Visitors’ top four’s numbers so far in 2022 read 13 ducks with only six fifty-plus scores, and a collective average of 21.65

Mohammad Isam17-Jun-2022Shakib Al Hasan hasn’t looked this helpless for a long time. Shortly after Kyle Mayers delivered a double-wicket maiden to gut the Bangladesh middle order, there was nothing left for the new captain to do. He hadn’t faced a single ball while his team had crashed to 45 for 6 one hour into the match.If their 2018 visit to Antigua and their 2022 batting form is anything to go by, then the fate of the innings, the Test and the series was all but decided in the first hour.Within minutes of assessing the depth of Bangladesh’s collapse, Shakib proceeded to slog, hack and chance his arm for the remaining hour-and-a-half. It was definitely ugly. It was not first-day Test-match batting by any stretch of the imagination. But what could he do, really? Shakib’s 51 off 67 balls at least got Bangladesh to three-figures.Unless the bowlers put together a miraculous comeback on the second day, West Indies are already on top of this contest. Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales gave them a strong start, before Mayers and Alzarri Joseph rammed home the advantage with tight lines and subtle movement. Bangladesh were bowled out for 103.Mind you, Seales, Joseph, Mayers and Nkrumah Bonner, who took two catches at slip, had only just arrived in Antigua from Multan where they played an ODI series against Pakistan. Modern cricketers are used to jetlag, but they’re still human beings. And human beings can’t just rock up to a Test match after flying halfway across the world and not feel some aftereffects.Bangladesh had an opportunity to exploit that. Instead, they succumbed to their demons. Fresh off a home Test defeat in which their batters scored six ducks in the first innings, they proceeded to get exactly as many on the first day in Antigua too.Young opener Mahmudul Hasan Joy continued to blow hot and cold as he got out for without scoring for the fifth time in seven Tests. He has also made 78 in New Zealand and 137 in South Africa, but poking at everything outside off stump is fast becoming a (bad) habit. At No. 3, Najmul Hossain Shanto’s ‘talented’ tag is wearing thin. He is considered Bangladesh’s future, but just one half-century in his last 17 Test innings is testing this idea heavily.ESPNcricinfo LtdMominul Haque, in his first innings after resigning from Test captaincy, was again behind the eight ball. He is going through a bad patch, which every player does. But being rushed against fast bowling doesn’t look good for someone who, just a year ago, had seemed so at ease in Test cricket.The Bangladesh top four’s numbers in the first six months of 2022 don’t make good reading: 13 ducks with only six fifty-plus scores, and a collective average of 21.65. Much of it is due to the poor form of Mominul and Shanto.Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudul, Shanto and Mominul were all gone by the 14th over in Antigua. Without Mushfiqur Rahim and his understudy Yasir Ali, this was self-defeating to say the least. When Mayers removed the in-form Litton Das and Nurul Hasan in the same over, it wasn’t just two meaty blows to the visitors’ batting line-up. It was the end of the match as a contest.Litton didn’t show a semblance of patience, which was a surprise given his impressive form this year. Nurul, whose domestic form demanded a return to both the red- and white-ball teams, was lbw while leaving the ball.All this left Shakib having to swing at everything. He managed to get set despite trying to slog half the balls in an over, and trying to farm the strike in the other three. When he was set, he started to pick gaps by going over the fielders. Shakib didn’t even have the time or space to bat properly.Bangladesh’s tail-enders were never in with a chance. And it is a proper tail after Mehidy Hasan Miraz gets out, especially when they don’t pick Taijul Islam. Russell Domingo, Jamie Siddons and Khaled Mahmud have their work cut out managing not just the top order, but also in giving the tail some confidence.The BCB have ensured ample training camps for the South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies series, but no amount of training or motivation seem to be working for the Bangladesh batters. West Indies applied the same, simple formula that South Africa and Sri Lanka did in the preceding few months. They waited for the Bangladesh batters’ mistakes, and those came thick and fast.Perhaps it really was best that none of this was shown on TV back home.

Extraction of Williamson for third time in series epitomises soft skills of hard competitor

Vithushan Ehantharajah25-Jun-2022Zaheer Khan, Hasan Ali – and now, Matthew Potts. It’s not a trio you would naturally throw together, even if they’d make a pretty tidy bowling attack. Beyond that, there is probably not too much in common given the age differences along with the era and environments they grew up in. The Beastie Boys, they are not.But on Saturday at Headingley, a thread that existed between Zaheer and Hasan was sewn unto Potts. For they are now the only three bowlers to have dismissed Kane Williamson three times in a Test series. Zaheer was in his 15th year in the format, while Hasan did so a year after making his debut in 2017. It’s taken Potts a matter of weeks.It’s no measure to rank them, by any means. Especially given that, when Zaheer made his India debut in 2000, Williamson was a 10-year-old, gently guiding balls behind the car and into the garage door. But it is a neat summation of how quickly Potts has felt at home at this level, to have stamped the New Zealand captain’s card in all but one of the four innings he’s had. Had Covid not intervened at Trent Bridge to rule out two more meetings, Potts might have earned enough points to be entitled to a free Kane Williamson.The set-up and punchline for this final battle was Potts in a nutshell. Four deliveries came from an almost identical release point at the crease, before he went wide while serving up a ball that behaved just like the others. Williamson, by now conditioned to a ball coming into him, approached this one exactly the same, offering a straight bat, but failed to register that it was a little wider, thus probably one to cut. He knew he was done as soon as contact was made, and arched back to look to the sky in despair as Jonny Bairstow took the catch with the gloves and Potts wheeled away.Having just lost Devon Conway, and with Williamson set on 48 after nearly three hours at the crease, it was an incision that tipped the afternoon England’s way, maybe even the match. New Zealand still lead by 137, with five wickets still to get.ESPNcricinfo LtdAs it stands, Potts is England’s leading wicket-taker for the series with 13 at an impressive average of 21.53. And although he started with a bang at Lord’s with four for 13, followed by three for 55 in the second innings, his work so far at Headingley might be his best showing yet.He was unfortunate to leave the first innings with just one wicket for 34 from his 26 overs, especially considering he’d twice got the better of New Zealand’s eventual centurion Daryl Mitchell. An lbw on eight was not reviewed after being adjudged not out, then an edge on 80 was taken out of Joe Root’s hands at first slip when wicketkeeper Ben Foakes leapt across to snatch at it.But you knew, deep down, Potts’ rewards were not going to be too far away. As he mentioned on Sky Sports at stumps on Saturday, he is consistent with his method: “I don’t think there’s any great secret. Just a bit of wobble, maybe the occasional swinger. Just try and hit it on a good length and hopefully something will happen.” As it did against Williamson, and earlier when he got England’s hunt for ten second-innings wickets up and running with a delivery that left Will Young and coaxed a prod to Ollie Pope at third slip.As for the moments when it doesn’t quite happen? “It’s not a drama,” he shrugged, like a bloke who knows full well that none of this caper is life and death. Yet even in those moments when the pitch flattens out, he’s still running in, still hammering that length and doing it accurately enough for England to operate without a fine leg, giving them an extra fielder to use in a more threatening position.A quick arm, an awkward action and what those in on the term call “fast nip” – Potts’ ability to lose little pace after the ball pitches – are misjudgement-inducing themselves, even before his skills come into the equation. Those skills got a tune-up over the winter, and ultimately led to his international calling, including the acquisition of a wobble-ball. Add it all together, even an average pace of 81 miles per hour (both in this Test and the series as a whole), CricViz calculates he elicits false shots 17 percent of the time – essentially more than once an over.That he is now doing all this as James Anderson’s replacement is not for nothing, either. The burden of deputising for 651 dismissals doesn’t register, because his remit hasn’t changed. When so many have tried to mimic the great man, Potts was his own man, doing things in his own way.Related

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There’s something to be said for Potts’ personality, too, because it’s not quite as obvious on the field as it is with others. While Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad and Jonny Bairstow took turns between balls to conduct the Western Terrace like they were warming up the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, Potts managed to do so when the ball was live.You could probably apportion some of the credit for Henry Nicholls’ wicket (caught and bowled by Jack Leach) to Potts, considering he was responsible for the decibel levels that made Headingley feel that little bit smaller and that little bit more enclosed for New Zealand’s batters. And it said all you needed to know about his attitude to the game, and the grind, that he was hurrying back to his mark even as darkness closed in, to try and prise one or two more deliveries out before the day was done.Alas, his scampering before the rains came in to end day three proved in vain, and he will return on Sunday morning with one ball remaining in his 10th over.There is a selflessness to his graft: Potts is the type of person who’d run through a brick wall for his team-mates and then clean up the debris. It is why, even before he had bowled a ball in an England shirt, Stokes – his Durham team-mate – championed him as not just an “athlete” but “everything I expect this team to be going forward”.Typically, he wasn’t having it when he was asked of the thrill of having a player like Williamson, a generational great, in his back pocket. “I wouldn’t say he’s sitting in my pocket,” he replied, as much of a correction as it was a statement of the sort of humility necessary to make it in this arena.”To be honest, that could be anyone. Anyone in that line-up, I’m trying to get them out. And if I’m not, I shouldn’t be in the team really.”Well, he is. And he should be, for a good while yet.

“Forty-five would be a target which I would want to achieve,” he says after putting Mumbai in the driver’s seat

Himanshu Agrawal08-Jun-2022You could argue that Shams Mulani would have the fielders to thank for two of his five wickets against Uttarakhand on the third day’s play in Alur. But in fact, only one would ideally fall into that category.Bowling from around the wicket to left-hand opener Kamal Singh, he bowled full and just outside off, inviting the slog sweep from the batter. Kamal found Tushar Deshpande at deep midwicket, who took a sharp, low catch despite losing balance while falling forward. That was Mulani’s first wicket of the day.His third came when Prithvi Shaw dived full stretch to his right at first slip, and snaffled Dikshanshu Negi one handed in a remarkable effort. Again, it would be Shaw who would rather be lauded.But Mulani still deserves credit. Starting the day around the wicket to both right- and left-hand batters, he soon switched to an over-the-wicket angle when he saw nothing was working from around. Of course he had Kamal caught from around, but that was actually down to Deshpande’s catch.There was some rough outside the right-hand batter’s leg stump, which Mulani’s angle from over the wicket could exploit. Rough would mean extra bounce despite this being a black-soil pitch where, as Mulani points out, the ball doesn’t get up as much as it does on red-soil ones.That is exactly where he landed the ball for Negi, who went for a flick to a tossed-up ball on leg stump, but ended up getting a leading edge to Shaw at slip. So an accurate Mulani pitching it in the right area was as much responsible for the wicket as was Shaw.And that is also how he dismissed Shivam Khurana, who became his fifth wicket of the day. Coming from over the stumps with a slip and a leg slip stationed, he landed one in the rough outside the right-hand batter’s leg stump again. Khurana went for a half-hearted sweep, as the extra bounce did him in, with the ball taking the higher side of the bat to leg slip.Mulani had conceded 23 off his first 32 balls, including two sixes and a four, but eventually finished with 5 for 39 off 12 overs. And apart from the rough, there were some cracks on the pitch too, which he had spotted, knowing well enough that they would provide some turn for him.Mulani needed to execute, and he did that almost perfectly.File photo: Shams Mulani (third from right) has five five-wicket hauls in four Ranji Trophy games so far•PTI In all of his wickets other than Kamal’s, there was loop, dip and turn; or at least two of them. When he had Swapnil Singh caught by Shaw at first slip, he gave the ball good flight on a full length outside off, as the ball took the outside edge while almost dying on to the batter; that, he said, was his favourite for the day.And when Mulani cleaned up Agrim Tiwari, he fired one pretty full and once again bang on the rough on leg stump, as the tailender swung but missed, with the ball turning away to instead hit off stump.That was the craft Mulani displayed on a two-day old pitch which suddenly seemed dead and unresponsive the moment Mumbai came out to bat in the second innings, as well as when they batted in the first. In Mumbai’s second innings, Uttarakhand’s left-arm spinners Mayank Mishra and Swapnil bowled a combined 34 overs, tallying 1 for 131 at nearly four runs an over.And before Wednesday, Mulani brought with him a bagful of wickets from this Ranji season already. Before the tournament was split by the IPL, he had already pocketed four five-wicket hauls; twice in three matches, he had grabbed a ten-for. With 29 wickets, he easily sat atop the wicket-taking charts.That lead was pushed further with five more against Uttarakhand, but he rates his performance of 6 for 107 and 5 for 60 against Goa as the one he most enjoyed among them all. Mumbai won on the final day, as Mulani also hit 50 in the second innings.”We had to bundle them out in 60-odd overs. That was the best [among all five-fors this season],” he recalls.With a first-innings lead already obtained and with Mumbai a mammoth 794 ahead after day three in Alur, they are almost certain of a semi-final spot. And despite 34 wickets in the Ranji Trophy thus far this season, Mulani is not done yet.”Forty-five would be a target which I would want to achieve,” he says.Not to forget, 34 is the number for just Ranji. Mulani also won the Col CK Nayudu Under-25 tournament with Mumbai, where he picked 32 wickets – including five five-wicket hauls, and three ten-wicket match hauls – and he remembers the count too, like it were all yesterday.In April 2021, Mulani was called up by Delhi Capitals as a short-term Covid-19 replacement for Axar Patel. He didn’t get a chance then, and hasn’t played in the IPL since.But if this form and such application continues, Mulani might soon be in demand beyond Mumbai’s domestic circles.

Breakneck speed of two 500-plus innings gives time for contest to reach tipping point

Osman Samiuddin13-Jun-2022Trent Boult’s deadpan conclusion was telling. Asked about the possibility of a result at the end of the third day, by which point England were still five wickets from completing their first innings and over a thousand runs had already been scored, he agreed all three results were possible.And then added: “I hadn’t played at Trent Bridge before, and I had heard rumours it was a good wicket. I can confirm that is true.”By that stage, it had been a great wicket for batters. New Zealand made 553 at 3.8 per over in their first innings. England had gone even harder and were, at that point, scoring at 4.14 per over. There had been four hundreds including two daddies. And when England began the fourth morning with a blitz of boundaries – 43 runs in the first five overs – it may have felt as if this was actually a poor wicket for those who prefer some balance between bat and red ball.After all, by the time England’s innings folded for 539, the combined run-rate across the first two innings of the game was 3.98, the second-highest in history for that portion of a Test (in which both sides scored 500+ runs). There were 163 boundaries (including 10 sixes) across the two innings, the joint-fifth highest in Test history.Most Tests around the top of that list are remembered – if they are remembered at all – for how flat the surfaces were, a sense from very early on in each game that a draw was inevitable. The only Test above this in terms of run-rates across the first two innings is the Perth Test of 2015-16 between Australia and New Zealand, criticised at the time for being a “chief executive’s pitch”, from an era of very batting-friendly surfaces in Australia.Matt Potts removed Michael Bracewell after a “super positive” innings•Getty ImagesAnd it could be argued that the chances of a result increasing substantially has not had much to do with the surface. Michael Bracewell spoke of deterioration, but that sounded like a bluff ahead of his work on the final day. The truth is, not one of New Zealand’s seven wickets – from Tom Latham’s leave to Devon Conway’s sweep to the run-outs – can be ascribed to the surface or even especially good bowling. What is slightly more credible is, as Bracewell said, their desire to move the game to a result: a draw means New Zealand can’t win the series.And yet, neither has it been as straightforward as the suggestion that this is simply a road. There has been swing through the game, more so under cloud cover. Boult, who ended with five, swung a 40-over ball through the morning, as he had done at various stages through England’s innings. Ben Stokes and Matthew Potts were getting a 40-over-old ball to seam in New Zealand’s third innings. The combination of boundaries and beaten edges has seemed unusual, to the degree that there have been times through the Test when the fact that both captains wanted to bowl first made some sense.An outfield like an ice-rink has helped with the boundaries. “Good balls can be pushed into twos and almost to the boundary as well,” Boult said yesterday. “Lots of boundaries hit. I suppose, from a bowling point of view, all we can do is look to stack on pressure and build good balls around good areas and if they’re good enough to hit it, then so be it. I thought they were good enough to hit it.”Some of the batting – Daryl Mitchell and Joe Root in particular – has been more than good enough. Root spoke on the fourth morning of current players being able to rewrite the coaching manual; unburdened of captaincy, in rare form, and with a new coach keen on attack, he played arguably the most innovative Test innings of his 118-Test career.The bounce in the pitch has taken leg-before as a mode of dismissal out, which is unusual for Tests in England. There isn’t a single lbw of the 27 wickets to have fallen so far and only two bowleds. Tom Latham’s leave looked bad, and in the binary world of leaves it was because he got out, but, on evidence from three days, it was reasonable to expect the ball to go over the stumps.Related

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Problems with the ball – changed three times across both first innings – have not helped. Not as unhelpful as the catching though. Nine catches have been dropped in all, including most significantly, each one of the game’s highest scorers. Had the success rate been anywhere near that at Lord’s, the scorecard surely would not now be showing two 500-plus totals.The rate of scoring, in fact, may be what defines the Test. Ben Foakes said that the game had been like the Indian version of Test cricket, where 500 plays 500 and then everything happens at the end. He’s right. Kind of.It has been an inverse version of those, a fast slow-burning Test. It is now at this denouement not because the surface has deteriorated, but because both sides have scored at the speeds they have. There was probably a little perspective-retrofitting in Bracewell attributing New Zealand’s second-innings wickets to “super positive” cricket – two run-outs, the Latham leave and a couple of other dismissals did not feel super positive.But they need to win this Test. And England getting close to New Zealand in the first innings as quickly as they did set it up in the first place.

Four from Sri Lanka, three from Pakistan, and two each from India and Afghanistan make up the ESPNcricinfo XI

Shashank Kishore13-Sep-2022Kusal Mendis

He ended the tournament with back-to-back ducks, but played a big role in Sri Lanka’s inspired run to the final. He set the tone at the top of the order with his blazing strokeplay and firebrand approach to help scale down targets of 184, 176 and 174 against Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India respectively. That he has made a seamless switch from being a middle-order batter to an opener bodes well for Sri Lanka as they prepare for the T20 World Cup.Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk)

Gurbaz provided a peek into his big-hitting abilities on the opening night when he blasted an 18-ball 40 in a small chase against Sri Lanka. Around a week later, also against Sri Lanka, he was at it again, when he laid the platform up top with a robust 45-ball 84 to set up a strong total batting first. He ended with a duck, against India, but it was good signs from a strong hitter up top.ESPNcricinfo LtdVirat Kohli

Two half-centuries, and, finally, his first T20I century. Along the way, his century drought across formats, that had lasted 1020 days, ended. He started scratchily, but the fluency kept getting better with every passing innings. He ended the tournament second on the run chart behind Mohammad Rizwan and looked his dominant old self again.Ibrahim Zadran

If Afghanistan proved there’s more to them than just their spinners and six-hitters, it was courtesy performances of the kind Ibrahim displayed. Normally an opener, he has had to adjust to a middle-order role, and provided the ice to the fire of the stroke-makers around him. His unbeaten 42 against Bangladesh was a big show of responsibility in seeing off a small chase, while knocks of 40 and 64* against Sri Lanka and India respectively were further proof of his evolution.2:25

Maharoof: ‘Probably the best I have seen Rajapaksa bat’

Bhanuka Rajapaksa

Only nine months ago, he had hastily retired from international cricket, only to be coaxed back. An IPL stint followed by a stream of decent scores all year round made him a key player for Sri Lanka. At the Asia Cup, he brought out a big performance on the big stage – the final – with Sri Lanka with their backs to the wall. From 58 for 5, his rescue act, along with Wanindu Hasaranga, took them to 170 for 6, which was then defended by a young line-up.Dasun Shanaka (capt)

He rallied a young team through a tough phase and is now reaping the rewards. He also played a key role in delivering two key wins. The first was a 33-ball 45 in a chase of 184 against Bangladesh. And then, he went one better against India. First, his wickets of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya denied India the finish they were looking for. Then he made a calm, unbeaten 18-ball 33 to take them home in the final over.We knew Mohammad Nawaz could bowl; now we know he can bat too•AFP/Getty ImagesMohammad Nawaz

His overs of no-frills left-arm spin gave Babar Azam some flexibility in the field to bring him on according to match-ups. With the bat, Nawaz proved to be more than a handful, especially in Pakistan’s win over India where he was essentially promoted to disrupt India’s two legspinners. He responded with a 20-ball 42 to script a win that helped them make a dash to the final.Wanindu Hasaranga

He was a star with the bat in the final, and a star with the ball all tournament long. With him around, Sri Lanka didn’t need to worry about keeping batters quiet in the middle overs. He ended the tournament with back-to-back three-wicket hauls, but the impact performance was his 58-run partnership off just 36 balls with Rajapaksa that helped launch the big fightback. His nine strikes were the second-most in the tournament.2:59

Uthappa: Bhuvneshwar’s short ball can catch you off guard

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

It was far from a perfect performance, where his death-overs execution went awry more than once, but with the new ball, Bhuvneshwar was as good as they come. Like Afghanistan found out in the dead rubber when he uprooted their top order in a superb spell of 5 for 4. His impact performance, however, was in the tournament opener against Pakistan, when he combined with Hardik to set up victory for India by executing a sharp short-ball plan. He finished as the leading wicket-taker in the tournament.Haris Rauf

If opponents thought they could relax a bit after Pakistan’s relentless new-ball attack, Haris Rauf had reason to have a good laugh about it. He can be deceptive, especially when he hits hard lengths. He can combine that with serious gas, like he did in the final when he sent Danushka Gunathilaka’s stumps flying with a 151kph thunderbolt. His strengths lie in being able to bowl with pace and fire at all stages of an innings.Naseem Shah

The late curve into Mendis in the final, that snuck through to send off stump cartwheeling, was a small glimpse into the magical world of Naseem Shah. He swings the ball at a serious pace and has an excellent short ball to boot. With the bat, he reminded many of good old Javed Miandad when he hit back-to-back sixes to win a Sharjah thriller against Afghanistan.

Australia, England, Pakistan and India have the talent to make the semi-finals, but as West Indies and Sri Lanka have shown, unpredictability is always a factor

Ian Chappell23-Oct-2022T20 cricket is predicated on close finishes and stirring games. However, the brutal losses for West Indies and Sri Lanka, with the miserable failure of the former to reach the second round, are a reminder that T20 also produces upsets.There’s the likelihood of more surprises as the major section of the T20 World Cup gets underway. The unpredictable and dire weather that Australia has recently been experiencing also has to be a factor.Related

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Australia are the defending T20 World Cup champions and they, along with India, England and Pakistan, are the most likely candidates to reach the semi-finals. However, it’s worth remembering the tendency for upsets to happen in T20, and to consider the longer boundaries and bouncy Australian pitches.A successful team needs to exploit not only the extra bounce but encourage opponents to hit to the longer boundaries. In looking for a likely winner, concentrate on balanced pace attacks that contain wicket-taking spinners in a team that compiles viable totals.Australia, who are defending their crown at home, have the ingredients for success in their own country. Their batting is long and explosive and the bowling covers all bases. Nevertheless, Aaron Finch’s unreliable form as a player and how well they field will affect Australia’s progress. If those performances are acceptable then a place in the final is well within Australia’s grasp.In Group 2, the clash between India and Pakistan is not only a mouth-watering duel, it could also determine who South Africa may challenge for a semi-final place. India have a huge battle on the bouncy Perth pitch against South Africa and that is South Africa’s best chance to unsettle one of the favourites in that group. Pakistan are fortunate to play South Africa at the more spin-friendly SCG. The result of those matches could decide the balance of power in that division.While India have a strong playing group, their players also benefit from performing in a highly competitive IPL tournament. Their practice matches in Australia will have given India the opportunity to acclimate to local conditions.The loss of Jasprit Bumrah is unfortunate but his replacement, Mohammed Shami, is a good bowler. If Shami receives a reasonable share of T20 luck then Bumrah’s loss won’t be too heavily felt.

A successful team needs to exploit not only the extra bounce but encourage opponents to hit to the longer boundaries. Balanced pace attacks that contain wicket-taking spinners will be key

India’s batting fortunes are more evenly shared and the brilliant form of Suryakumar Yadav relieves them from having to rely too heavily on Virat Kohli. The success or otherwise of their spinners, and whether Hardik Pandya can clear the longer boundaries, will play an important role for India.Pakistan don’t possess many superstar names, but they have a solid squad. Their progress will depend heavily on the opening partnership of Babar Azam and the aggressive Mohammad Rizwan. They also need opening bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi to be fully fit and performing well. If Afridi is in top form, Pakistan have the bowling combination to fully test India. Their progress will come down to Pakistan’s batting consistency, fielding, and their cohesion, which can often be suspect.Despite some major injury woes, England have chosen sensibly by including a number of successful BBL players. No matter what sort of disturbance Alex Hales causes, picking him was a practical choice, considering his previous success in Australia. Fielding and the ability to cope with Australian conditions will be important, but England have the talent to sneak past New Zealand in their group and qualify for the semi-finals.The T20 formula suggests South Africa could be a surprise outfit, but their batting and previous World Cup history are dire. If Quinton de Kock has an outstanding tournament and carries the batting then South Africa’s excellent bowling will give them a chance.And therein lies one of the frailties of T20 cricket: in a short game, one individual can have an unnatural effect on the overall result. That helps make choosing a winner difficult but talent says an Australia vs India final is likely. Nevertheless, beware of the tournament-altering upset.