ChinmayC Blog

Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has rewritten the history of another Indian cricket great Yuvraj Singh . No doubt about that, and cricketers and fans now call him the miracle player. While Yuvraj fought and conquered a rare form of cancer and made a brave comeback to cricket, Rishabh fought and conquered a near-fatal car accident in 2022 and made an astounding comeback to cricket in 2024. Not only did he come back but has been playing tremendous cricket in the IPL-2024 and then now in the first Test against Bangladesh with a superlative attacking century, apart from keeping wickets. Amid the well-deserved international acclaim came the comparison with MS Dhoni --some cricketers saying he has broken Dhoni's record in terms of the number of Test centuries in less than half of the matches Dhoni took to score. Veteran wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik has righteously pointed out that comparison with the legend is unwarranted at this stage. We fully endorse his view and request all to...

During this England Tour of India-2023-24 things have really happened in the five-match Test Series. All the matches have produced results within four days each and there was no one-way traffic as both the teams fought tooth and nail to win. The first Test in Hyderabad that England won by 28 runs and the 4 th Test in Ranchi that India won by 5 wickets proved to be nail-biting suspense dramas. In between the Indian debutants shone bright in the Third Test in Rajkot that India won by a record margin. One of the debutants, Dhruv Jurel, went on to shine the brightest in this 4 th Test, his only second. On the second day at stumps of the 4 th test match this writer had left you stating that if India conceded more than 100 runs to England it would most likely prove fatal for the hosts. Dhruv Jurel changed that story in its entirety and scripted a brand-new chapter (in fact, this writer did hint on a coincidental partnership like that of England): with his team reeling at 219/7, still tra...

England spinners, Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley, have made India struggle, once again after Hyderabad, and put the home team in a precarious position on the second day of the 4 th Test between India and England in Ranchi today. Bashir who replaced Rehan Ahmed is the chief damager, capturing four very important scalps that are Yashasvi Jaiswal (73), Shubman Gill (38), Rajat Patidar (17) and Ravindra Jadeja (12). This was followed up with gusto by the match-winner of the First Test, Tom Hartley who consumed one of the two debutant match-winners of the Third Test, Sarfaraz Khan and then dismissed R Ashwin whom the team dearly depended upon to hang on for the day and thus anchoring a partnership with Jurel, the second successful debutant of the Third Test. The two English spinners took absolute control of the proceedings after James Anderson removed captain Rohit Sharma cheaply and in just the third over of the India reply. Like in the previous outing a partnership was blooming between Ja...

Although it wouldn’t be wholly correct to say that the visiting England team has lost the last two Tests thanks to their solid adherence to Bazball cricket, they apparently, trailing 1-2 in the five-match Series, did or had to change their tactics on the first day of the 4 th Test match that began in Ranchi today. To add to their ‘positive approach to Test Cricket’ they won the toss today choosing to bat first, and therefore, they decided to surge ahead with that aggressive cricket, the openers—Crawley (42) and Duckett (11)—keeping the run-rate nearly at five-an-over. One more debutant for the inexperienced Team India, pacer Akash Deep, replacing a roaring Bumrah for whatever reasons of ‘rest’ the selectors may have decided, however, got both of them out quickly including the danger man Ollie Pope for a duck in between them, and thus captured three scalps reducing England to 57/3, an ominous start batting first.  Nonetheless, Jonny Bairstow carried on with Bazball scoring 38 in 35...

Arguably the most inexperienced playing eleven India had ever fielded in the international Test playing arena, has blasted away the much-talked-about Bazball approach to cricket that England adopted under their aggressive coach Brendon McCullum and an equally aggressive captain Ben Stokes in 2022, beating the visitors by the biggest-ever margin in terms of runs (434) in the last session of the fourth day of the Third Test between India and England in Rajko t today with India leading the five-match Series 2-1 now. The Indian selectors had reportedly included two debutants in the top seven of the playing eleven as far back as in 1999, and in 2024 for the third test match they had to do so by including debutant Sarfaraz Khan as a batsman and Dhruv Jurel as wicket keeper-batsman and a rookie batsman Rajat Patidar, apart from the other youngsters of great promise like Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal. This crucial decision had to be taken with the continuing absence of the two stalwarts V...

When we were school students the Television was not there in our regions, and so, nothing about ‘watching’ cricket. Those days we caught up with the radio whenever India were playing, I remember lying awake the whole night till daylight, particularly when the matches were going on in the West Indies; and those were only the five-day Test matches as the shorter formats were also unknown except for our gully or home cricket being always limited-overs encounters. And we were free of any superstitious beliefs because listening didn’t necessarily involve them. It’s only when we started getting blessed with the live telecasts (early eighties in India) and began watching our favorite players in action that such superstitions began to emerge. Perhaps watching it live made the exchange of vibes or thoughts between us and the players possible with what you call the body language behaviors of both sides affecting the prospects, somewhat. And in came the superstitions, beliefs or say superstitious...

Shamar Joseph, 7/68 We have been treated to two nail-biting test matches on the same day (yesterday being the fourth day of each), the 27 th of January 2024, which is, to say the least, is terrific news for the future of Test Cricket, coming right after the two-day humdinger between India and South Africa in Cape Town. In both the Tests the host nations, Australia and India respectively, lost to the visitors on the day as mentioned, largely thanks to the captivating bowling performances of two young bowlers—fast bowler Shamar Joseph for the West Indies and orthodox spinner Tom Hartley for England. While Joseph was playing only his second Test, Hartley made his Test debut; both of the age of around 24, being born in 1999. Both of them captured 7 wickets each on the fourth day as the host nations were chasing the targets set. The Australia-West Indies test match was the second and last of the two-match Series played in Brisbane with the Aussies leading 1-0 while the India-England match...

It has to be termed as a good positive sign in view of the ICC World Cup T20 coming up later this year and the ODI ICC World Cup coming next year that Team India, of late, has been winning in the shorter formats consistently. After Team India-Bumrah franchise lost the leftover 5 th Test against England the various franchises have been blooming in the following matches in the shorter formats. Before the 5 th Test Team India-Pandya franchise had triumphed over Ireland quite easily; then Team India-Rohit franchise won both the T20I Series and the ODI Series against England with the same margin of 2-1; next, Team India-Dhawan franchise swept the 3-match ODI Series against the competitive and spirited West Indies on the latter’s turf 3-0; and at the moment Team India-Rohit franchise has taken a lead of 1-0 in the 3-match T20I Series against the West Indies routing the hosts in the first T20I match. Before this winning spree Team India-Pant franchise managed to draw the ODI Series against ...

In a befitting climax to their incredible winning run of fourth-innings chases against New Zealand, clean sweeping the Series 3-0, England have successfully chased down a never-before total of 378 runs set by India to win the 5 th Test match against India in Birmingham today by 7 wickets. As in the previous chase in the third Test against New Zealand that England won by 7 wickets it’s none other than that rollicking duo of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow who has crafted a magical unbeaten partnership of 269 runs, in just about 54 overs, once again here to overcome the highest ever total in the fourth innings against any side in their Test cricket history. For that matter, India too had never before failed to defend a 350+ run target in a Test match. Root and Bairstow had been crucial in all of the test victories against New Zealand along with Ben Stokes, Overton and Ollie Pope giving company at times. Joe Root has notched up his third century in the four successful chases including this o...

The consistent failures of Indian top and middle batting order since a couple of years at least, barring perhaps a few solid starts of the now-missing Rahul-Rohit opener duo, have become a rule rather than an exception. In the successful Test Series against both Australia and England (so far) we’d seen how the lower middle order, necessarily involving an all-rounder like Ravindra Jadeja or Ravichandran Ashwin and at times even tailenders like Shardul Thakur or Mohammad Shami, coming to the rescue of the Indian innings and most often leading the team to victories. Not to speak about the tremendous bowling efforts of the same players in those magnificent victories. The final and the fifth ‘leftover’ Test match that started yesterday against England in Birmingham has become the latest example. Put into bat, the Indian top and middle order had ably managed to reduce the team to a precarious 98/5, almost giving up against James Anderson, Matthew Potts and Stuart Broad; but then, came the lo...

It was the COVID-19 scare in the Indian camp that led to the postponement of the 5 th Test between India and England to be played in Manchester back in September, 2021; and it’s again COVID-19 that’s led to ruling out India captain Rohit Sharma of this Test which begins Friday, the 1 st of July 2022 at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Jasprit Bumrah, the existing Tests vice-captain is given the charge to lead India as the stand-in captain. The phenomenon of a ‘stand-in captain’ for Team India has become the rule rather than an exception in recent times, at times leading to double stand-ins. Anyway, the debutant captain Bumrah thus becomes only the second pacer, after Kapil Dev, to captain India in tests. In the absence of both the regular openers, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, the flown-in Mayank Agarwal is likely to join opener Shubman Gill.   There are significant changes that have taken place in the past 9 months. England has now a new captain Ben Stokes, one of the most successful all-ro...

The movie aptly titled ‘83’ is really worth reliving Team India’s glorious World Cup victory at Lord’s in 1983 defeating the mighty West Indies , thus stopping the latter’s hat-trick moments after victories in 1975 and 1979 ; and in fact, the West Indies team is yet to win their third World Cup since then. I missed watching the movie on the big screen as moviegoing has been effectively stopped since the last two years, particularly for the elderly people like me. I grabbed the opportunity as soon as the great cricket movie was premiered on television yesterday. The movie too has suffered due to the pandemic: first it was slated for release in 2019 which, unfortunately, was postponed due to post-production reasons and after that the COVID-19 recurring bans and restrictions never allowed to make the movie reach millions of cricket fans. Finally, though it could be released in December 2021 its shows were again affected by the Omicron wave. Therefore, as it were, the movie could not re...