Most powerplay bowling plans ask bowlers to contain and hope for mistakes. Jofra Archer and Nandre Burger don’t contain. They attack from ball one with the specific intention of making the first six overs feel like the most difficult batting period of the entire innings. Archer pushes consistently into the high 140s km/h. Burger generates […]
Most powerplay bowling plans ask bowlers to contain and hope for mistakes. Jofra Archer and Nandre Burger don’t contain. They attack from ball one with the specific intention of making the first six overs feel like the most difficult batting period of the entire innings. Archer pushes consistently into the high 140s km/h. Burger generates […]
Bhuvneshwar Kumar hasn’t bowled consistently above 135 km/h for years. He doesn’t need to. What he does instead is something considerably harder to prepare for: he makes batters hesitate, then punishes the hesitation. His slower balls look identical to his faster ones until the ball is halfway down the pitch. His yorkers arrive at lengths […]
Aiden Markram is one of the most technically complete batters available in franchise cricket right now. His ability to combine solid defence with controlled aggression in the power play is a skill most T20 batting lineups would build around without hesitation. So the decision to bat him at No.5, where spinners dominate, and the scoring […]
The batting coaching manuals built over decades start at the same place. Sideways stance, soft hands, leave the wide ones, earn the right to attack. That progression from defense to offense has produced some of cricket’s greatest players. It has also produced something that the T20 era is now questioning directly. A teenager raised entirely […]
The knock on Shubman Gill in T20 cricket was always the same. Beautiful to watch, technically correct, but too slow when the game demands urgency. That criticism had followed him through multiple seasons and kept his India T20 selection chances uncertain, regardless of how many runs he scored. This season looks different. The intent is […]
Shreyas Iyer is scoring runs, controlling chases, and dismantling spin attacks at a rate that would guarantee most batters an international recall without debate. His case for an India T20 return is not built on potential or past reputation. It is built on the present form that stands up to scrutiny across every phase of […]
Rashid Khan, returning from back surgery, was always going to involve an adjustment period. What few expected was how quickly opposition batters would identify the specific technical shift that surgery produced. His variations are still dangerous. His googly is still present. His ability to beat batters in the air hasn’t disappeared entirely. But something in […]
The conversation around the Gujarat Titans’ batting problems has been aimed at the wrong phase all season. Rahul Tewatia and M Shahrukh Khan are being discussed as finishers who aren’t finishing, when the actual problem is that they’re never getting the chance to play their natural game. Both are being pushed into a rebuilding role […]
Ruturaj Gaikwad, the batter, was one of the most reliable top-order operators in franchise cricket. His timing, his ability to pick gaps against both pace and spin, and his consistency over multiple seasons made him exactly the kind of player Chennai Super Kings built their batting around. Ruturaj Gaikwad, the captain, is a different story […]
Delhi Capitals had their best bowler available, a ground that suits spin, and two set right-handers at the crease. Most T20 captains would see that as a moment to act. Instead, Delhi’s captain held Axar Patel back, waited for a perfect scenario that never materialised, and ended up with their most dangerous bowling option completing […]