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“We have to take responsibility,” Charith Asalanka says of Dasun Shanaka and himself after they fell off back-to-back deliveries at a crucial stage of the game

Andrew Fidel Fernando24-Sep-20251:39

What went wrong for Sri Lanka’s batters?

The back-to-back wickets in the eighth over of Sri Lanka’s innings swung this Asia Cup Super Four match towards Pakistan – this was how Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka, who was the first of the two batters to be dismissed in that passage, saw it.Sri Lanka had been 58 for 3 after 7.1 overs, when Asalanka was caught at deep square-leg off the bowling of Hussain Talat. Next ball, Dasun Shanaka poked at a delivery in the channel and sent a thin edge to the wicketkeeper. Sri Lanka were suddenly five down with more than 60% of the overs remaining. The limped to 133 for 8 in the end.”Although we didn’t get a great start from the openers, at the end of the powerplay we still had 53 runs. We’d lost three wickets, but we were still in a good place, because it’s not easy to score that many in the powerplay,” Asalanka said. “But then myself and Dasun got out off successive deliveries, and that was when the biggest damage was done.Related

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“Neither Dasun or I were going for big shots when we got out. I was trying to put the ball into a gap, but ended up top-edging it. Dasun also played a normal shot first up. But we have to take responsibility.”That Sri Lanka managed to have something to bowl at was down to Kamindu Mendis, who hit 50 off 44 balls, with support from Wanindu Hasaranga and Chamika Karunaratne.”We lost five wickets in the first half of our innings, and against these kinds of teams it’s really hard to come back from that,” Asalanka said. “Kamindu and the others fought hard, but Wanindu also got out at a bad time, when it had felt like we could get to 150. In the end it was not enough.”Sri Lanka are very nearly out of the tournament now, having suffered two big losses in the Super Four stage. They had strengthened their bowling for this match, dropping Kamil Mishara for Karunaratne. Asalanka identified balancing his team as perhaps the primary problem facing Sri Lanka ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup.”We’ve had lots of issues with our combinations, and that’s something we have to get right ahead of the World Cup,” he said. “We tried going with an extra bowler today, but we lost a specialist batsman because of that, and didn’t score the runs we needed. Other times we’ve played an extra batsman and couldn’t defend a score with the ball.”We need to figure out how to consistently score 180 to 200, and also how to use the part-time bowlers – myself, Dasun, Kamindu Mendis – better. Those are things we need to improve in the future.”

The series could provide match practice, or serve as an audition, for a couple of back-up players likely to be picked in the Test squad

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Oct-2024 • Updated on 25-Oct-20247:07

What India A squad for Australia tour indicates about Border-Gavaskar Trophy selection

Ruturaj Gaikwad will lead the India A squad on their tour of Australia later this month.Gaikwad, who has begun his Ranji Trophy season with scores of 86, 0 and 145 for Maharashtra, is one of the contenders for the role of reserve opener for India’s five-Test tour of Australia, which will closely follow India A’s tour. That role has gained extra significance with India captain and opener Rohit Sharma set to miss one of the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar series for personal reasons.Apart from Gaikwad, the 15-member India A squad also includes two other candidates for that role in Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has been named vice-captain, and Sai Sudharsan.The matches against Australia A could provide match practice, or serve as an audition, for a couple of other back-up players likely to be picked in the Test squad. Devdutt Padikkal, B Indrajith and Ricky Bhui are set to be the middle-order batters in the India A squad; Abishek Porel and Ishan Kishan the wicket-keepers; Nitish Kumar Reddy, Tanush Kotian and Manav Suthar the allrounders; and Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed and Prasidh Krishna, replacing the initially picked Yash Dayal, the fast bowlers.Abhimanyu, 29, has been part of India’s Test squad previously – in Bangladesh in 2022 – and he has been in superb form this domestic season, scoring two hundreds in the Duleep Trophy, another century in the Irani Trophy, and beginning the Ranji Trophy season with a ton for Bengal. Sudharsan, 23, made a first-class hundred for English county Surrey in August, before scoring a century in the Duleep Trophy and a double-hundred in Tamil Nadu’s Ranji Trophy match in Delhi.Having recovered from a hernia, 21-year-old allrounder Reddy made his T20I debut for India against Bangladesh earlier this month and is currently a reserve player in India’s Test squad for the home series against New Zealand. He is seen by India’s selectors as a promising allrounder who could improve with more experience and exposure.

India opt for intra-squad warm-up

India A are scheduled to play Australia A in two four-day matches in Mackay from October 31 to November 3 and in Melbourne from November 7 to 10. They will then play the India squad in a warm-up match in Perth from November 15 to 17 before the first Test against Australia begins on November 22.India have opted for this intra-squad game as their warm-up to the Test rather than a practice match against an Australian domestic side. This is a departure from their preference on their last two tours of Australia. They began the red-ball leg of their 2020-21 tour with a three-day game against Australia A, and played a four-day game against a Cricket Australia XI before their Test series in 2018.19.

India A squad for tour of Australia

Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vice-capt), Devdutt Padikkal, Sai Sudharsan, B Indrajith, Abishek Porel (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Mukesh Kumar, Ricky Bhui, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Manav Suthar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna

Wasim Jaffer said that they will need to find a way to win games at the start of tournaments going forward

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Mar-20256:01

A deep dive into Afghanistan’s recent rise

Dale Steyn backed Afghanistan to win an ICC tournament within the next decade. To do so, he suggested that they inject patience into their individual and collective games.Afghanistan beat England in a thriller in Lahore but couldn’t make the knockouts of the Champions Trophy 2025. They lost their first match to South Africa and looked in trouble against Australia as well before rain intervened.”Back in the day, a lot of players would go play county cricket,” Steyn said, “Or they would go play first-class cricket to improve their skills and improve their patience really. I think we live in a time now where people are not patient enough. We can hardly watch two seconds on an Instagram story and it just feels like the Afghanistan players are similar when they’re playing their cricket.”They want things to happen so quickly. This ball must be a wicket, there’s no patience to building up and taking a wicket. And sometimes, the batters are the same, they’re batting in the first over. There’s so much movement happening in the crease, so they’re trying to hit a six and they’re trying to get the game going.Related

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“I think a lot of them play T20 cricket around the world, which is great, it’s great for their pockets and it’s great for them to learn. But, maybe, spending some time in four-day games might help, because one-day cricket is essentially a shortened version of a Test match. It’s got its moments where T20 is applied. But patience is one of the biggest things that Afghanistan players need to learn, and once they get that down, honestly, in the next decade, they could win ICC tournaments, for sure.”5:03

How can Afghanistan build on their progress?

Wasim Jaffer, who also praised Afghanistan’s rapid rise at the international level, identified their inability to hit the ground running in tournaments and fragility in their batting line-up as issues they need to look into going forward.Ibrahim Zadran made a match-winning 177 against England but Sediqullah Atal couldn’t convert his 85 against Australia into a big score. Their top-three have not set up a game collectively and Rahmanullah Gurbaz, arguably their best batter, finished with 16 runs in three games.”Afghanistan are on the rise,” Jaffer said “And you’ve got to applaud them because they’ve played semi-finals [at the 2024 T20 World Cup], they’ve beaten good teams and, when they beat anybody it’s not an upset anymore. So, you can expect Afghanistan to put on a show.””They will be disappointed [with] the way they started the first game. In such a short tournament, it’s important to start really well because you don’t get too many chances. One loss and you could be out of the tournament, which happened here.”Their batting needs to improve as well. We say that they are not a big chasing team. Their [Nos.] 3, 4, 5, even though Atal played well today, Rahmat Shah needs to be more consistent. He got a 90 in the first game, [Hashmatullah] Shahidi got stuck today, Gurbaz is their main player, he had a very off tournament. That’s where I think they lacked this time.”

Western Storm skittled for 99 thanks to Australian allrounder’s four-for

ECB Reporters Network07-Jun-2024Australian allrounder Heather Graham took 4 for 10 on her debut for The Blaze as the East Midlands side continued to sweep aside all-comers in the Charlotte Edwards Cup, beating Western Storm by seven wickets at the Uptonsteel County Ground in Leicester.Graham, who has replaced South Africa’s Nadine de Klerk in the Blaze line-up with the latter on international duty, led an impressive bowling display from the home side, backed up by offspinner Lucy Higham (2 for 18) and left-arm strike bowler Grace Ballinger (1 for 17) as Storm were dismissed for 99, England skipper Heather Knight top-scoring with 20 on her first appearance in this season’s competition.The Blaze knocked off their 100-run target with 35 balls to spare thanks in the main to Scottish internationals Kathryn Bryce and sister Sarah, with Graham capping her afternoon by hitting the winning boundary.Led by Kirstie Gordon, The Blaze, whose only defeat in last season’s competition was against Southern Vipers in the final, now have six wins from six in the expanded 2024 edition and top the points table ahead of South East Stars, keeping them firmly on track for a return to finals day at Derby on 22 June.Storm skipper Sophie Luff opted to bat first on winning the toss but lost two wickets for 29 in the powerplay overs. Ballinger knocked out Nat Wraith’s off stump in a wicket-maiden before Graham, capped four times by her country in T20 internationals, struck with the third ball of her Blaze debut as Fran Wilson fell victim to an excellent stumping.Knight made a positive start and hit back-to-back boundaries off Gordon’s left-arm spin but the Blaze skipper’s retort was to bowl her with a superb delivery that straightened off the pitch. Legspinner Josie Groves had Amanda-Jade Wellington leg before stepping across the stumps and Storm were 58 for 4 after 10 overs.Higham bowled Alex Griffiths and had Luff caught at mid-off in the space of two tight overs, Issy Wong was run out at the bowler’s end after being sent back by Sophia Smale, Graham returning to take three wickets in the space of six deliveries as Smale was stumped off a wide, Chloe Skelton holed out to long-on and Ellie Anderson yorked, the last two coming off consecutive balls.Wong removed England’s Tammy Beaumont with the last ball of the opening over of the home side’s chase and The Blaze were 13 for 2 after 13 balls when Teresa Graves slapped Anderson straight to backward point but Storm could make no further inroads until Lauren Filer bowled Kathryn Bryce to end a third-wicket stand of 67 in the 12th over.By then, the result was not in doubt, Graham lofting a straight drive over the head of legspinner Wellington to finish the job off the first ball of the 15th over.

Current ACA boss and former NRL CEO to take over CA CEO role when Nick Hockley departs at the end of the summer

Alex Malcolm03-Dec-2024Todd Greenberg has been announced as the new Cricket Australia chief executive to take over from Nick Hockley when he steps down from the role at the end of the summer.Greenberg, the current Australian Cricketers’ Association CEO and former CEO of the National Rugby League, had long been the front-runner to replace Hockley.He has strong relationships with the players due to his current role but also played first-grade cricket in New South Wales. His background as NRL CEO and General Manager of Stadium Australia has given him extensive experience in management of broadcast partners, sponsors, stadia and live events.He was a key player in the most recent MOU signed between CA and the ACA and also toured Pakistan in 2022 alongside Hockley when Australia returned there to play international cricket in the country for the first time since 1998.CA chairman Mike Baird was thrilled with the appointment.”I’m delighted Todd Greenberg will join Cricket Australia as Chief Executive Officer,” Baird said.”Todd will bring enormous experience to the role from his time leading the National Rugby League and his current position as CEO of the Australian Cricketers’ Association, as well as his time in club and stadium management.”He is also a renowned driver of commercial growth and innovation, such as bringing the State of Origin to Melbourne and introducing the NRLW.”We are entering a period of great opportunity and the recruitment panel and CA Board was enormously impressed by Todd’s passion for cricket and his vision to build on the achievements of the past few years and continue the game’s growth.”I would like to thank Nick Hockley who will leave the game in a position of great strength at the end of the season with important foundations including our broadcast rights deal, MOU and seven-year content strategy in place.”Todd Greenberg (left) has traveled to Pakistan with Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley•Getty Images

Greenberg said he was excited to take on the new role as head of CA’s administration after beating out a field of candidates from within Australia and overseas.”I am grateful to be given the opportunity to take on this enormously important role in Australian sport and to further my involvement with a game I’ve loved since childhood.” Greenberg said.”This is an extremely exciting time for cricket with the rapid growth of the game across the globe creating fantastic opportunities, while also presenting some challenges to ensure Australian cricket retains its position at the very peak of the game.”Thanks to the work of the current administration the game has strong fundamentals in place. I want to ensure we build on this momentum so Australian cricket continues to thrive – from local parks to the nation’s biggest stadiums.”I’m grateful to all those at the Australian Cricketers’ Association where we formed positive and productive partnerships across the game, and I look forward to continuing and enriching these relationships for the betterment of cricket.”

43-year-old and 17-year-old the standout picks ahead of next month’s tournament

Matt Roller15-Jul-2025James Anderson will play in the Hundred for the first time this summer after earning a ‘wildcard’ contract with Manchester Originals, while 17-year-old Rocky Flintoff has been picked by his father Andrew’s Northern Superchargers despite never having played a professional T20 match.Anderson, who turns 43 this month, returned to T20 cricket this year after an 11-year absence and has taken 14 wickets in eight appearances for Lancashire in the Vitality Blast, operating as a new-ball specialist. He initially went unselected in March’s Hundred draft but will now play for the Originals in August after he was picked up in Tuesday’s ‘wildcard’ draft on a £31,000 deal.Flintoff’s selection will raise eyebrows given he is yet to play in the Blast and his father is Superchargers head coach. But he has already shown his obvious promise with a century for England Lions in Australia this winter and a recent hundred for England’s Under-19s against India.Rocky Flintoff will play under his father Andrew at Northern Superchargers•ECB via Getty Images

Elsewhere, Southern Brave became the first team to sign an overseas player as a wildcard – Australia’s Hilton Cartwright – after replacing Faf du Plessis with Jason Roy last week. They have also picked up the young Hampshire batter Toby Albert, who could keep wicket for them amid injury concerns around Finn Allen and Laurie Evans.Ben Kellaway, the Glamorgan allrounder and ambidextrous spinner, has signed for Welsh Fire after a breakout season at county level, while Ben Sanderson, who has enjoyed his best-ever T20 season for Northamptonshire this year, will play for Trent Rockets.The Rockets took left-arm spinner Callum Parkinson with the first draft pick and have also signed Dillon Pennington as a replacement for the injured John Turner.Yorkshire’s James Wharton and Will Luxton were both overlooked despite their form in the T20 Blast.Esmae MacGregor has signed for Manchester Originals•Getty Images

In the women’s wildcard draft, Esmae MacGregor earned a deal with Manchester Originals after taking 21 Blast wickets for Essex, while Hampshire’s Mary Taylor joins her twin sister Millie at Birmingham Phoenix.The Hundred runs from August 5-31, opening with London Spirit’s double-header against Oval Invincibles at Lord’s.

Men’s Hundred wildcards (all £31,000):

Trent Rockets: Callum Parkinson, Ben Sanderson
Birmingham Phoenix: Liam Patterson-White, Louis Kimber
Welsh Fire: Ajeet Singh Dale, Ben Kellaway
Northern Superchargers: James Fuller, Rocky Flintoff
Manchester Originals: James Anderson, Marchant de Lange
London Spirit: Sean Dickson, Ryan Higgins
Oval Invincibles: George Scrimshaw, Zafar Gohar
Southern Brave: Toby Albert, Hilton Cartwright

Women’s Hundred wildcards (all £10,000):

Birmingham Phoenix: Mary Taylor, Phoebe Brett
London Spirit: Abi Norgrove, Kate Coppack
Manchester Originals: Esmae MacGregor, Darcey Carter
Northern Superchargers: Katherine Fraser, Sophia Turner
Oval Invincibles: Daisy Gibb, Rebecca Odgers
Southern Brave: Phoebe Turner, Amara Carr
Trent Rockets: Grace Thompson, Sophie Morris
Welsh Fire: Charley Phillips, Alex Griffiths.

Defending champions take all 24 points with ruthless display at Canterbury

ECB Reporters Network22-Apr-2024Surrey have beaten Kent by an innings and 37 runs in the Vitality County Championship at Canterbury.The reigning champions dismissed the hosts for 262 in their second innings, with Dan Worrall taking 4 for 31 and Cameron Steel, claiming 3 for 38. Steel remains the leading wicket-taker in the country this season, with 20 after three matches.Joey Evison made 53 and Matt Parkinson hit his highest first-class score of 39. But after a dogged rearguard action that saw them through the morning session, Kent subsided midway through the afternoon.The hosts were 120 for 5 overnight, still 179 runs in arrears, and their slim hopes of batting out the day were dealt a near-fatal blow when Ben Compton was out in the fifth over of the morning. Compton, unbeaten on eight overnight, chased a Worrall delivery that veered away and was caught behind.The home crowd, however, were pleasantly surprised by the way Evison and Parkinson survived the rest of the morning. Parkinson, promoted up the order to number eight, had spent the winter working on his batting as part of a concerted effort to shore up Kent’s lower order. Although there were a few alarms, by lunch Kent had reached 203 for six at lunch and the impossible now seemed merely improbable.Evison, however, fell to Tom Lawes in the afternoon’s third over. He cut Lawes for fours off successive boundaries to reach his half-century but then edged him behind.With Evison gone, Kent crumbled. George Garrett was lbw to Steel for four and Jas Singh went for a duck when Jamie Smith took a brilliant catch at short leg off the same bowler.Number 11 Arafat Bhuiyan had some fun with the new ball, flicking three consecutive balls from Kemar Roach for a six and two fours on his way to his highest championship score of 22 not out, making him the fourth Kent tail-ender to reach that personal landmark in this match, after Garrett and Singh hit their career-best scores in the first innings.This merely delayed Surrey’s celebrations, however, and an emphatic victory was sealed when Smith took another exceptional close catch to snare Parkinson off Kemar Roach. Surrey take 24 points and Kent two.

Glamorgan claim second 50-over title in four seasons after 20-over contest on reserve day

ECB Reporters Network23-Sep-2024The last leg of Somerset’s treble bid went the way of the first two as Glamorgan won a truncated Metro Bank One-Day Cup Final on a gloomy reserve day at Trent Bridge that mercifully stayed dry long enough for them to lift the trophy for the second time in four years.In a match reduced in advance to 20-overs a side after Sunday’s total washout, overhauling Glamorgan’s 186 for 7 proved beyond them as the Welsh county, who beat Durham here to win the 50-over competition in 2021, came out on top by 15 runs, restricting Somerset to 171 for 6.Sam Northeast had anchored the Glamorgan innings with an unbeaten 63, while Billy Root added 39 off 27 balls, both hitting two sixes in a crucial fifth-wicket stand, Timm van der Gugten backing them up with 26 off just nine balls to bookend Will Smale’s 28 from 14 at the top of the innings.Skipper Sean Dickson hammered 44 from just 20 balls after Andy Umeed’s 45 from 36 for Somerset, but after offspinner Ben Kellaway and seamer Andy Gorvin had taken two wickets each, Glamorgan’s Jamie Mcilroy and Dan Douthwaite held their nerve with two fine overs at the death to finish the job.Beaten in the Vitality Blast final and knocked out of the race for the Vitality County Championship in the preceding nine days, the defeat left Somerset empty handed yet again.The only disappointment for the winning team was that their moment of triumph was witnessed in the flesh by only a smattering of spectators on the ground rather than the thousands who had turned up on Sunday.England spinner Jack Leach did not bowl a ball as Somerset opted to rely on five seamers, of whom George Thomas took 2 for 23 and left-armer Alfie Ogborn 2 for 36 from their four-over allocations.Sam Northeast cut loose for Glamorgan•Getty Images

After Sunday’s total washout forced the teams to return for the scheduled reserve day, play mercifully began on time, with the contest sensibly reduced to 20 overs per side even before the toss had been made, in anticipation of more heavy rain due to arrive in early afternoon.Somerset won the toss and opted to bowl as the Trent Bridge floodlights illuminated the misty gloom hanging over the ground.Ogborne took wickets with his third and fourth deliveries, bowling skipper Kiran Carlson before Tom Bevan shovelled tamely to short fine leg, but Glamorgan still put up 39 runs in the first four-over powerplay thanks to Smale’s aggression.Smale raced to 28 from his first 13 balls, living dangerously against Josh Davey with three boundaries over third but striking Ogborne cleanly over mid-on and for six over square leg. The threat he posed was removed when Dickson held a brilliant catch falling backwards at mid-off.After South African Colin Ingram, one of Glamorgan’s trump cards, picked out wide long-on off Thomas for just 11, Glamorgan were 71 for 4 from 10 and needed to find new energy.It came initially from Root, who cleared the rope three times, with Northeast eventually following suit with two of his own, one from a free hit, as Kasey Aldridge’s final over went for a damaging 29. They added 78 in 49 balls before Root was caught behind off Thomas.The next two wickets came quickly as Northeast’s failure to run as he was caught off a no-ball left the big-hitter Douthwaite stranded, before Kellaway sliced to short third, but van der Gugten’s swashbuckling cameo, encompassing four fours and a six off Davey hammered over long-off raised the total to something that looked defendable on a slow pitch.In reply, Somerset had Thomas run out in the third over of a stodgy powerplay and were some way off the pace at 63 for 2 from 10 after Lewis Goldsworthy, who had hit a century in the semi-final to down holders Leicestershire, picked out long-on off Kellaway, although Umeed was beginning to land some blows.A double setback followed as Umeed fell to a superb catch by Smale standing up to Andy Gorvin and James Rew was caught off a top-edged sweep as Kellaway landed his second blow, leaving Somerset 89 for 4 in the 13th and Glamorgan firm favourites.A blistering partnership of 66 in just five overs between Dickson and Archie Vaughan dragged Somerset right back into contention, Vaughan having survived Kellaway’s lbw shout on umpire’s call before he had scored.But after hammering 44 from 20 balls, hitting sixes off van der Gugten (twice) and McIlroy, Dickson reversed Gorvin to short third – from a delivery that might otherwise have been called wide – costing them critical momentum with 32 needed from 15 balls.It came down to Somerset needing 29 from the last two, a task that ultimately proved too much. Douthwaite picked up a wicket when Green heaved in the air to square leg and Vaughan’s boundary off the last ball was academic.

Hardik Pandya’s issues with fitness appear to have tilted the scales against him

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jul-20246:24

Newsroom: What can we expect from SKY the captain?

Suryakumar Yadav is set to be appointed India’s new T20I captain ahead of Hardik Pandya, the incumbent vice-captain of the side, for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.Suryakumar will take over from Rohit Sharma, who retired from T20Is, along with Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, after leading India to T20 World Cup glory in the Caribbean last month.Though Hardik was Rohit’s deputy at the T20 World Cup and is a more experienced captain – he has led India in three ODIs and 16 T20Is, apart from leading Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians in the IPL – it is understood fitness concerns and workload management may have tipped the scales against him.Hardik had suffered an ankle injury during the 50-over World Cup at home last October-November and was out of action until the start of IPL 2024, when he returned to lead Mumbai. Hardik has featured in just 46 of the 79 T20Is India have played since the start of 2022.Suryakumar, meanwhile, has previously captained Mumbai in the domestic circuit. More recently, he led India to a 4-1 series win over Australia in the T20I series last November, followed by a 1-1 series scoreline in South Africa. Suryakumar is also among the first names in a first-choice India XI in the format.Related

• Rathour on transition: Needs to be done in a controlled manner

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The T20Is in Sri Lanka will be India’s first assignment under new coach Gautam Gambhir, who takes over from Rahul Dravid after the T20 World Cup. It’s also seen as the first step towards building for the next T20 World Cup which India is set to co-host in 2026.A young Indian squad, led by Shubman Gill, just returned from Zimbabwe earlier in the week after completing a 4-1 T20I series win. The squad included just three players from the side that won the World Cup.It is understood that the selectors will meet on Wednesday to finalise the touring party. Along with three T20Is, the tour will feature three ODIs.

Jaiswal’s innings, under blue skies and bright sunshine, was split between patience and aggression in the first and second hour of the session

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jul-2025Lunch Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 62 took India to a solid position of 98 for 2 at lunch on day one of the second Test match in Edgbaston, after Ben Stokes once again opted to bowl first after winning the toss.Jaiswal’s innings, under blue skies and bright sunshine, was split between patience and aggression in the first and second hour of the session, respectively. Having played patiently with early movement on offer, he went from 16 off 34 to a 16th fifty-plus score in just 25 deliveries later. Having started the series with a century in Leeds, he looks in the mood to replicate that first innings feat here in Birmingham.Related

• Bumrah rested; Washington, Reddy, Akash Deep in for India

• Rishabh Pant rises to No. 6 among Test batters; Travis Head also gains in rankings

• Gill wants top order to take 'more responsibility' after Leeds loss

It was a welcome start following the big news that Jasprit Bumrah was to sit out the Test. His resting was one of three changes for India, with Akash Deep, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar drafted into the XI.The changes give India a completely different feel from the defeat at Headingley, with Sai Sudharsan and Shadrul Thakur dropped. Karun Nair batted at No.3. Explaining the decision to rest Bumrah, Shubman Gill revealed the India management felt Lord’s will offer Bumrah more than this track.The catalyst for the left-hander’s acceleration was the introduction of Josh Tongue, who inadvertently alleiviated the pressure created by the opening bowlers, Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse. The former prised out KL Rahul for a torturous 2 from 26 deliveries in an impressive new ball spell which read 1 for 15 from seven overs, including four maidens on the bounce. And Woakes was unlucky not to make more inroads after standing umpire Sharfuddoula turned down two close LBW appeals – the first against Jaiswal on 12, the second against Nair on 5. Both were reviewed only to come back with fractional Umpire’s Call on the predicted path into the stumps.Carse had to wait six minutes before the lunch interval to get his reward, when hard length surprised Nair, on 31, powerless to prevent a splice towards Harry Brook at second slip. That ended a productive stand of 80 for the second wicket which Nair had driven initially before Jaiswal took the wheel.Yashasvi Jaiswal cuts for four to bring up his half-century•Getty Images

Even as England bossed the first half of the morning session, Jaiswal remained tight (a few slashes aside) driving crisply down the ground. Tongue’s waywardness then allowed him to free his arms to the square boundary. Three boundaries from the Nottinghamshire quick’s third over were followed by three-in-a-row from what turned out to be Tongue’s sixth and final one of his spell, as Stokes ordered his quicks to instigate their usual bumper ploy.A hook took Jaiswal to 49, before he leapt into a vicious cut high over point to pass fifty, followed by a celebratory four – his 11th – carved past third. He now has at least fifty in all seven of his Tests against England.