With Siraj, Gill and Shardul, India is Ready for World Cup

iNDore: India have started their home season, ahead of the ODI World Cup in October-November, with clean sweeps of Sri Lanka and New Zealand, despite the absence of some key players. Here are some takeaways from their performances over the past two weeks.

Mohammed Siraj has cemented his position as one of India’s premier fast bowlers - with or without Jasprit Bumrah. When there is juice in the pitch, he gets the new ball to swing and seam, and when there isn’t, he unleashes his wobble-seam variation which has proven even harder to handle. His 14 wickets in five ODIs against Sri Lanka and New Zealand even helped rise to No.1 on the ODI bowlers rankings.

“The more cricket he [Siraj] has played, he has become better in terms of understanding his bowling,” India captain Rohit Sharma said. “In this game it’s about understanding what you can do, what is your ability, the moment you understand that you can be more effective for the team… Siraj has exactly done that in last couple of years that he has played whichever format be it. He has done really well, he understands what the team is expecting from him: to come and take the new ball, swing the ball, get early wickets, in the middle overs.”

Before the start of India’s home season, there were questions around Shubman Gill’s place at the top because an ODI double-centurion had to make way for him.

Now he himself is an ODI double-centurion, the youngest in the history of the format. His coming of age was always on the cards but nobody expected this.

“Honestly, the way he was batting in this series, [and] even before the series, I don’t think much needs to be told [to him],” Rohit said. “He understands his game very well, he paces his innings very well. That is what you want in one-day cricket, you want big [scores], you want to go deep into the game. He has shown it, he has got big hundreds, no matter how flat the pitch is to get a doublehundred is not easy. It shows he was calculative and he understood

[that] he needs to bat deep. The set batsman needs to bat as long as possible. That is what the reason we got 350-plus total in that game. He has got great maturity in the way he thinks about the game and the way he approaches the game. That is all I can say. I have not had played lot of cricket with him but from the first time I saw him in Australia in Test series, we all know how he batted at that Test match at the Gabba.”

After being left out of the side for the Sri Lanka ODIs, Shardul Thakur proved his all-round value against New Zealand, strengthening his case to be India’s No. 8 at the World Cup. In the first ODI, Michael Bracewell gave India an almighty scare by taking New Zea- land from 131 for 6 to within two sixes of levelling their score (349). And it was Thakur who closed that game out by trapping Bracewell with a dipping yorker.

Then, in the third ODI, on a ground with 60m boundaries on all sides, Thakur proved the difference between the two sides by breaking the back of New Zealand’s middle order all in the space of 10 balls.

“He has got the knack of taking wickets at crucial times for us,” Rohit said. “We have seen it, not just in ODI cricket but also in Test cricket. There are so many instances that I remember [when] there is a partnership building from the opposition and he came in and got us through. He is very critical to us, we know where we stand as a team, what he brings to us is very critical. I just hope that he keeps putting up performances like this and it will only do good for the team.

“He is very smart, he has played lot of domestic cricket, he has come up through the ranks, and he understands what needs to be done. In this format you need to use your skill and Shardul definitely has some skills. He has a good knuckle ball; he bowled it to Tom Latham today, that was nicely planned in the middle by few players and I was not included in that (laughs). It was Virat, Hadik and Shardul; so it was a good plan. At the end of the day, if a plan works for the team, we all are happy.”

BCCI Scores Big Rs with Women’s Premier League

MuMbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has got richer by Rs 4699.99 crore. Ever since the board rolled out its plan to launch a T20 league for women on the lines of the Indian Premier League, top corporate houses had shown interest in owning the five teams up for grabs. On Wednesday, when the bids in Mumbai, the BCCI was celebrating another big pay day.

The inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) will have five teams based out of Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Lucknow. The tournament is set to take place in March with player auction set for February.

And even before a ball is bowled, the WPL has fetched Rs 5,650.99 crore to the BCCI and its broadcast right (bought by Viacom for Rs 951 crore) already makes it the second highest among T20 leagues, only behind the IPL.

Not even Big Bash League, The Hundred or any other domestic T20 league comes close to these numbers.

The Adani Group went all out for the Ahmedabad franchise, by placing a highest bid Rs 1,289 cr. The next three highest bids came from IPL franchises who were keen to spread their roots into the women’s game. Mumbai Indians (Rs 912 cr), Royal Challengers Bangalore (Rs 901 cr), Delhi Capitals (Rs 810 cr) placed the highest and walk away with a franchise. All three have picked the same home base as their men’s team.