headed into its 25th day with its outcome uncertain. England had been cruising towards their target of 374. Prasidh should have had Harry Brook on 19 the previous day, but for Siraj stepping on the fine-leg boundary toblerones with ball in hand.India were sent on a leather hunt for much of the fourth afternoon until Prasidh brought India back with two late wickets in nine deliveries. Then, rain and bad light took the game into the final day, where England needed 35 runs, and India four wickets.Prasidh Krishna picked 14 wickets in three Tests in England•Getty ImagesPrasidh saw his first two balls disappear for boundaries. As tension gripped The Oval, the man at the centre of it all remained calm. “The first ball, I had clearly planned, was going to be a bouncer,” he remembers. “It made me feel like I could set up the over – or even the following overs – better, knowing how the bouncer was behaving. I felt that was one of my main weapons.”That ball went for a boundary, but it also helped me understand what was happening with the pitch. The second one was an inside edge altogether. Even with eight runs coming off the first two balls, I was still pretty composed. I knew I had to hit a certain area, a certain length, and let the ball do the talking.”Siraj, from the other end, started off really well. The ball was swinging – not as much for me in the first couple of overs, but it was swinging for him. So I had to pull myself back a little and ask myself, ‘Okay, what can I do now? How do I get straighter?'”The wicket of Jamie Smith changed everything. From there, it was about us being consistent in the right areas, and then it was just a matter of time before the wickets fell.”India eventually sealed a dramatic six-run win to set off wild celebrations.

“We had put in so much as a team – every single person out there – so much mental grit and physical effort to win from the situation we were in”Prasidh Krishna on India’s win at The Oval

“It was a big sigh,” Prasidh says of their triumph. “The joy, the shouting, the celebration we had right after the last wicket fell – it was all relief. We had put in so much as a team – every single person out there – so much mental grit and physical effort to win from the situation we were in.”It was just that sigh of relief saying, ‘Okay, we’ve put in so much effort’, and when you put in all that effort and actually end up on the positive side, it gives you such a sense of satisfaction. After that, we all went back, sat together, and spoke about how we did so many things right, and how it felt like we are a team that can fight from any situation we’re put into.”Prasidh says he can’t explain the feeling soon after India had won. It’s been a month, but a lot of those moments, especially on the final day, feel like a blur.”When I sit and watch the game now, it doesn’t feel the same – because being out there, the atmosphere was so good, so electric, and the joy was so immense. That’s something that will stay with me forever. I don’t think I’ll ever feel a similar moment just sitting back and watching from the outside.”

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On the second day of the final Test, Prasidh was involved in what seemed like a heated exchange with Joe Root, which needed the intervention of the umpires.Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna celebrate the win•AFP/Getty Images”I don’t know why Rooty reacted,” Prasidh said at the end of the day’s play. “I just said, ‘you’re looking in great shape’ and then it turned into a lot of abuse and all of that.”In the immediate aftermath of India’s victory, Prasidh had a chance to settle the matter with Root. And this time, things were a lot calmer.”I did go and speak to most of them – including Root,” Prasidh says with a laugh. “I asked him what happened. He said, ‘I thought you abused me’. I said, ‘No’, and he replied, ‘I actually just wanted to get myself going as well, so I had to pump myself up’.”That’s what I love about the sport – that’s the way I’ve always played it. To see everybody, and especially a legend like him, putting it all out there and fighting for the team, even today, that’s something for everyone to learn from. You’re out there to fight, to win battles. Sometimes it takes a lot more than just skill; it takes a lot of mental grit to be part of that journey.”Each of the five Tests, Prasidh agrees, was like an episode of a TV series: drama, excitement, intrigue, comebacks, heartbreaks, elation.”I don’t think any of us expected the series to go that way,” he says of each Test going into the final day. “It kept swinging back and forth and, in hindsight, 2-2, we’re really happy with how we played the whole series.Prasidh Krishna was involved in a heated argument with Joe Root on the second day of the final Test•Getty Images”The way we fought every time we were under pressure – and how, each time, someone stood up and delivered for the team – was really pleasing for all of us.”For Prasidh, England was a massive opportunity. India had announced in the pre-series build-up that Jasprit Bumrah would be available for only three of the five Tests because of workload management. Prasidh had previously been part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he only got to play in the fifth Test. He hadn’t yet left his imprint as a Test bowler, and there was plenty to prove.”For me, Australia was really, really challenging mentally,” Prasidh says. “I went there to play the ‘A’ games, bowled well, was in great rhythm, and still had to wait for my chance. When I finally played [in the SCG Test], it took a lot out of me mentally. Fighting for my spot and then finally getting to start was a battle in itself.”If you’re not playing, you prepare a certain way on the outside – that’s a different challenge. Coming into England, I was in a much better place because I knew I had already handled a five-match series, both without playing and then playing.

“It is very important for both of us [Shubman Gill and him] to understand each other – for me to know what the team actually wants, why I am here, and what they want from me”

“Taking that experience forward was a different challenge again, and that brought in the physical aspect. It was very, very hard – you bowl a lot of overs, and we were playing with mostly pacers doing the bulk of the job, especially in the first and second innings. It was gruelling.”Once the series was over, it felt like, ‘Oh my god, that was one good series’.”

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The series in England, however, didn’t start all that well. At Headingley, Prasidh became the first bowler in Test cricket to go at more than a-run-a-ball in both innings (minimum 15 overs bowled in each innings). He also registered the highest match economy for an India Test bowler. Despite scoring five individual centuries, India lost.Prasidh’s economy was down to him adopting a short-ball strategy aimed at England’s lower-middle order – something that had been planned. The team management had felt that his height and high release points would make it harder for the batters to control their pull shots against the short ball.Although not entirely convinced, Prasidh did the job for the team. “It is very important for both of us [Shubman Gill and him] to understand each other – for me to know what the team actually wants, why I am here, and what they want from me,” Prasidh says. “It’s equally important for the team to understand what is the best that Prasidh can give in a given situation.Prasidh Krishna had a tough start to his series at Headingley•Getty Images”We started off knowing there would be instances where I would have to do the job the team wanted – and I took it. It was actually a first-time experience for me, where the team wanted me to do something that I wasn’t fully convinced about.”But then you have 20 people sitting outside who have a plan. We’ve spoken about it, and agreed on it. So it becomes your duty to come in and do the job for the team. I was more than happy to do it, because that’s why you play a team sport. If you only wanted to do what you wanted, you’d be playing something else, just by yourself.”It was a very good learning experience for me as well, especially in terms of communication. It got better after or during the second Test, when I actually went up and said, ‘Okay, this is the plan, but maybe we could have done something differently’. The conversations were very open, the communication was very good, even though it was a first-time experience for me.”I think we took some time but learned about each other really well.”Prasidh admits that looking at his economy rate wasn’t as much fun. “It’s never a good sight when you look at the scoreboard and see your economy rate on the higher side. It took me some time to be okay with that and to stay focused on the task at hand in that moment.”What was fun, though, was him being able to cherish moments of joy and elation with close mates KL Rahul and Karun Nair on tour.

“I think the first Test itself – that spell when I got [Zak] Crawley and [Ollie] Pope in the second innings – was very important for me. I wasn’t hitting my lengths right early on, and I was finding the wind and the slope a lot harder to handle than I ever had before”The favourite spell in England

“Absolutely, I think it makes a very, very big difference,” he says of having had the company of “friends” on tour. “It was my wife who kept reminding me, saying, ‘When you went on long tours earlier, you would always feel homesick by the end; now that you have your Bangalore boys with you, it’s much easier, you haven’t really spoken about missing home or anything this time’.”It makes a lot of difference because yes, we have played a lot of cricket together. Yes, we think alike. We even do similar things off the field, and that definitely helps. It gives you that comfort zone. And what it also does is, once you have that comfort zone, you find space to make new friends, bring people together, join different groups, and have a great time as a team.”Prasidh is spontaneous when asked to pick his most memorable spells from the summer. “I think the first Test itself – that spell when I got [Zak] Crawley and [Ollie] Pope in the second innings – was very important for me,” he says. “I wasn’t hitting my lengths right early on, and I was finding the wind and the slope a lot harder to handle than I ever had before.”That spell actually made me feel good. Otherwise, the spell I bowled to [Ben] Stokes in the second innings [in Birmingham] – I didn’t get a wicket there, but that morning when I came in gave me a bit of confidence as well.”England tested him, challenged him, and gave him a chance to celebrate. Now, back home and preparing for the Test season, Prasidh wants to carry the same fire and intensity. He is ready to embrace fresh challenges and build on his gains from a memorable IPL 2025 – where he was the purple cap winner – and, in his words, an “unforgettable English summer”.

And do his achievements trump those of the others in the Fab Four?

Andrew Fidel Fernando20-Aug-2025Joe Root has an outside shot to become the most prolific Test batter of all time. He is second on the list right now. If you’re a major Sachin Tendulkar fan, you don’t have to like it. But perhaps it is better to prepare yourself for the possibility.We will be throwing a lot of numbers at you through the course of this article, so let us whet appetites with roughly when the momentous pipping of Tendulkar may occur. Since the start of this decade, Root has scored an average of 89.62 runs per Test match. If he were to continue at his 2020s runs-per-Test rate (there are zero signs that he is about to slow down), he would need roughly 27 further Tests to plonk himself atop this chart.Related

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Root marches on towards Test summit

Stats – Root second only to Tendulkar for most Test runs

According to the currently available programme, England are scheduled to play 16 Tests until the end of April 2027. By then, Root will be 36 years and four months old. By the end of the 2028 northern hemisphere summer, England will have time for 11 further Tests at least. Root would be 37 then – a very normal age for batters to play to. If he continues to an Anderson-esque 40, and continues to clobber attacks, many more records could be in trouble.First let us put a little context around the place of Root’s run tally. Have his runs come easier than those of other all-time prolific batters? If you look at career spans, Root has actually scored his runs in a tougher era for batting than the others among the top five run-scorers – Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, and Rahul Dravid. During Root’s career, the overall batting average was 29.83. While his own average is the lowest of the top five run scorers (by a hair), he certainly deserves his place among them.