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Danish Aziz, the Pakistan allrounder who has played two ODIs and two T20Is, will represent Kathmandu Kings XI

Hemant Brar12-Aug-2021Sri Lanka batter Dinesh Chandimal is the latest high-profile player who will feature in the Everest Premier League, Nepal’s domestic T20 tournament. Chandimal, 31, will represent Bhairahawa Gladiators in the tournament, which will be played from September 25 to October 9 at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur.”I am so excited to visit the beautiful country of Nepal and I am very much looking forward to a great Everest Premier League season with the Gladiators,” Chandimal said in a video message.Chandimal brings with him considerable international experience, having played 62 Tests, 149 ODIs and 57 T20Is. In 2014, he was part of the Sri Lankan side that won the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh. In Lanka Premier League 2020, Chandimal scored 246 runs from eight innings at an average of 41 and a strike rate of almost 130.Related

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In 2012, Chandimal was bought by IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals but didn’t get a game.Another Sri Lankan, Pubudu Dassanayake, will be joining Gladiators as head coach. A wicketkeeper-batter in his playing days, Dassanayake played 11 Tests and 16 ODIs for Sri Lanka between 1993 and 1994. Later, he played first-class and List A cricket for Canada before moving to a coaching role. He had successful stints as a coach with the national teams of Nepal and the USA.Meanwhile, Danish Aziz, the left-hand batting allrounder who has played two ODIs and as many T20Is for Pakistan, will appear for Kathmandu Kings XI. Aziz will join another Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi and Nepal’s legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane at Kings.Last year, the EPL didn’t take place because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 27-year-old has often frustrated himself with inconsistent performances, but has come back stronger and mature, say team-mates and coaches

Sharda Ugra13-Mar-2013The two-day Gang of Four soap opera has done the implausible: diverted attention from India in India. India will be pleased. Not least Shikhar Dhawan, who will on Thursday step into the space once occupied by Virender Sehwag – at least, on the scorecard.Dhawan, 27, is another opener off the production line from Delhi. If Sehwag make-shifted into the position and turned it his own, Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir and now Dhawan have always been fully-certified openers.Dhawan’s move up the order to an India Test spot has come from the poor run of form for both Sehwag and Gambhir. Until now, Dhawan has had to bide his time through the better part of nine years in first-class cricket, due to Sehwag and Gambhir’s occupation of the opening slots, and the crests and troughs of his own career. This season, though, Dhawan finds himself on a crest that he hopes will last longer.His inclusion in the Indian team, before the series against Australia, came on the back of 833 first-class runs at 55.53, which included four hundreds and three fifties. This is Dhawan’s most prolific season, and in it, his colleagues and coaches see signs of maturity, which should help him tide over what have so far been his turbulent twenties.A free-stroking left-hand batsman with dazzling shots square of the wicket, Dhawan is at his best when playing freely. His Delhi team-mate, Rajat Bhatia, says that over the last few seasons he has seen “a much more mature player who understands the importance of big runs”. Another Delhi player, Mithun Manhas, says Dhawan’s appetite for big scores has only grown. “He is focused on his game, and knows how to take care of his weaknesses, as much as he concentrates on his strengths,” Manhas said.Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya tells a story of two seasons, and specifically two matches, both at Delhi’s most seamer-friendly venue, the Roshanara Club Ground. In December 2010, Delhi had to score 136 in the fourth innings to beat Railways. They muffed the chase, losing by 22 runs, with Dhawan pilloried for his dismissal.In December 2012, Maharashtra set Delhi a target of 270 at the same venue, where their highest successful chase had been 160. Delhi won by seven wickets, with Dhawan not out on 116. He was involved in two major partnerships. Dhawan had said to his coach then, “I messed it up the last time. This time I wanted to make sure I didn’t.”In Mohali, a ground he is familiar with, Dhawan gets another chance to lift his game even higher. He is famous in India for being the top-scorer and the player of the tournament in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup. Team-mates in that junior squad included Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa and RP Singh, who have since then played 31 Tests, 255 ODIs and 57 T20 internationals between them.Dhawan’s time with India has been all of five ODIs, and a T20 International in 2011, when he was roped in because of his shot-making skills and extraordinarily high fielding and fitness levels. It turned pear-shaped for him in his brief stint with India, but Dhawan’s sudden spurts of performances in domestic cricket have always kept him in the mix. He has been on India A squads to Australia, England and the West Indies over those nine seasons. His best performance on those three tours was his 179 against Yorkshire in a three-day match in 2010.What was missing from Dhawan’s game was a consistent run, across not merely a handful of matches but through entire seasons. His school coach, Madan Sharma, is relieved that Dhawan has begun to convert attractive 60s and 70s into bigger scores.”He’s at an age when batsmen mature, between 26 and 30,” Madan said. “While he has always been hard-working, he has learnt tough lessons, and grown to where he now understands how important it is to protect his wicket, and which ball to leave.”The younger Dhawan, according to Sharma, was a careless batsman, who had a ” [lofting-and-getting-out]” approach to batting. He is now gratified to find that the older Dhawan has found what could be the even keel he has been critically missing so far.Dahiya sees a batsman who has worked on his technique against the short ball, has looked “very solid” on his front foot, and has found a way to be carefree after the frustrations of an unpredictable career. “He’s become mentally stronger,” Dahiya said.In an interview earlier this year, Dhawan explained it simply, “I realised that I was not using my brains, but only my talent.” He has made it a habit of noting down his observations from a net session or an innings, and going through them during the season. Bhatia has first-hand experience of Dhawan’s intensity around his batting from the many discussions after a day’s play. About how different batsmen would handle the ball that dismissed him.Bhatia said: “I would always say to him, ‘Don’t concentrate so hard on your technique. Concentrate on watching the bowler, watching the ball and on scoring runs.'” Consistently.

Extreme pitches have minimised the chance of draws and levelled the playing field, but what about the contest between ball and bat, and between runs, wickets and time?

Karthik Krishnaswamy15-Nov-20256:00

A ‘miscalculation’ in pitch preparation?

If the Eden Gardens Test ends the way it seems likeliest to after two days of cricket, India and South Africa will have a 3-3 record over their last six Test meetings. These six Tests – five in South Africa, and one now in India – have produced breathtaking cricket at times, showing just how good these two teams are, and how closely matched.Most of these contests, however, have lacked any semblance of balance between bat and ball. India have passed 200 only five times in 10 innings when they’ve had the chance to get that far (they chased down a target of 79 in the other innings), and 250 only twice. South Africa have passed 200 only four times, and 250 just once, in 11 innings.Only one of the six Tests has gone into a fifth day, and if the Kolkata Test finishes on Sunday, as it looks set to, it will be the third in a row to end in three days or fewer. The Cape Town Test of January 2024 ended inside two days, and lasted just 642 legal balls; the shortest of all result matches in Test history.Related

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This, with some exceptions, has been the way of the World Test Championship (WTC), where the reward for Test wins (12 points) and the relatively negligible benefit of draws (4 points) over losses (no points) have led teams en masse to roll out bowler-friendly decks in home Tests.Kolkata, though, has been a head-scratcher. It has served up extreme conditions, but it’s unclear whether they’ve come about through the usual route of the home team demanding them.Through their last Test series against West Indies, India suggested more than once that they were looking to move away from their post-2021 trend of square turners, and prepare home-Test pitches aiming for balance between bat and ball. Both the pitches in that series roughly corresponded to this template, with Ahmedabad starting out with help for the seamers before flattening out, and Delhi playing slow and low throughout.And in the days leading up to this Kolkata Test, neither team, judging by their public pronouncements, expected anything other than a traditional Indian pitch where batters could hope to score big runs in the first innings, and where wear and tear would begin to show its effects only around day three or thereabouts. South Africa left out their third spinner and picked a third seamer. India picked two seamers and as many as four spinners, which suggested they were expecting a heavy bowling workload.Wiaan Mulder was undone by the extra bounce•Getty Images”I think the conversation, leading up to the game, was that it was going to be a good wicket and it’s going to be hard work for us,” India bowling coach Morne Morkel said in his press conference at the end of day two. “We planned and focused more on how we are going to attack and target the South African batting line-up, we sort of took the thought of the conditions out of the equation and said, okay, we’ll adapt on the day, play it session by session.”But we definitely thought it was going to be a good wicket and sort of deteriorate as the Test match goes on, and play it from there.”The deterioration, as it turned out, began virtually from the first over of the match, during which one ball from Jasprit Bumrah kept low and two reared up. Uneven bounce has only grown more frequent and more pronounced in the sessions since, with the ball routinely causing bits of the pitch’s top layer to disintegrate and explode on impact.With 27 wickets already having fallen, 39 remains the highest individual score, even though there have been nine scores of over 20, suggesting that this is the kind of pitch where a batter is never , and where an unplayable ball is just around the corner.Matches like this often make for riveting viewing. And just as they are in other kinds of Test match, every run and wicket is earned. Batters are always remembered for scoring runs in difficult conditions. And if tricky conditions make wickets likelier to occur, they also ramp up the pressure bowlers face to take them, with fewer runs to play with, with every opposition partnership bringing greater consequences.For all that, though, this Kolkata Test, like so many others of its kind, has lacked two defining elements of Test cricket.One is time pressure. Runs, wickets and time are the three sides of the triangle of tension that elevates some Test matches to epic status. Without the pressure of time, you lose the possibility that a game could go into its final session, or even its final day, with all four results still possible.The other is the full physical challenge that Test cricket poses, asking fast bowlers if they can maintain their speed and intensity into their third spell of the day; asking spinners if they can keep sending down ball after ball, over long spells, with both control and high revolutions; asking batters if they can stay sharp, physically and mentally, through two, three, even four sessions at the crease.2:57

Philander: Batters being challenged technically here

The ideal Test pitch, then, would create conditions for the runs-wickets-time triangle to exist. It would challenge, physically and mentally, batters and bowlers of all types without leaving them feeling that their exertions will be futile. It would reward bowlers for bowling good lines and lengths, and punish them from straying from them. It would have true bounce, which would ensure edges carry to close-in fielders, and allow batters to trust their defensive and attacking strokes if executed properly. If these conditions are met, the ideal pitch could be tilted either towards seam or spin.Pitch preparation, of course, is far from an exact science, and the best intentions of curators can often come to nothing, particularly if the weather comes in the way. But Test matches like Cape Town 2024 and Kolkata 2025 leave in their wake the question of whether the best intentions existed – or were allowed to exist – at all.That home teams influence pitch preparation all over the world is incontestable. India have experienced both sides of this in recent years. They tend to come up against pitches designed to negate their spinners when they travel outside Asia and the West Indies – New Zealand, for example, prepare noticeably greener pitches against India than they do against South Africa or England. And at home, India have prepared numerous pitches designed to weaponise their spinners at the cost of the opposition’s fast bowlers.In Nagpur in 2023, for example, they prepared a true designer pitch against an Australia side full of left-hand batters. It was selectively watered, rolled and mowed to have bare patches on a spinners’ good length, particularly in the areas outside the left-handers’ off stump at both ends. It turned out less spiteful than it appeared, but the intentions were clear.Ravindra Jadeja spun a web around South Africa•AFP/Getty ImagesThis Eden Gardens pitch was the opposite, looking more benign than it proved to be. Was it, then, what India wanted, and asked curator Sujan Mukherjee to prepare? Or was it a pitch prepared to hold together for much longer than it did, which ended up behaving in an unexpected manner? Or was it caught between two sets of intentions?The answer isn’t clear-cut, but on TV commentary, the former India keeper Dinesh Karthik suggested that the pitch had not been watered on the eve of the match. If this happened, India’s team management probably had a role to play.Now India aren’t alone in having a significant influence on their home pitches, so it would be wrong to point fingers only at them. But does a thing become okay if everyone does it? And is it, well, good for Test cricket?You could legitimately argue that it is. That extreme pitches minimise the chance of draws. That, rather than exaggerating home advantage, they have actually levelled the playing field, enabling West Indies to win Tests in Australia and Pakistan in the last two years, and New Zealand to pull off one of the greatest upsets of all time by beating India 3-0 in India. That this Kolkata pitch has left South Africa with a chance, still, of going 1-0 up.You could argue that all the costs – such as, for example, the Test averages of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, which suffered irrevocably from a relentless diet of seaming, turning and/or uneven tracks from 2021 to the ends of their careers – are worth the upside of a Test-match landscape with fewer draws and a greater likelihood of unexpected results.But what of Test cricket as a contest between ball and bat, and between runs, wickets and time? What of Test cricket as a showcase for the full range of the sport’s bewitching skills?

Newcastle United have ramped up their transfer efforts in recent weeks, looking to make a push towards a return to a place within the Premier League’s top four, securing an automatic Champions League spot.

However, if Eddie Howe’s side are to achieve that feat, they will need to invest into the current playing squad, with players such as Crysencio Summerville being linked with a move to Tyneside this summer.

The attacker wouldn’t be the only Dutchman currently plying their trade at St James’ Park, potentially linking up with defender Sven Botman should any deal be completed.

Botman, who is currently sitting on the sidelines after ACL surgery a few months ago, had an immediate impact under Howe for the Magpies, featuring 66 times since his move in 2023, playing a huge role in the club’s recent success.

However, despite the recent links to Summerville, the club are also eyeing one player who could make a huge impact under Howe during the 2024/25 campaign.

Newcastle hold talks over new transfer

According to journalist Graeme Bailey, Newcastle are in talks with Juventus winger Federico Chiesa over a move to St James’ Park this summer.

The 26-year-old has struggled to regain his form following his serious knee injury, with new boss Thiago Motta making the attacker free to leave should anyone pay £21m for his services.

Chiesa only has one year left on his current deal in Turin, with Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur also in communication over a deal to bring the winger to the Premier League.

Whilst Newcastle would undoubtedly face tough competition for his signature, he would be a phenomenal addition, potentially having a greater impact than Summerville would on Tyneside.

Why Chiesa would be a better option than Summerville

Whilst Summerville is still a young talent finding his feet in the professional game, he still managed to post an impressive tally of 28 goals or assists in the Championship for Leeds United last season.

However, he’s struggled to beat the Italian forward in multiple other key areas, with Chiesa demonstrating his experience in the attacking third for Juventus.

Just a handful of years ago, the “sensational” Chiesa, as dubbed by journalist Adam Digby, was lighting up the Euros for his nation, producing performances that made him one of the most productive forwards in Europe and earned his place in the competition's team of the tournament as a result.

Whilst he’s failed to match those levels in recent years, he’s still produced some impressive stats, including a tally of 18 crosses into the box, a figure that is six times higher than the Leeds ace could manage last season.

Games

33

43

Goals + assists

11

28

Long pass accuracy

52%

46%

Crosses into 18-yard box

18

3

Goals per shot on target

0.1

0.1

The Juve forward has also averaged a six per cent better long pass completion rate, demonstrating his ability to find a teammate on either a counter-attack or a switch of play – a playstyle that could be useful to Howe’s side with the pace of Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon.

Despite scoring ten goals fewer than Summerville in 2023/24, the 26-year-old averaged the same amount of goals per shots on target, making him a more clinical option than Summerville.

Both are huge talents that would undoubtedly improve Newcastle’s attacking department.

However, given his achievements and experience in Europe’s top five leagues, Chiesa would be the better option for Howe’s side – with the Magpies getting an absolute bargain should they agree deal for his asking price of just £21m.

Imagine him & Gordon: Newcastle battling PL giants for "monster" signing

He has a whole host of Premier League sides after him this summer.

ByEthan Lamb Jul 17, 2024

A new era has dawned at Chelsea, and while there have been a few over the past few years, the appointment of Enzo Maresca in the dugout has the feel of something that might just last.

The Blues might have failed to qualify for the Champions League for the second year running but a second-half-of-season purple patch salvaged a route back into European competition; it didn't save Mauricio Pochettinio's job, but optimism has now taken root at Stamford Bridge.

Tosin Adarabioyo has been signed on a free transfer to bolster the backline, while a host of youngsters continue to be welcomed, but there's no doubt that Chelsea need to add some firepower up front.

Latest Chelsea transfer news

According to numerous sources, including Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea are in contact with Newcastle United as they hope to sign Alexander Isak, but the Magpies' £100m asking price is simply too high.

As such, alternatives are being considered, with Stamford Bridge insider Si Phillips revealing that internal discussions have been held regarding the transfer of 19-year-old Bayern Munich forward Mathys Tel, as they eye a swoop for the starlet.

Chelsea have emphasised a youth-focused recruitment strategy under Todd Boehly and Co, but Tel would head straight into the first team, such is his prodigious quality, if they can complete a deal for him.

Why Chelsea should sign Mathys Tel

Signing the mercurial youngster would not be easy but Chelsea have the financial means and savvy approach to engineer a deal, no doubt. He only signed a new contract at the Allianz Arena in March but this does not make a transfer impossible.

Only a teenager, but already having garnered such a glittering reputation as one of Europe's foremost talents. Tel has scored 16 goals and supplied six assists across 69 senior appearances for Bayern, joining the club from French team Stade Rennais in 2022.

Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic once said the then-17-year-old was "one of the biggest talents in Europe" after completing the deal, and indeed, the young Frenchman has proved himself over his first two campaigns in Germany, currently ranking among the top 1% of positional peers across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for goals and assists, the top 9% for pass completion and the top 4% for successful take-ons per 90, as per FBref.

Isak might be the no. 1 target in west London but Tel may well shape into a forward of superior quality, with his efforts thus far suggesting that he can become one of the game's deadliest attacking stars.

Last season, the young forward scored ten goals and added six assists across 41 matches for Thomas Tuchel's side, despite only starting ten games across all competitions.

The season before? His first garbed in Bayern red, playing most of the campaign before his 18th birthday? Tel notched five goals in the Bundesliga, starting a grand total of one fixture.

If he continues on this precocious road, there's every chance that Tel could surpass Isak, who is 24, down the line, actually cementing a place at the apex of the attacking game. Isak, in fairness, is a stunning striker, scoring 21 goals from 30 Premier League appearances last season despite only missing 21 big chances.

The Frenchman, while performing from a shallower statistical pool, has missed six big chances in the German top flight across his two seasons, scoring 12 goals.

It's frightening to think about how he could develop over the coming years, with analyst Ben Mattinson already hailing him as an "elite-level goalscorer" and a "two-footed ball-striking machine".

Centre-forward

26

5

1

Left winger

26

7

4

Right winger

13

4

1

Therefore, while Isak is unquestionably more polished and refined at present, capable of leading Chelsea's line toward glory, the £100m figure is simply too exorbitant to realistically consider, especially in this PSR-dictated age.

With Nicolas Jackson scoring 17 goals across all competitions for Chelsea last season, Tel could be the perfect complementary, capable of growing into his world-class potential over the next few years.

Chelsea could seal bigger coup than Isak by signing £102m striker

The star may align for Todd Boehly and Co with this player’s club eager to cash in.

ByAngus Sinclair Jun 30, 2024

Of course, it would be a gamble as it is just potential at this time but the upside could be huge with his terrific finishing ability at such a young promising that he could be even better than Isak in the future.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is expected to have retained the backing of FSG after a woeful start to the 2025/26 campaign, but the credit chequed into the bank is fast depleting as the champions flatter to deceive on the problem-solving front.

Soft, slow and stodgy, this is not the Liverpool we know. Slot’s Liverpool, last year, were a dangerous beast, so incisive and unforgiving as they secured toward the Premier League title.

But, nine losses from 14 matches in all competitions and just two wins from nine in the top flight have eradicated any hopes of challenging Arsenal for the trophy this season.

And it’s put Slot’s job on the line.

Why Liverpool could sack Arne Slot

Liverpool managed to avoid defeat at home against Sunderland on Wednesday evening, but the 1-1 draw, secured when Florian Wirtz’s fleet footwork forced an own goal from Nordi Mukiele late on, smacked of desperation.

You would be hard pressed to delineate Liverpool’s tactical identity under Slot’s wing this season. Their shape in the build-up. Their pressing patterns and attacking strategies.

It is damning that so much has been spent on strikers like Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike, and that number nine is a barren patch at Anfield, with the supply line proving ineffective.

Wirtz needs to do better, but there’s no question that he’s a world-class talent with so much potential yet untapped.

However, this breadth of quality at Slot’s disposal means he simply has to work out a formula for results and impressive performances, with both in short supply.

If the Dutch tactician fails to get a tune out of this squad of elite, big-money players, he will eventually be dismissed by FSG, who might already have their sights set on a replacement.

The perfect Slot replacement at Liverpool

Michael Edwards and sporting director Richard Hughes know they and Liverpool’s wider project will lose face if they have to dismiss Slot, but if push comes to shove, they might just do so if it means they can appoint Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso.

Alonso, 44, acheived unprecedented success with Bayer Leverkusen, winning the Bundesliga as undefeated champions in 2023/24, claiming the DFB-Pokal title too.

This road led to the Santiago Bernabeu, the Spaniard joining the club he played so much football for during his playing career this summer.

However, Alonso also has quite the connection with Anfield, and given the troubles that are plaguing Los Blancos at the moment, FSG may well be primed to pounce if an opportunity to appoint this exciting Slot replacement materialises.

Liverpool did explore a move for Alonso after Jurgen Klopp announced he would be stepping down at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, but he was in the thick of his Leverkusen tenure and did not feel the time for a step-up was right.

His 3-4-2-1 formation is unconventional, but Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has shown that such a set-up can work out in the Premier League, when in the right hands.

Given that Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong worked under him in Germany, hitting such staggering heights, it could also prove the perfect appointment to get the best out of Liverpool’s immensely talented playmaker.

Wirtz, 22, has not hit the ground running at Liverpool, but the system has hardly opened its arms for such a player. In fact, most of Liverpool’s top players have foundered this season.

Even so, the German international ranks among the top 3% of attacking midfielders and wingers in the Premier League this season for shot-creating actions and the top 5% for passes attempted and progressive passes per 90, as per FBref.

Alonso will surely get a tune out of a player he described as “a genius” during their time with Die Werkself.

Wirtz once said that “working with Alonso is a dream”. He lived that dream, and he may do so again before long, with the Spanish manager sure to be at the top of FSG’s wishlist, if Slot is indeed sacked in the coming months.

Liverpool ace who's fallen off a cliff looks like "Fabinho in his final year"

Liverpool’s draw against Sunderland illustrated a litany of problems Slot is still dealing with.

By
Angus Sinclair

Dec 4, 2025

The last few months have shown England that Saqib Mahmood is a bowler they can once again call upon and rely on

Cameron Ponsonby11-Nov-2024For a lad from Lancashire, Saqib Mahmood has more connections to Barbados than most.From a professional perspective, this is where he made his Test debut in March 2022. In a high-scoring draw, Mahmood stood out with a performance that seemed to lock him in for years. He was the point-of-difference bowler England had been screaming out for. Where everyone else wanted the new ball, he bowled with the old. When everyone else bowled 82mph, he bowled 87mph. Chris Woakes at home, Saqib Mahmood away. Set your watch to it.But then the injuries came. Consecutive stress fractures meant the best part of two years out and a ‘what-if’ storyline developing for a bowler who was meant to be England’s present and future.Related

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And from a personal perspective, he’s spent a lot of time here. He’s great mates with Jofra Archer, the pair often using the island as a training base. Have a bowl, hang out, and go to the spots you don’t know about because you’re not a local.For the ODI series that began in Antigua, Mahmood flew out to Barbados ten days early to prepare. He even enquired about playing a match for Archer’s club side, Wildey CC, to aid his preparation. The ECB approved, but the match was scheduled over two weekends and meant it wasn’t possible.”I hadn’t played 50-over cricket in so long,” says Mahmood, “so I was wondering if I could get a game.”His love of the Caribbean has attracted attention from his team-mates, with Mahmood refusing to reveal the nickname his peers have given him.”I’m not saying it,” he laughs. “Because it’s going to end up as a headline.”Fortunately his team-mates aren’t so discreet.”Sam Curran’s been calling him the King of Barbados,” confirmed Jos Buttler with a smile.Saqib Mahmood ripped out three in a ten-ball set in the Hundred final•ECB/Getty ImagesIt is fitting then, that the King of Barbados’ second coming as an England cricketer comes on the island. Across the two T20Is at the Kensington Oval, he took six wickets. A brutal opening spell on Saturday reduced West Indies to 18 for 3, before an attacking, and occasionally wild, spell of bowling on Sunday netted him 2 for 20.”He feels if the ball’s got some movement, he wants to push it up there,” Buttler said of Mahmood’s three overs which included six wides. “Obviously that’s sometimes harder to control, but he chased those wickets which we asked of him.”It’s hard to gauge where Mahmood sits in the current international set-up. His position as England’s pitch independent bowler has been usurped by Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse, with both also being more capable with the bat.But the last few months have shown England that he is a bowler they can once again call upon and rely on. His performance in the Hundred final was one of the competition’s first ‘I was there’ moments. Three wickets in seven deliveries, with his four-ball working-over of Kieron Pollard as good as it gets.

Remarkably, it is over five years since Mahmood first played for England – a T20I against New Zealand in 2019 that preceded two-and-a-half years of being ever-present in squads but an irregular on the field

“You’ve got one of the best players to have ever played the game,” his captain Sam Billings summarised at the time. “And you’ve had him on toast.”Mahmood’s decision to sign a white-ball-only contract with Lancashire raised eyebrows. On the surface, it looked like another domino to fall in the direction of the proliferation of franchise cricket, but this is false.He has himself said that he still aspires to play Test cricket, with a large part of his decision being made in loyalty to Lancashire so they don’t pay him for something his body might not allow him to do.”I think that’s been taken out of context slightly,” Mahmood said of his decision. “If you look at my injury history over the last couple of years, I’ve obviously had two big injuries. And there was a time this year where I said to the guys I didn’t really want to play any red-ball cricket because I was nervous about my body.Saqid Mahmood bowled a blistering spell in the first T20I•Getty Images”In the end, I played a couple of Champo [County Championship] games, but what this contract allows me to do is, if my body isn’t up to playing red-ball, then I don’t feel bad for not playing. But red ball is definitely still on my agenda.”Obviously there was a bit of backlash from Lancashire supporters who were annoyed, but I can assure them that I still want to play red ball.”Remarkably, it is over five years since Mahmood first played for England – a T20I against New Zealand in 2019 that preceded two-and-a-half years of being ever-present in squads but an irregular on the field. In total, he has 27 international appearances across formats, averaging five matches a year.England have long relied on the Bajan population to boost their ranks. First there was Chris Jordan, then there was Archer before Phil Salt and now Jacob Bethell, who are counted within England’s international cricketers.But now, three years after the island voted to become a republic, they can rely on a fifth. Saqib Mahmood. The King of Barbados.

England slipped to a 2-1 series defeat in Pakistan but are already looking ahead to New Zealand. Alan, Miller and Vish discuss the fallout, and preview the West Indies white-ball tour

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Oct-2024England were sent spinning to defeat in Rawalpindi, as Pakistan completed their comeback to take the series 2-1. But England have stuck with much the same group of players for next month’s tour of New Zealand. On the podcast, Alan Gardner was joined by Andrew Miller, Vithushan Ehantharajah and, from Pakistan, Matt Roller to discuss the fallout from only the second series defeat for Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum – and also look ahead to the white-ball series starting in the Caribbean this week. Topics included Ollie Pope’s place in the side, Ben Stokes’ captaincy and a Test call-up for Jacob Bethell.