The Fourth Innings

Cricket | Test | ODI | T20I | India | Captaincy | Virat Kohli  Virat Kohli recently stepped down as India captain in Test cricket. Following are the announcements leading up to it. "....... I've decided to step down as the T20 Captain after this T20 World Cup in Dubai in October." It made sense thanks to his immense workload and a proven leader in Rohit in the waiting.  "This is going to be my last leg in the IPL as captain of RCB." This was coming, since the IPL workload is much greater as compared to T20 Internationals. "Bottom line - there can't be two white-ball captains", said Sourav Ganguly, justifying Rohit's ascent to ODI captaincy when Kohli still wanted to continue as leader. Fair enough, makes sense to have a clear distinction between white-ball and red-ball captaincy. I thought the above events may finally allow Kohli to become the world-beating Test captain we all knew he was going to be and make India a long-format dominator acro...

Cricket | Test | Sri Lanka Tour of India, 2022 | India | Sri lanka | First Test, Mohali | Ravindra Jadeja Ravindra Jadeja - the batsman - has seen a cricket career of two halves. Making his international cricket debut in 2012, his career average stood at 21.50 at the end of 2015. He was looked upon as a bowling-allrounder with heroic performances in the 2013 Champions Trophy and in home Test matches with the ball in hand. This was despite the fact that he had scored three triple centuries in domestic first-class cricket. There were times when he batted as low as no. 9 with Ravichandran Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha preceding him. He had played a few cameos lower down the order but was yet to be proclaimed as a true allrounder. Cut to 2022, his average today reads 36.46 and if you look at his record from 2016, he scores 57.48 runs per dismissal. That is a dream number for any top-order batsman in cricket. He has shown that he is a good enough no. 6 across conditions across formats. He has ...

Cricket | Test | Australia Tour of Pakistan, 2022 | Australia | Pakistan | Preview It's been 24 years since an Australian cricket team last toured Pakistan. It was quite the tour for them, winning their first series in the country since 1959. With both the teams coming off recent series wins, we can expect some fierce action and thrilling drama as the teams walk out on the fourth of March. Let us see how the Australians are shaping up for this one. Australia's new (and old) opening pair David Warner and Usman Khawaja, a partnership that goes way back, 28 years to be precise. Not long ago was Khawaja looked upon as a middle-order batsman. There came the fourth Ashes Test and he stunned the world with a century on comeback. Then he did it again , both times batting at number five. He was pretty much undroppable after that, but so was Travis Head who he had replaced in the first place. So come Hobart , Australia left out Marcus Harris to accomodate both Khawaja and Head, the for...

Cricket | Test | India | Captaincy Virat Kohli  wrote to the world , on 16 September, 2021, " Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space  to be fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI Cricket. " He had clearly stated that he wanted to continue leading team India in the other two formats, while giving up T20I captaincy. 121 days later, he  stepped down  as the Test captain, being  replaced  by Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain before that. He was no longer the captain of the Indian National Cricket Team. End of an era in true sense. A win percentage of 63.46 doesn't come easy in cricket. The decision to give up T20I captaincy was clearly a well-discussed and well-thought one. To quote Kohli, he arrived at the decision " a fter a lot of contemplation and discussions with my close peop...

Cricket | Test | Ashes 2021-22  | England | Australia | Fourth Test, Sydney 6 balls to survive. 1 wicket in hand. Fading light and pride at stake. Test cricket's leading wicket-taker among pacers set to go up against a batter, who many consider second only to the Don. Cricket doesn't get any better. But, hold on, the roles have been reversed. It's Steve Smith with the cherry in hand and Jimmy Anderson taking his guard to face him. Still, whoaaa....!!! Anything could happen. Test cricket doesn't get any better..... When Zak Crawley and Haseeb Hameed walked out to bat this morning, they had already put on England's best opening partnership on this tour. But their team needed more. After all, surviving over 90 overs on a Day 5 Sydney pitch is not considered easy in cricket.  India managed to do it  around the same time last year, but that was down to immense grit and fortune. To be honest, this England batting line-up doesn't give too much confidence to its fans. W...