ذكرت تقارير إعلامية اليوم الأربعاء، أن هناك تغييرات جديدة قد تحدث على نظام بطولة كأس العالم، والتي تقام كل أربع سنوات وهي البطولة الأهم في العالم.
وسوف يقام كأس العالم خلال العام المقبل، حيث تستضيف الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية وكندا والمكسيك، نسخة المسابقة في عام 2026.
وفي عام 2030 سيقام كأس العالم في المغرب وإسبانيا والبرتغال، بينما تستضيف المملكة العربية السعودية نسخة 2034.
أقرأ أيضًا.. حكم مباراة منتخب مصر وجيبوتي في تصفيات كأس العالم 2026
وأشارت صحيفة نيويورك تايمز، إلو أن هناك اجتماعًا حدث يوم أمس الثلاثاء بين رؤساء اتحادات دول أمريكا الجنوبية، حيث جرت هناك العديد من النقاشات حول كأس العالم.
وأضاف ت أن هذا الاجتماع تم في مقر الفيفا في مدينة نيويورك الأمريكية، حيث استقبل رئيس الاتحاد الدولي لكرة القدم، جياني إنفانتينو وأمين الفيفا العام ماتياس جرافستروم عددًا من السياسيين والمسؤولين التنفيذيين في كرة القدم من باراجواي والأرجنتين وأوروجواي.
وأوضحت أن رئيس الاتحاد الأوروجوياني لكرة القدم، إجناسيو ألونسو، قد اقترح فكرة جعل بطولة كأس العالم تقام من 64 فريقًا في نسخة 2030، وليس 48 كالوضع الحالي.
الجدير بالذكر أن فكرة زيادة عدد الفرق في كأس العالم إلى 64 فريقًا سبق وأن لقت معارضة من رئيس الاتحاد الأوروبي لكرة القدم، ألكسندر تشيفيرين، حيث وصف الأخير فكرة زيادة عدد الفرق في كأس العالم بأنها سيئة.
وازدادت عدد الفرق المشاركة بشكل كبير في كأس العالم، حيث بدأت بالزيادة من 16 إلى 24 فريق في نسخة عام 1982، ثم ازدادت إلى 32 في عام 1988، قبل أن تصبح 48 بدءًا من نسخة كأس العالم العام المقبل.
Kate Coppack, Sunrisers’ matchwinner in the last-ever staging of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, paid tribute to the resilience within the squad, as they capped the competition’s short history with victory over South East Stars in a rain-affected final at Grace Road.Coppack chose the perfect moment to produce career-best figures of 4 for 27, as South East Stars stumbled early in the powerplay then lost wickets at regular intervals thereafter, with only Alice Davidson-Richards’ superb 93 from 105 balls providing any lasting resistance.In pursuit of a sub-par 213, Sunrisers got themselves ahead of the rate early thanks to Cordelia Griffiths’ boundary-studded 57, and though they shipped three wickets in the first half of their innings, Grace Scrivens had the chase firmly under control with her unbeaten 39 from 47 balls, before a thunderstorm forced an early end to the contest.The victory, albeit via DLS, completed one of the more remarkable turnarounds in the short history of women’s professional cricket, given that Sunrisers did not win a single contest in each of the first three stagings of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.”There have been a lot of highs and lows as the Sunrisers so to end like that is really special,” Coppack, 30, told the ECB Reporters Network, having been a regular in their squad since 2021.”I wasn’t involved in the first year but Danni [Warren] and people have been building a team over the years. It was always going to take a while.”I think you have to give credit to Scrivens coming in as captain. She is still really young but has learned quickly and is good at balancing people and when to bowl them. Having the same group around for the last few years, and people having trust in us has really helped as we could have tried to start again when things weren’t going well.”Away from cricket, Coppack is a lawyer, while her family also run an alpaca farm. “I’ve always been a pay-to-play player and try to balance work as well,” she said. “There have been a couple of us who have been doing that, but it is nice to see the game go more professional.”For Warren, Sunrisers’ director of cricket, the victory was vindication for the team’s perseverance, even when the going was particularly tough in the early years of the competition. It also provides the squad with a fillip ahead of next year’s switch to a county format, with Essex taking over the management of the Tier 1 team that will represent the region.”It is the culmination of a lot of hard work for a lot of people, for players and backroom staff,” Warren said. “We started this era with a group of players who were untested and untried at this level and we have identified some gems.”They have done it as an exciting group of young players who are probably come together slightly more than the sum of their part. We are the underdogs – and we like that term.”There have been a lot of tears and a lot of soul-searching from a lot of people. The lowest point was the four overthrows off the final ball against Storm in 2022. The story of that time was that we found a way to lose, now we have found a way to win – and that’s a brilliant thing.”With this group of girls you don’t know who the hero is going to be, any of them can put in a performance. There will be a happy person sat in the corner later looking around the room and seeing how far we have come. But I don’t see this as the end of an era, I just see it as momentum into the next one.”Alice Davidson-Richards held the Stars top order together•Getty Images for Surrey CCC
Emma Calvert, South East Stars’ director of cricket, was understandably disconsolate as her team finished on the losing side in two finals this summer, following their defeat to The Blaze in the Charlotte Edwards Cup in June.”It is gutting,” she said. “It is the end of an era and a sad way to end that era. We wanted to go out there, put on a performance and win the trophy but we have no control over the weather.”DLS is a funny thing. I backed us to take those wickets and see it through to the end. But what happened, happened and congratulations to Sunrisers. I have seen how much effort has gone in to building that program and it is an incredible end to that journey.”Alice Davidson-Richards is an incredible player, we all know that. She is disappointed more than anyone because although she put on that performance her team didn’t win and that is what means the most to her.”South East Stars are set to be absorbed into Surrey’s all-conquering set-up from 2025 onwards, but Warren admitted it was a bittersweet moment as this initial domestic era comes to an end.”We are incredibly excited to become Surrey but in this moment it feels quite hard,” she added. “The girls are so excited to start the journey with the three feathers on our chest.”We have been on a journey and to get to two finals this year is an incredible end. November 1 is the official day we go live as Surrey, but before then we’ll have words tonight and have our awards and really celebrate what we have achieved.”Although we haven’t lifted a trophy today, we have achieved a lot and I think it is worth celebrating that.”
Parsons and Vlaeminck kept India A down to 120 before McGrath bossed the chase
ESPNcricinfo staff11-Aug-2024Tahlia McGrath’s 22-ball 51* ensured Australia A made short work of India A’s modest total of 120 in the third and final T20 to complete a 3-0 series whitewash. Grace Parsons, Maitlan Brown and Nicola Hancock took two wickets apiece after Tayla Vlaeminck’s first-over strike to set up Australia A’s comfortable win.Vlaeminck, who was benched in the second T20, made instant impact on her return to the Australia A side. The 25-year-old fast bowler came away with remarkable figures of 4-0-6-1. She bowled Shubha Satheesh for a duck second ball of the match.The rest of India A’s top and middle order didn’t do much better. Priya Punia made 11 off 18, Shweta Sehrawat struggled for 15 off 28, while Tanuja Kanwar fell for a 10-ball 7.When Sajeevan Sajana fell for 10 – Parsons’ picking up two wickets in the 13th over – India A were in trouble on 47 for 5. But Kiran Navgire and captain Minnu Mani combined for a 57-run stand that helped the team get through the 20 overs.Navgire was the aggressor, smashing 38 off 20, while Mani made 22 off 23 before she was dismissed by Brown, who also returned to the playing XI after the first T20.Wilson got the chase underway with two boundaries in the first over from Meghna Singh, and after a couple of quiet overs, she took on Kanwar, hitting her for two fours and a six.Shabnam Shakil removed Katie Mack in the fifth over and Mannat Kashyap halted Wilson’s march in the eighth over but McGrath did not let Australia A lose any momentum. From the start of the tenth over, she kept hitting boundaries in clusters, targeting Kanwar, Meghna and Kashyap. Her aggressive knock meant that even Charli Knott’s wicket in the 13th over was not going to cause any hiccups for the hosts.McGrath hit three consecutive boundaries off Shabnam in the 14th over to finish the job and bring up a half-century, to follow up on her unbeaten 47 from the last game. McGrath hammered eight fours and two sixes.
علق عبد الواحد السيد، مدير الكرة السابق بنادي الزمالك، على الأزمة المثارة مؤخرًا بشأن شكوى نادي أوليكساندريا الأوكراني، بعد تأخر القلعة البيضاء في سداد قيمة صفقة انتقال اللاعب خوان ألفينا.
وتأتي هذه الأزمة في وقت صعب يمر به الزمالك، في ظل تراكم الضغوط المالية وعدم حصول اللاعبين والجهاز الفني بقيادة يانيك فيريرا على مستحقاتهم منذ فترة.
وقال عبد الواحد السيد في تصريحات عبر برنامج “اللعيب” على قناة “mbc masr”: “عندما تعود أرض 6 أكتوبر لنادي الزمالك، النادي سيسدد كل المستحقات، لأن أزمة هذه الأرض بالنسبة للنادي كبيرة جدًا، هذه الأرض بالنسبة للقلعة البيضاء حياة أو موت”.
طالع أيضًا | شوبير عن موقف الزمالك القانوني من أرض أكتوبر: الموضوع أصبح “سيادي”
وأضاف: “كانت هناك اتفاقات تسير بشكل معين وأموال تدخل النادي بشكل معين بسبب أرض الفرع الجديد، وتسد احتياجات الفريق، الآن بعد سحب الأرض المستثمرون خافوا، لذلك أكرر أن هذه الأرض ستحل أزمات النادي ولن نسمع عن أزمات مادية أخرى”.
واختتم: “لو النادي الأوكراني تقدم بشكوى ضد الزمالك بسبب مستحقات صفقة خوان ألفينا بيزيرا، فإن الشكوى تستغرق سنوات في الاتحاد الدولي حتى يتم حسمها، لكن أريد أن أوضح بأن الزمالك لم يدفع أول قسط في هذه الصفقة لأن قبل موعد الدفع تم سحب الأرض من النادي، وكانت هناك مستحقات سيتم دفعها للاعبين تأجلت”.
Former offspinner agrees to return to home county, in coup for new northern women’s set-up
ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jun-2024Durham have secured a key signing ahead of their first season as a Tier 1 women’s team in 2025, with the return of Dani Hazell, Northern Diamonds’ highly rated head coach, to Chester-le-Street on a three-year deal.Hazell, who made 141 appearances for England between 2009 and 2018, including two World Cups and three Ashes wins, is also head coach of the Headingley-based Northern Superchargers, a role she will retain alongside her Durham commitments.Having begun her playing career at Durham’s academy, Hazell was an obvious target for the club hierarchy as they set about establishing themselves as the new home of women’s cricket in the north of England, and her transfer may help to persuade other Leeds-based Diamonds’ players to commit to a relocation, rather than wait for Yorkshire to attain their own Tier 1 status in 2026.”It was clear from the off that Dani was the right person to lead Durham into our new chapter and begin to create history as a women’s professional team,” Marcus North, the club’s director of cricket, said. “She knows the club inside-out having played for us and worked within our women and girl’s pathway in recent years.”Dani has an excellent reputation following a successful period as Northern Diamonds and Northern Superchargers head coach, she had a winning mentality as a player and as a coach which is exciting for Durham. I look forward to working with her, as this exciting chapter for Durham Cricket begins.”Hazell, 36, took over as Northern Diamonds’ head coach in 2019, with the club winning the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy in 2022, while Northern Superchargers reached the women’s Hundred final in 2023. She has also played a key role in the development of the Diamonds academy over the course of her tenure.”I’m delighted to take up the opportunity as head coach.” said Hazell. “This is an exciting new chapter for Durham Cricket and the whole of the region, and I wanted to be part of this historic new era for the club.”I feel aligned with the club’s ambitions and standards to continually grow and move forward in such a pivotal moment for women and girls’ cricket.”I knew after initial conversations; it was the right opportunity for me to return to my home club and I am really looking forward to the challenge ahead.”Tim Bostock, Durham’s chief executive, added: “We’re delighted that Dani has agreed to become the head coach of our women’s team and we are extremely excited to welcome her back to Durham. Her knowledge of the game globally is key, but also her knowledge of the game in Durham is vitally important for us, I believe she is the perfect fit for Durham Cricket.”
Everton have scouted a 6 foot 5 defender during this season, and they are now potentially interested in a deal that would cost them a relatively small fee, according to a recent report.
Moyes looking to strengthen Everton’s defence this summer
It is potentially a very exciting summer for the Toffees this year, as they end their long stay at Goodison Park and move into their new ground, where they hope it is the start of a new era for the football club.
Everton pushing to sign £12m ace who has told agent to get the deal done
Everton have turned their attentions to an attacking target who is keen on the move to the Premier League.
By
Brett Worthington
Apr 24, 2025
David Moyes’ arrival has really turned things around for Everton, and he will now be hoping he can be backed in the transfer window, bringing in players he thinks are perfect for what he wants to achieve next season and beyond.
One area of the team that Moyes appears keen to address is at the heart of his defence, as the Merseyside club continue to be linked with several centre-backs. Indeed, the Toffees have been linked with a shock move for Jarell Quansah from arch-rivals Liverpool. Quansah looks set to leave Liverpool, and Everton are the latest team to join the race to win his signature.
Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah
It then emerged on Wednesday that Everton are also looking at signing David Hancko from Feyenoord but face serious competition from teams such as Juventus, who have agreed personal terms with the defender, as well as Bayer Leverkusen and Atlético Madrid. Hancko would be a costly purchase for the Premier League side, as Feyenoord are looking to get £34 million for their player.
Everton now scouting Ghana international Jerome Opoku
Given the hefty price on Hancko, the Toffees are keeping their options open, and they may have a cheap alternative in mind. According to TEAMtalk, Everton have been scouting defender Jerome Opoku this season, and he could be available on the cheap.
The report states that Opoku has been watched while playing for Turkish outfit Basaksehir in this campaign. It is reported that the centre-back, who can also play as a left-back, is keen on a move back to the Premier League after coming through the academy at Fulham.
Opoku could be a player available for a low transfer fee with his contract ending in Turkey in the summer of 2027, and that may have a part to play. The 26-year-old stands at 6 feet 5 inches, meaning he would fit into what Moyes likes as a, tall, aggressive player who is commanding in both boxes.
Jerome Opoku’s 24/25 Super Lig stats
Apps
27
Starts
24
Goals
2
Clean sheets
7
Interceptions per game
0.9
Tackles per game
1.0
Clearances per game
3.1
Balls recovered per game
2.7
Michael Keane looks set to leave at the end of the season when his contract expires, and talk of Jarrad Branthwaite leaving is still not going away, so Moyes will want to make sure he has options. Should Opoku, who was born in England but represents Ghana at the international level, move to the Premier League, he will have played in England, Denmark, Portugal, and Turkey during his short career so far, experience which would hopefully help him adjust quickly in new surroundings.
2025 is likely to be the year Manchester City’s squad goes through a major rebuild, work that has already begun.
In January, as outlined by Philip Buckingham of the Athletic, the Sky Blues spent more than the other 19 Premier League clubs combined, splashing £180m to recruit Abdukodir Khusanov, Omar Marmoush, Vitor Reis, Nico González and Juma Bah.
Meantime, Kevin De Bruyne announced last week that he will be leaving the club when his contract expires this summer, having spent a decade at the Etihad, during which time he has, so far, made 414 appearances, scored 106 goals, provided 176 assists and hoisted aloft 16 trophies.
However, could the big-money signing of one of the best players in the Premier League push another Man City legend out the exit door?
Manchester City's interest in Morgan Gibbs-White
As reported by David Ornstein of the Athletic, Manchester City have both Florian Wirtz and Morgan Gibbs-White ‘among the options [they] will consider’ as potential De Bruyne replacements.
Nottingham Forest signed Gibbs-White from Wolves for a reported fee of £42.5m three years ago, and Transfermarkt believe his market value has doubled since then, hence why Lee Clarke of Nottingham Forest News claims he will cost at least £70m.
Meantime, talkSPORT host Max Scott notes that the England international has been “one of the best players in the Premier League” this season, scoring five goals and racking up nine assists – only two midfielders can boast more goal involvements – firing the Garibaldi Reds to the cusp of the Champions League.
Morgan Gibbs-White for Nottingham Forest.
So, Gibbs-White would unquestionably be an excellent signing for Man City, but could his potential arrival be bad news for a sky blue stalwart?
After De Bruyne: Why another Man City legend could leave
As well as De Bruyne, six other key members of Manchester City’s first-team squad are now in their 30s, one of whom is Bernardo Silva.
Zak Garner-Purkis of Forbes writes that Silva ‘has been one of the main malfunctioning components’ at Man City this season, adding that his ‘aging legs’ have been a key factor behind the team’s ‘sudden decline’.
Since arriving from Monaco for £43.6m in 2017, the Portuguese international has made 396 appearances for the Citizens, only nine men have made more in club history, hence why Pep Guardiola labelled him “one of the best players I’ve ever seen in my life”.
Nevertheless, Silva’s powers are on the wane, as the table below outlines.
Bernardo Silva season-by-season statistics at Man City
Season
Appearances
Goals
Assists
2017/18
53
9
10
2018/19
51
13
13
2019/20
52
8
10
2020/21
45
5
9
2021/22
50
13
7
2022/23
55
7
7
2023/24
49
11
11
2024/25
41
3
4
All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt
As the table showcases, this has been, by some distance, Silva’s least productive season at Man City, coming off the back of the 2023/24 campaign, which was actually his best for five years, getting into double figures for both goals and assists.
So now, let’s analyse how he compares to Gibbs-White this season.
Bernardo Silva vs Morgan Gibbs-White (24/25 PL) comparison
Statistics
Bernardo Silva
Gibbs-White
Appearances
27
27
Minutes
2,128
2,216
Goals
2
5
Assists
4
9
Goals – xG
-1
+0.8
Shots on target %
33.3%
34%
Chances created
42
42
Shot-creating actions
76
96
Through-balls
3
15
Passing accuracy %
88.89%
81.17%
Take-on success %
53.19%
47.46%
Ball recoveries
80
108
Touches
1,648
1,406
Statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt, FBref.com and Squawka
Across the same number of appearances and a near-identical number of minutes, there are just 88 minutes between the pair, it is Gibbs-White who comes out on top for the vast majority of metrics this season.
For the most part, the duo’s statistics are remarkably similar, underlining their stylistic similarities, but it’s the Englishman who boasts better statistics when it comes to goals, assists, chances created, shooting and ball recoveries.
Despite having racked up over 200 more touches, Silva can only claim to have better passing accuracy and take-on success percentage.
Looking to replace the well-respected Dougie Freedman, who’s set to swap Selhurst Park for Saudi Arabia, Crystal Palace have reportedly joined the race to sign a highly respected Arsenal figure.
Crystal Palace eyeing Freedman replacement
Losing Freedman is undoubtedly a major blow. The sporting director played a large part in sustaining Crystal Palace’s Premier League place and often without needing to spend big – signing the likes of Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise in bargain deals. Replacing that is going to be even more difficult than losing him, but it’s something that those in South London must do nonetheless.
Speaking about Freedman’s departure, Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish said: “Dougie has been instrumental in everything we have done over the past eight years and indeed had a huge impact before that as manager and, of course, as a player.
“I have enjoyed working with him immensely and wish him every success for the future. Dougie leaves behind an excellent and well-structured sporting department that I’m sure will continue to go from strength to strength.”
Now in search of replacing his sporting director, Parish has seemingly turned his attention towards a London rival. According to The Boot Room, Crystal Palace have now joined the race to sign Jason Ayto from Arsenal, who was acting as their interim sporting director following Edu Gaspar’s exit before Andrea Berta’s arrival.
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Set to lose his role as sporting director once Berta is ready to go, Ayto has a decision to make this summer. Whilst Arsenal are desperate to keep hold of him and are reportedly considering offering the 40-year-old a promotion to work alongside the new sporting director, Ayto could yet take his talents elsewhere.
"Phenomenal" Ayto is Arsenal's secret weapon
As much as both Edu and Mikel Arteta received high praise for their work across Arsenal’s rise back into the Premier League’s title race, the latter took the time to praise Ayto’s underrated role in the Gunners’ rebuild last November.
Speaking to reporters, the Spaniard said, as relayed by The Boot Room: “Edu and I probably got a lot of the praise, but the work behind it is done by this guy and Jason has been phenomenal. It is not easy to wake up one day and have to move to a different office and do a different job, like it was for the team.
Arsenal managerMikelArtetaafter the match
“But again, the spirit, how people react, how they are willing to [say]: ‘Okay, that’s it, that’s the situation, let’s move forward’, with that ambition, and as well with that determination and that enthusiasm, that’s something great. Jason has been great on that.”
Amid such praise, it came as little surprise that Ayto was handed the chance to take up the sporting director role on an interim basis. Now that he has a taste for such a position, however, it will be interesting to see whether the likes of Crystal Palace are able to lure him away from The Emirates this summer.
Pitches on which batting is a lottery bring the opposition’s less-skilled spinners into the game
Sidharth Monga04-Nov-20241:25
Worst collective batting display from India in a Test series?
Indian players hate it when people talk about pitches at home. Part of it is because of the derisive clichés used to describe turning tracks: dustbowls, “rank” turners, wrestling pits. They don’t want a three-day Test on a turning pitch to be considered inferior to a three-day finish on a green seamer.However, having eaten their cake, the Indian cricketers also want to have it by suggesting they have no say in the preparation of pitches, when they almost micromanage the process often to the annoyance of the ground staff. Even during the 2023 “ICC” ODI World Cup in India, of the five venues that produced “average” pitches, three did it only for India matches and one just before India turned up. Now the semantics of what is “average” and “good” is debatable, but there were enough indications that India wanted to play specific opponents on specific types of pitches, and their wishes were granted even in an ICC tournament.Related
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You could argue there is nothing wrong with that – gaining a competitive advantage in professional sport. Groundsmen exist not to make ideal pitches but surfaces that help the home team win. Apart from in Australia, where there’s evidence that a chief groundsman can tell off an interfering captain, this happens nearly everywhere. The nature of pitches in England can go from turners to seamers depending on Australia’s strengths in that Ashes cycle. South Africa can drive their groundsmen up the wall by insisting on extreme home advantage, sometimes to their own peril. Pakistan recently had national selectors practically take over the pitch-making process.In India, you hope the team’s constant demand for spin-friendly surfaces is a cold, professional choice informed by analytics, and not an emotional reaction to the whitewashes in England and Australia after which the players started asking for extreme turners. Incidentally, the current coach Gautam Gambhir was the first one to publicly make that demand when he was a player.It can be argued the pitches on which India played New Zealand in Pune and Mumbai actually diminished their home advantage. India have lost seven home Tests in the last 12 years, and four of those defeats have come on extremely helpful surfaces for spinners. Of the other three defeats, one featured an extreme weather event that led to excessive seam on the first morning in Bengaluru, and other needed a freakishly lucky innings from Ollie Pope in Hyderabad.It was the third defeat, when Joe Root took full toll batting first in Chennai in 2021, that seems to have spooked India. Ever since then, they have doubled down on their demand for excessive turn from day one. This result seemed to vindicate MS Dhoni’s theory that the toss plays a less crucial role on pitches that turn big from day one. The pressure of maximising World Test Championship points from home Tests played a role too.A rank turner reduces the gap in skill between India’s spinners and the opposition’s spinners•AFP/Getty ImagesHowever, there is no evidence of the toss becoming less crucial on rank turners. Hawk-Eye data in this piece by Kartikeya Date shows that the Mumbai pitch took three hours before offering big turn to India’s spinners. Those three hours are worth 100 runs in relatively easy conditions. For a long time, India had batters to overcome this disadvantage if they lost the toss; now they don’t seem to do so.It is not like draws become a worry for India on “normal” pitches either. Of the seven drawn Tests in the country since 2013, three were impacted by weather, two were on uncharacteristically slow pitches even for India, one surface didn’t break up because of overnight dew in Rajkot in November, and in the last draw New Zealand hung on by one wicket.By asking for and getting pitches that turn from day one, and get progressively difficult to bat on, India bridge the gap between their superior spinners and the visiting ones who now need to sustain their skill and control for much shorter periods.Spinners averaged just under 24 collectively in India’s 3-0 defeat to New Zealand. ESPNcricinfo’s Shiva Jayaraman has used that average as the marker to differentiate between normal pitches and excessive turners in India. He found that in Tests since 2017 in which spinners collectively averaged less than 24, India’s spinners averaged 16.37 while visiting spinners averaged 22.91.However, the real difference in the quality of spinners becomes evident when they are made to work harder for their wickets. In Tests since 2017 where spinners collectively averaged above 24, Indian spinners averaged 26.22 while visiting spinners averaged a whopping 57.04 per wicket. These pitches also tend to bring in reverse swing, which India’s fast bowlers are really good at.Since 2020, six visiting spinners have taken their maiden five-fors in Test cricket in India: Joe Root, Mitchell Santner, Todd Murphy, Tom Hartley, Matt Kuhnemann and Shoaib Bashir. It seems counterintuitive to help narrow the gap between their skills and what R Ashwin does with the ball in the air or Ravindra Jadeja’s unrelenting accuracy over long periods. You can understand the ask for an extreme turner at the end of a long season, for example, but not when the bowlers are fresh.India’s batters have struggled big time on pitches that excessively help spinners•AFP/Getty ImagesThe drop in average for India’s batters against spin is also huge when batting becomes a lottery at home. For example, since 2017, Virat Kohli has averaged 90.25 against spin on pitches where spinners have averaged over 24 per wicket, but that plummets to 20.13 on pitches when spinners average less than 24 per wicket. Considering that batters – as India’s captains tend to be – make the decisions on the nature of pitches, it’s quite noble that they are going for wins without worrying about personal records. But if they zoom out a little, they will see that playing on turners is possibly hurting the team’s results as well.Under Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma, India made the conscious decision to play on what was given to them in Test cricket, and they continued to do so despite losing the first Test against England in early 2024. They won that series 4-1. However, India’s response to the Bengaluru defeat against New Zealand under Gambhir and Rohit has been extreme for some reason.Had India won the toss in Pune and Mumbai, they would likely have won the last two Tests. But they don’t have the batting quality now to overcome the disadvantage of losing the toss, which gives the opposition about three hours of decent batting conditions before the ball starts to do all sorts, which was precisely why Dravid and Rohit wanted to play on normal surfaces.As a result, since 2017, India have won 16 Tests, lost three, and drawn five on pitches where spinners average over 24 per wicket, and won ten and lost four on extreme pitches. The numbers become 6-2-3 and 6-3 when they lose the toss. At some point, the line between bravery and gambling seems to have become blurred in recent years.
Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda discuss newcomers and old hands as the build-up to Trent Bridge intensifies
ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jun-2023The build-up to the Women’s Ashes Test at Trent Bridge has intensified with England naming their squad to face the Australians. Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda look at the players who stand to make their debuts in the format, as well as some who have been there before. They also discuss the Charlotte Edwards Cup final and Anya Shrubsole’s retirement announcement.