The Twenty18 Lineup

The calendar changes to 2019 and we have Jimmy Neesham & Cheteshwar Pujara starting the cricketing year in contrasting yet effective styles. Before the year runs away any further, time to look back and present the 2018’s Slipstream XI – a collection of interesting & not-so-interesting events to remember the cricketing year 2018 by. 

0. Let’s begin at the beginning. 

All these years we were sending a coin up in the air for the all-important task of finding who bats first. But the smart fellows at the Big bash League decided that sending a coin up in the air doesn’t seem exciting, so let’s throw a specially designed bat! Which lead to an amusing incident where the bat landed on its side!!! 

1. Debutante(s) of the Year 

Ireland & Afghanistan became the 11th & 12th Test playing nations respectively. While Ireland ran Pakistan close, Afghanistan were overwhelmed by India. Meanwhile Nepal made their ODI debut with a narrow win against Netherlands. It was reported in Nepalese newspaper as “Nepal hammer Netherlands by one run”. 2019 is going to be a bumper debut season as all Associates get international status for T20s.

Taylor + Cook = De Kock

Arbit Stats: Nervous 9990s

Test Match #2204: England vs Sri Lanka

Before the start of the series Alastair Cook needed 36 runs to become the first Englishman to reach the 10,000 career Test runs mark. However this seems to have become a big bugbear for him as he has fallen short twice in the pursuit. In the 2nd Test of the series, he has become the 3rd batsmen to be dismissed in the nervous 9990s in Test tally.

Previous members of the nervous 9990s club - Lara & Jayawardene. (Elite company).

So the wait becomes longer for Cook.

Nishant Kumar for DieHard Cricket Fans

Follow Nishant on Twitter @NishantSKumar

England Must Make One-Day Changes

Ahead of the World Cup in 2015, limited-overs coach, Ashley Giles, has pretty much admitted what everyone else already knew - England's one-day squad is in drastic need of major surgery if it is going to compete with the best teams on the planet.  Giles, speaking after the hugely-disappointing 4-1 ODI series defeat in Australia, has admitted he has some “tough decisions” to make as he bids to get England back on track. The way they threw away another winning position in Adelaide, to add to similar capitulations earlier on the tour, will have caused great alarm among the ECB hierarchy.

Big Ben Stokes, now is his time

Young, talented and full of potential, Ben Stokes is sure to play a prominent part in the future of English cricket. Making his debut in test cricket, he has a real chance to prove himself, maintain his place in the team and establish himself as a permanent feature in this England side in all forms of the game. Despite only bowling 8 overs today, it was enough to get a quick glimpse of him to show that, above all, he has the temperament for international cricket. His first ball was smack on a length outside off stump allowing Watson to let it sail through to Prior. His speeds were consistent and by maintaining tight lines, he gave the Aussie batsmen few scoring opportunities.

Does England have players to call upon if injury strikes?

Injury concerns involving England skipper Alastair Cook and seamer Stuart Broad, although unlikely to keep them both out of the series, have raised the question of the quality of the back up players in the England side. With the series being the second half of two consecutive Ashes series, it is likely that injuries and rotation will play a considerable role which could have an impact on the end result. It is therefore more important than ever to have strength and depth in the squad.

England’s bowling unit is strong, the stand out performers of Broad and Anderson being well supported by Finn, Rankin and Tremlett. All tall, all fast and I have no issues with any of them making the starting eleven. Tremlett has proven himself before, having a successful tour of Australia in the 2011 series. It’s always a worry when a fast bowler has a career threatening injury, but Tremlett looks to have come back fitter and stronger, ready to play. Steven Finn, still young and learning his game, is a threatening fast bowler, even though he

If I were N Srinivasan

“Hmm….go on…”

These days, the most hated person in the cricket world is not a non-performing cricketer or a bumbling umpire; that privilege goes to a soft spoken, bespectacled business man from Chennai. Narayanaswami Srinivasan, or N Srinivasan (or, Srini mama as “affectionately” known throughout the social networks) is the current BCCI chief, which in turn makes him the overlord of all international cricket bodies (allegedly). It takes a special kind of talent (sorry, Rohit) to be universally disdained by anyone related to cricket. Indian fans hate him for reasons pertaining to IPL, DRS and an autocratic approach to governing the Board. Non-Indian fans hate him for reasons pertaining to IPL, DRS and an autocratic approach which influences the governing of other national cricket boards. It is nice to know that in a cricket world divided by misplaced nationalistic fervor, we can all agree that the BCCI chief is a tool. And that Jade Dernbach’s tattoos make Mitchell Johnson’s look like a work of Picasso. Don’t even get me started on that.