India's bowlers, The Hundred sale & Kuldeep's a CSK fan
Best Cricket Stories of the Week, 27th April to 3rd May 2024
“The team management has three strategies they can adopt. They can bat deep and play a defensive spinner in Axar at number eight, go for strike bowling and play a wicket-taking spinner in Chahal, or play three specialist seamers”; Cricket8’s Shayan Ahmad Khan does a SWOT analysis of the Indian bowlers chosen for the World Cup.
“Last Friday, Kirsten saw Punjab Kings blitz down a target of 262. Sunrisers Hyderabad nearly clocked 300, and RCB weren't far from chasing it. The world is wondering whether this is an outlier season, or the first of the rest of our T20 lives. Pakistan, meanwhile, are scoring 178”; ESPNcricinfo’s Osman Samiuddin writes about Pakistan’s backwards T20 thinking as they have only days left to choose their T20 World Cup squad.
“So before the golden spells and magic moments, the pumping knees and the switched bails, the dreams and the memes, the Oh My Broad and the celebrappeal and the nighthawk, let’s remember Stuart Broad the hard bastard”; Wisden’s Jonathan Liew writes a tribute to Stuart Broad’s career for the 2024 Wisden Cricket Almanac.
““I put a lot of pressure on myself, but I also didn’t feel like I was well supported in the team. I learned to let go and enjoy my cricket: I’m not going to worry about playing for Australia and, if I do play again, I’m not going to put it on a pedestal, or let Cricket Australia dictate my happiness” Wisden’s Daniel Brettig talks to Usman Khawaja about his cricketing journey for the 2024 Wisden Cricket Almanac.
“Singh doesn’t use that disturbing comment as evidence of racist selection policies or any direct discrimination within Irish cricket more generally. Instead, he focuses on that culture issue, one which starts at grassroots level and effects the flow of talent up the pathways”; The Part-Timer’s Nathan Johns talks to the fascinating Simi Singh, an involuntarily retired Indian-born Irish legend, about the challenges of playing for the associate nation.
“You hear any T20 discussions worldwide, and you’ll find the word ‘intent’ used every 30 seconds. The last few years in T20 batting have been a phase where analysts have thrown ‘averages’ in the bin, and people now can’t use this word without getting an orthodox tag stuck on the forehead. I didn’t want the tag, so I’ve decided to stick to intent”; CricBit’s Arnav Jain has a statistic-laden piece on what intent and impact mean in T20 cricket, and how you can build a metric to compare players within those parameters.
The Final Word’s Geoff Lemon & Adam Collins discuss the England & Wales Cricket Board’s decision to sell a 49% stake in The Hundred teams for £500 million. [Apple Podcasts]
Ravichandran Ashwin talks to Kuldeep Yadav about being a childhood CSK fan, his hopes of becoming a football manager, and his journey to this point.
Jarrod Kimber breaks down the India squad for his YouTube channel.
Editor’s Note
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