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Showing posts with label Ben Stokes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ben Stokes. Show all posts
When will Hardik Pandya walk out to bat?
Friend:
Knock Knock
Hardik
Pandya: Who’s there?
F: Oye,
wanna come for dinner?
HP: The team
management served me at 4:30 pm!
Hardik
Pandya walks into bat. But when? Does Hardik Pandya know? Does anybody know? Is
there a situation-signal that goes off when it’s Hardik Pandya time? Is Hardik
Pandya always padded up?
It may seem
surprising to some, but with Hardik Pandya, the team management (that’s pretty
much Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli, isn’t it?) have turned out to be rather
flexible – it may even appear they toss a coin, and if it lands on Pandya’s
head, he goes out to bat.
Then again,
it may not be that surprising. After the openers and Virat Kohli, the batting
depth isn’t that deep. There’s either Dinesh Karthik/Manish Pandey/KL Rahul at
four, followed by Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni and yeah, that man, Pandya.
After that,
it’s the bowlers who’ve been known to bat a bit, often more in memory than any
recent scorecard. Not to disregard Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s hits the other day, but
still very early days, isn’t it?
As for the
argument to send MS Dhoni in early at five, it stands, as does the argument
against sending him in at five – at least in these largely pointless bilateral
matches. Face it, there isn’t anything for Dhoni to learn as such at any
position (or for that matter, the team management to lean about him) – he could
be a floater, at least for now.
That Dhoni
takes more deliveries to warm up, before he warms up for the kill, could well
be a reason to send him in early, but then it comes at the cost of the Pandya
experiment.
An
experiment that is all about doing some pretty intense brain mapping on Pandya,
his abilities, capabilities, temperament, hitting prowess, mindset, defensive
mindset, attacking mindset (the Full Monty of Shastri call-for-action words and
phrases, really).
Hardik
Pandya made his ODI debut barely a year ago in October 2016. So far, he’s
clocked 28 games with 18 innings. He did not bat in his first game but walked
out at eight in his next, he scored 36 off 32 deliveries. India though, lost
that match by six runs.
In his
third innings, Pandya was promoted to seven. After three outings at that
position, he was sent in at five against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy – he
had some fun, 20 off six deliveries, with those three sixes. The Pandya
experiment had begun.
Next
innings at six, then seven, that semi-final against Pakistan, where he played a
lone hand, after which the team was on its last legs. Naturally he made it up
to four in his next innings. Scored only 4, so he made it to seven after that.
What followed are these positions - 7, 4, 7, 7, 4, 4, 7, 5.
A little
over two years older than Pandya is England’s Ben Stokes. He’s played a little
over twice as many games as Pandya, and has an unveiled threat factor to him,
on and off the field. Three ODI centuries – two of which have been scored in
his last six innings. His first was 16 innings back. All three tons have come
batting at five.
While the
bulk of Stokes’ innings have been at either the number five or six position,
he’s occasionally batted as low as seven and even eight, and sometimes even as
high as the coveted No. 3 slot. All that was in the early days of his career,
when England were figuring out a slot for him. In Stokes’ last 35 innings,
England has asked him to throw his punches at either five or six.
This could
well be the case with Pandya. The top three slots are taken. The experiments
for No. 4 are on in earnest. Dhoni and Jadhav are seasoned enough to adapt to
various positions.
Question
is, what position will pick Pandya? Shastri & Co could opt for a bit of
Harry Potter magic – ask the sorting hat to pick Pandya’s position.
Till then
though it’s unlikely we’ll know when Pandya bats. The World Cup is in 2019. The
way the experiments are going, don’t be too surprised to see Pandya walk in at…
In these
days of sameness in Indian cricket’s long, winding home season, this is one
sure shot of entertainment. The cheers
when Pandya walks out are no less than those usually reserved for MS Dhoni.
There’s a churn happening in Indian cricket, everyone can feel it, they just
don’t know when it will hit them.
He’s not
called HH Pandya* for nothing.
(Aside: Imagine if and when Hardik’s brother,
Krunal walks out to bat for India? In T20s, he strikes at 152 to Hardik’s 127)
*Hardik Himanshu Pandya
First published here
Why Rs 14.5 crore for Ben Stokes is a bargain
Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) didn't buy Ben Stokes for Rs 14.5 crore. They bought electricity. Something that was missing all of last season. From a team that just didn't come together, first with its purchases, to a team that eventually fell apart, as its big buys fell like flies, falling to injury, one by one.
Forget Stokes' strike rate, forget his batting average too. Forget his economy, his bowling average, just picture Stokes, as you remember him from the recent India-England series. What do you see? Or rather, what don't you see?
It's hard to say whether Stokes is the sum of his astonishing parts or way more than them. To dismiss his ability with a cliché will be incorrect. If cricketers were meat, he is the leanest, meanest cut out there - one that bedazzled the carnivore in each franchise. How could they not have him?
Stokes was the prey. A prey in its prime. And a prime cut at that. He elicited such ravenous desire, a Nat Geo clip of a cheetah stalking its prey should've accompanied the bidding.
Befittingly, Stokes has been picked as the predator. One that will not only run after its prey, but also pounce on it pronto - he is to be the finisher. Both with that outstretched hand that plucks balls out of thin air at first slip, or tonks one over long on, with zero movement, Kluseneresquely. He will bowl too, and prepare for Shastri to pipe in with, "Stokes can go for a few but he's a wicket taking bowler."
In a team that appears almost comatose at times, Stokes will inject edginess. He will sledge. He will take on Virat Kohli. Or he will compel ViratKohli to take him on. He will, in the blink of an eye, be expected to make things happen.
He is, in every way, to the IPL born.
With Stokes' purchase, both India and England have opened themselves to what Kevin Pietersen's been saying forever - that England's players should play in the IPL. Isn't it strange then, that one foreign-born England player takes over from another? Both June born, one from Natal, the other from Christchurch.
What RPS expects of Stokes could define how much he accomplishes for them - they could, hold him back to a fault, as the Mumbai Indians often did with Kieron Pollard or unleash him, earlier on, spreading fear and chaos, as the best in the biz do, much like David Warner.
RPS' new captain, Steve Smith, their ex-captain, MS Dhoni, and South Africa's skipper, Faf du Plessis should rally around Stokes, as Stokes is allowed to simply let go. Letting Stokes go, could well be what the more introspective threesome needs - who knows, it could nudge them a bit to raid the opposition.
Last season, it took one captain, David Warner and one coach, Tom Moody to set in motion an expedition that defied all logic - a team bereft of superstars and one on the wane, Yuvraj Singh, three seamers, one aging Ashish Nehra, one forgotten Bhuvneshwar Kumar, one Bangladeshi Mustafizur Rahman, all somehow added to one trophy in IPL 9.
While Pune lacks Hyderabad's bowling, it ticks quite a few boxes that won the IPL last season. In coach Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni they have the know-how of how to win the IPL. Even though that was with CSK, and that seems a lifetime away, Fleming's new collaboration with Steve Smith on top, will only rejig the team in a positive way.
In his last match, Dhoni scored his first T20 international fifty - surely stepping away from captaincy will account for something, even more so in the IPL, against hapless Indian bowlers on flat decks. Even if Irfan Pathan is missing, Axar Patel must still remember what Dhoni did to him last summer.
Now, if only Pune provides its home team with grounds like Chennai provided CSK - spinners, R Ashwin and A Zampa, could have a field day, and the qualifiers could be a lot closer than they appear.
If everything goes as per plan (and you can be sure, with Fleming there will be some devious plans cooking), prepare to hear Ravi Shastri repeat himself many a time, "Ben Stokes will be stoked" - even when he drops a catch, as was the case only recently. After all, it's the IPL, and everything goes.
But to begin with, Benjamin Andrew Stokes must go nuts. And electrify the IPL. The rest will follow.
First published here
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