Latest news with #fastbowler
BBC News
02-08-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Lancashire sign fast bowler Singh Dale from Glos
Lancashire have signed fast bowler Ajeet Singh Dale from Gloucestershire on a three-year 25-year-old will officially join the Red Rose on 1 November ahead of the 2026 has taken 118 wickets for Gloucestershire since his arrival from Hampshire in 2022."Lancashire has an exceptionally strong squad, which can compete across all formats, and I'm looking forward to pushing myself in a new environment while contributing towards success for this great club," Singh Dale told Lancashire's website., external
France 24
27-07-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Bumrah playing in England finale would be 'great deal' for India says skipper Gill
Bumrah's back injury earlier this year led India to announce the outstanding fast bowler would only feature in three games of the England series in a bid to manage his workload. And the world's top-ranked Test bowler made his third appearance of the campaign in Manchester where India batted out five sessions and 143 overs to deny England an unassailable 3-1 series lead. India could now field Bumrah when they try to end the series all square at 2-2 in next week's concluding Test at the Oval. But with that clash in south London starting on Thursday, there is little time for Bumrah to recover after he sent down a tiring 33 overs during England's mammoth 669. Bumrah's return of 2-112 also meant the 31-year-old conceded more than a hundred runs in an innings for the first time in his celebrated 48-Test career. But India captain Shubman Gill insisted he would be delighted to have Bumrah in his side for the finale. "If he feels like he's fully fit and available for us, I think it would be a great deal for us," Gill told the BBC. "If he's not playing, I still think we have the right kind of bowling attack. "Akash Deep is available for the last Test, so we will have a bowling attack that could take 20 wickets for us." Pant ruled out India will have to make at least one change, with Rishabh Pant ruled out after the wicketkeeper-batsman suffered a broken foot at Old Trafford. Pant left the field on a buggy on the opening day after edging Chris Woakes onto his boot when on 37 but returned less than 24 hours later, making 17 further runs before he was out for 54 in India's first-innings 358. "Rishabh, already it's been declared that he's out of this series," India coach Gautam Gambhir told reporters. "The character and the foundation of this team will be built on what Rishabh did for the team and the country. "Any amount of praise is not enough for him, especially batting with a broken foot." After Gill had made a fine hundred, his fourth of the series, there was a farcical finish to the fourth Test after Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja rejected England's offer to end proceedings with 15 overs remaining –- the earliest a draw could have been agreed. The pair had performed superbly to bat out the final two sessions and spare India defeat, but on 80 and 89 respectively, they wanted to underline their gutsy displays with hundreds. England were unimpressed with captain Ben Stokes bringing on batsman Harry Brook for 'help yourself' runs. Jadeja was the first to capitalise on the 'buffet bowling' before Sundar followed him to three figures for a maiden Test hundred. But Gambhir, a former India batsman, said: "If someone from England had been batting on 90 or 85, if someone has the opportunity to get a first Test hundred, would you allow him to do it? "They weathered the those guys deserved a hundred and fortunately they got it." But Stokes said: "That partnership was massive, they played incredibly well and I don't think there would have been too much more satisfaction at walking off 100 not out than 80 or 90. "Scoring 10 more runs isn't going to change the fact you've got your team out of a very, very tricky situation and saved your team from a series defeat." © 2025 AFP
Telegraph
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
I went to where Jasprit Bumrah grew up to see how world's best bowler was made
'I said to Jasprit: 'You should not change your action. That is your weapon. Don't change anything about it. You can change your line and length, where you aim the ball. But this is your original action, it's natural. And you never change natural.'' Kishore Trivedi is talking about his most famous student, the unique, irrepressible Jasprit Bumrah. I am chasing the backstory of Bumrah and his one-of-a-kind bowling action around the city of his birth, Ahmedabad. The journey takes me to the block of flats he grew up in, the yard he practised in, and even for a ride through the city with Mehmood, the tuk-tuk driver who ferried Bumrah (and his family) around in his teen years. The magic of Bumrah has been on full display during India's tour of England. He has played just two matches, but has taken five-wicket hauls in each, earning a place on the Lord's honours board last week. It leaves him with 217 wickets at an average of 19.48. No man has more Test wickets at a better average and he has a host of white-ball accolades, too. It has led to Michael Vaughan describing him as the greatest fast bowler he has seen, and to Telegraph Sport 's Scyld Berry, veteran of more than 500 Tests, to anoint him the best ever. But Trivedi is speaking half a world away from Lord's, just after 9am on a Tuesday in February, and it is already steaming hot. Not that you would know it is when meeting him. He is wearing a full tracksuit, and an ear-warming headband under a beanie hat, which he only removes to have his photo taken. Trivedi's WhatsApp profile picture is him with his handsome St Bernard, Leo. It is hard to know who is wearing the warmer coat. We are in the west of the city, at Trivedi's Royal Cricket Academy, which appears through a small, dusty opening between shanty housing, and is overlooked on the other side by high rises. Trivedi has rented this space for seven years, and it is rudimentary, with a small, unwalled changing area covered by a tin roof providing the only shade, and storage for kit. Some of the 25 or so students, paying a monthly 2,500 rupees (£21.70, but discounts are given to those who cannot afford it) for daily sessions, break from nets to watch us chat. Stray dogs roam the rough outfield, which is being worked on by an assistant under the watchful eye of Trivedi. In the distance, horns blare. I have been told that Trivedi is the man to talk to about Bumrah's development, and he makes for compelling company. He has been a coach for almost 40 years, but before that played four Ranji Trophy matches in 1972-73 as an off-spinner for Saurashtra, based in Gujarat. He beams with pride as he tells me his first wicket was none other than Sunil Gavaskar, bowled. He bristles when I ask if he could bat as well. 'Bowlers did not need to make runs,' he scoffs. 'The job was to take wickets'. The glowing pride returns as he tells me about his son, Siddharth, a fast bowler who followed him in representing Saurashtra, and played the first few seasons of the Indian Premier League for Rajasthan Royals, and is still the franchise's third-highest wicket-taker. But perhaps he is most proud of his role in the story of Bumrah who, in a neat quirk, actually played in Siddharth's last professional match, a T20 between Saurashtra and Gujarat in March 2015. The following year, Bumrah played for India for the first time and has since become one of the greatest bowlers to play the game. No bowler has more Test wickets than the 31-year-old at a lower average and there is a case for him to have a place in a fantasy greatest XI of all time. The conversation is not entirely two-way. Trivedi's students, who range in age from under 10 to late teens, are involved, in a very endearing fashion. All of them dream of playing professionally, and have an unquenchable appetite for the game. They tease me about England's performance on tour in India, and warn me that India will win the final ODI the following day (they turn out to be right). As he nips off to answer his phone, I ask one how old he thinks Trivedi is. He responds with a cheeky grin, and says 84. Another says 86. Trivedi later corrects the record: he is 76. Another teenage student, Arnav, speaks immaculate English, and chips in to translate when required. 'They thought he was throwing it' Bumrah was like them when Trivedi first met him, aged 16 and mustard keen. Trivedi was holding a session at nearby Nirman High School, where Bumrah was a student and his mother, Daljit, taught. Bumrah, at this time, was new to organised cricket, having not been especially young when he first played. Trivedi was the autodidact's first serious coach. 'I started my cricket quite late. I didn't play when I was six or seven,' he told Australian network Fox in December. 'I watched the television, and had no formal coaching. I learnt everything through the television and somehow picked up cues and kept on finding my own solutions.' Trivedi remembers the boy who came to his sessions. 'When Jasprit first came to the nets, he had this odd action,' he says. 'The boys were confused. They were asking me, is he throwing it or is this a correct action? They thought he was throwing it. I observed his action closely for three days. It was absolutely fine, there was nothing 'chuck' about it. 'It's an odd action, so the boys were confused. But I was also surprised at how much speed he could generate at 16. His run-up was 10 or 12 yards, but he generated so much speed, so the boys were afraid to face him, because it was bouncing so much. And already, he could bowl a very good yorker.' An hour later, I am just over 6km away and stood outside the building Bumrah credits for his idiosyncratic run-up, that fearsome yorker and his ability to bamboozle batsmen. Goyal Intercity is a series of grey blocks, tucked away behind a row of shops that could be anywhere in India: grocers, pharmacies and so on. The Bumrahs lived on the sixth floor of block A3. It was in apartment 63 that he first perfected the full-pitched delivery – for entirely pragmatic reasons. 'Summers in India can be really hot in the afternoon and parents don't let kids out,' he told The Guardian last year. 'I was a hyperactive kid, lots of energy, but my mother would sleep in the afternoon… I found that if I bowled a ball into the skirting board, it didn't make a sound. So I could bowl without disturbing her, no issues.' There is scant evidence of the Bumrahs here now, although residents tell me they have kept the apartment for sentimental reasons, and it sits locked. Out the back, there is a yard for residents to sit in relative peace, and for kids to play. It is big enough for a decent game of cricket, but a series of benches acted as a boundary, limiting the young Jasprit's run-up. 'The run-up is because of playing in the backyard,' Bumrah said in 2020. 'We didn't have a lot of space when I used to play as a child. This was the longest run-up you could have. 'There were benches. I couldn't go any further than that. That was the limit we had, so we kept it as a boundary. I ran in from there.' @cricketer_jassi #indiancricketteam short runup with bumrah in match @jasprit_bumrah @shivamsingh_rajput #bowling #cricketer #cricket #cricketlover ♬ original sound - Jaswant saini The run-up stuck. 'When I came into serious cricket, I tried to run more,' Bumrah told Fox. 'Initially I did, but it didn't make any difference, my pace stayed the same. It made no difference, so I kept it the same.' Not that Bumrah realised his action was unusual. 'It wasn't until I joined a national junior camp and saw a video of myself [that I saw I was different],' he told the Guardian. 'I was just bowling fast and taking wickets, it never occurred to me.' Father died when he was five Outside, a couple of security guards mill around the gate, and the vehicles in the parking lot tell a tale: there are hundreds of motorbikes, as there are everywhere in India, but some fancy cars, too. I get chatting to a resident, who has moved here since the Bumrah family left. 'This is a nice place to live,' he tells me. 'Normal people, and a very mixed society. People get on well'. That much is clear. The atmosphere is convivial and friendly. In the course of an hour or so, I see Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs (the Bumrah family are Gujarati Sikh). India is a rapidly-changing country and as the home of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, Ahmedabad is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. One of Bumrah's closest friends, the former cricketer Manprit Juneja, describes it as a 'goldilocks situation', where a well-educated population and a stable government are combining to make the city a 'hot-spot for investors'. He adds: 'There's a huge business community that keeps multiplying, and development is twice the pace of other Indian cities'. Middle India is expanding fast, and the setting of Bumrah's childhood feels right at its heart, but that does not mean his upbringing was without struggle. His father, Jasbir, died of Hepatitis B when Jasprit was five, leaving Daljit to raise him and his sister, Juhika. 'He comes from a humble background' Juneja remains a close friend of Bumrah, who has known him for around 15 years, since his early days in the Gujarat system. The pair have family links that run even further back. Juneja is a retired cricketer who was a batting stalwart for their state, and played for India A and India U23 with Bumrah. 'He comes from a very humble background,' Juneja says. 'They had a tough time in their childhood financially, because his mum had to take care of two children alone. It's not been very easy for them.' Daljit's best friend, a well-regarded journalist called Deepal Trivedi (no relation to Kishor), was a neighbour in the early years of Jasprit's life. When he guided India to T20 World Cup triumph last year, an Instagram post of hers did the rounds in the Indian media. She wrote of those years: 'We could hardly afford him a packet of Amul Dairy or any milk. We were all busy struggling to meet ends as he grew up. His mother worked at least 16-18 hours a day'. As you would expect of someone with that work ethic, who rose to become the vice-principal of a big secondary school, Daljit took education seriously. Trivedi, the coach, remembers a conversation with her soon after he met Jasprit. 'She was the vice-principal [at Nirman],' he says. 'He had been training with me, but his mother came to me and said 'Jasprit likes cricket too much. He doesn't study enough'. She was worried and wondered how he would have a career. I said to his mother, 'don't worry, leave Jasprit with me for three years'. He definitely has the talent, so if he puts the time in, he has a future in cricket.' Daljit agreed, so the young Jasprit trained with Trivedi for two hours from 4.30pm every day of the week. 'I was clear with what I thought about his action,' he said. 'So many boys are changing their action, so many coaches trying to change them. But I gave my advice: don't change.' He begins to mimic Bumrah's action, splaying his left arm high. 'Because the front hand is there,' he says, before swinging his right arm through with dynamism. 'Then he comes through like that.' He continues: 'We trained constantly. Lots of different types of training, line and length, accuracy. To improve his yorkers, we did spot bowling. We would choose an area, a very small target, the size of the ball. He would have to hit it, 10 to 15 times in a row. I would reward him or punish him if he did well or badly. One hour bowling was compulsory. No water, no rest, every day until he kept hitting it. His accuracy increased, so the number of times he missed decreased.' Trivedi remembers a 'very shy boy, who didn't speak much and was not open at all'. What he did possess, though, was steely confidence that grew as his cricket improved. 'He was serious and sincere about the game,' he adds. 'He was the best teenager I have seen,' Trivedi remembers. 'He was different to all others, in his behaviour, his bowling action. He was very shy'. So Trivedi used his contacts in the Gujarati game to expose him to steps up the playing ladder, and asked a lot of him: Not only daily training sessions, but lots of matches of increasing quality, from school cricket to district, then state age-group level. 'Batsmen are still confused!' Transporting Bumrah around the city to all this cricket was Mehmood, who just happens to be standing by his auto-rickshaw outside the gates of Goyal as I look around. Residents insist I meet him and, before long, for 300 rupees (about £2.60, which includes a 50 per cent tip) we are zooming to all the spots he would take the young Bumrah. Mehmood speaks more English than I do Gujarati, and works hard to point out every Bumrah-related place, from vegetarian eateries to cricket pavilions. We stop at Nirman High School, where kids in white T-shirts are doing laps of the yard, and pass Vastrapur Lake, which looks pretty (Mehmood has his foot down, so it is hard to fully appreciate it). We pass Eklavya Sports Stadium, where Bumrah would train, and wind up at the College Commerce Ground, where he would play. Students are knocking about on their lunch break, there are some military drills happening, but no cricket. Buzzing through the streets gives a sense of Ahmedabad's rapid change: the roads are smoother, and better regulated, than other parts of India, and fancy malls and apartment blocks seem to pop up around each corner. Working under Trivedi, the pace of change for Bumrah was rapid, too. By March 2013, aged 19, he was playing for Gujarat in the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, alongside Juneja (who was in the XI for his T20, List A and first-class debuts). 'I had never seen anything like him,' he remembers. 'He was unusual, unorthodox, with his real strength being that he didn't seem as quick as he was.' During that tournament, his yorkers were spotted by John Wright, the former New Zealand captain, in his new role as Mumbai Indians head coach. Wright was watching Bumrah on the advice of Parthiv Patel, the Indian wicketkeeper who captained Gujarat. A month later, Bumrah was playing in the IPL, the competition which would make him one of Ahmedabad's finest and most precious exports. 'Today, he has the rewards for the odd action,' says Trivedi. 'Batsmen are still confused!'. Juneja believes there have been some 'very small tweaks' to his great friend's action since they first played together, but 'the jerk and the swift movement' that make him so unusual have remained exactly the same. Over to our left, in the nets, one of the boys is impersonating that action. 'They all try,' laughs Trivedi. 'But it never works, because he is unique.'
France 24
12-07-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Akram hails 'modern-day great' Starc on 100-Test milestone
Starc, who draws comparisons with fellow left-arm quick Akram, will reach the milestone later Saturday when the third Test against the West Indies begins in Jamaica. "It is a big deal in this day and age to reach 100 Tests, congratulations to Starc," Akram told AFP. "That shows the quality and resolve of the man." The 35-year-old becomes the 83rd player and 16th Australian to play 100 Tests, and only the second Australian fast bowler after Glenn McGrath. "To play 100 Tests shows how consistent Starc has been and also shows where his priorities lie -- that is to play red-ball cricket," said Akram. "He has also played Twenty20 and league cricket but his career in Test cricket is way ahead and to me he is a modern-day great." Starc stands on 395 Test wickets, so has the tantalising prospect of taking his landmark 400th wicket during his 100th Test. His strike rate is remarkably similar to Akram, who retired in 2002 after taking 414 wickets in 104 Tests. Both players, said Akram, had suffered injuries to "every joint, every part of the body" during their careers. "People often compare us but we have played in different eras," said Akram. © 2025 AFP
New York Times
11-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Jofra Archer's England return: 93.3mph, a wicket with his third ball and a celebration to savour
He watched the edge from Yashasvi Jaiswal land safely low in the hands of Harry Brook at second slip and set off on a sprint towards square leg with fists clenched, joy etched on his face and shouting in exhilaration. Jofra Archer was back, 1,597 days since last he'd played Test cricket for England, on the Lord's ground where he made such an impact when he first arrived in the international game fully six years ago. Advertisement This was what all that hard work, all those agonising months and years of rehabilitation and recovery from serious injury, was all about. Archer had a wicket with the third ball of his Test comeback and England finally had a bowler again with extra pace and that all-important X-factor. What a moment at the start of the India reply to England's 387 in this third Test, and what promise for the rest of this series and the Ashes that follow come November if Archer is truly back. It was reward for the determination of this exciting fast bowler to play Test cricket again after a four-and-a half-year absence when it would have been so much easier — and more lucrative — to throw in his lot with the less-demanding limited-overs franchise circuit. Vindication, too, for Rob Key, the managing director of England cricket who kept faith with Archer and continued to pay him a central-contract of around £800,000 ($1.1million) a year while he battled the elbow and back injuries that could well have cut his thrilling career short. 'They both deserve huge credit for this,' Archer's county-level coach at Sussex, Paul Farbrace, tells The Athletic. 'Jofra could have gone off and made more money on the T20 circuit around the world but he was desperate to play Test cricket for England again. 'And Keysie has done very well to stick by him, knowing how important a bowler he can be again for England now he is fully fit and bringing him back at the right time.' The biggest question facing Archer as he stood at the top of his run-up at the Pavilion End for the second over of the India innings was whether he would still have that extra pace with the red Dukes ball with which he has such little match experience. He soon answered it. Archer's first delivery, timed at 87.4mph, hurried the left-handed Jaiswal. His second, at 85.8mph, beat him. Advertisement Then came the big moment. That third ball moved down the 2.5m (8ft 2in) slope at Lord's and away from Jaiswal at such a speed, 89mph, that he could only steer it into the safe hands of Brook. Edged… And carried! JOFRA IS BACK! 🌪️ — England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 11, 2025 Cue those scenes of celebration, with Archer embarking on a run similar to that at the end of the super-over when he bowled England to World Cup final victory here this same week in 2019. This run was cut short when Archer threw himself into the arms of team-mate Shoaib Bashir, where he remained until the rest of an England side who have been so delighted to welcome him back caught up with them. There were high-fives, firstly for Brook, and congratulations, before the 30-year-old pointed up to the England dressing room in recognition of the support he has received. Next came the fastest delivery of the series so far, 93.3mph to new batter Karun Nair, and Archer maintained his speeds throughout an opening spell of five overs where he averaged 89.8mph — the third fastest new ball spell for England in Test cricket since 2006, behind only Andrew Flintoff and Steven Finn. Up in the media centre, the fastest Englishman of them all, Mark Wood — whose quickest spells have always come with an older ball — had the perfect view of his pace colleague while commentating for the BBC's Test Match Special radio show. 'Sometimes, sport throws up these wonderful scripts,' said Wood, who told The Athletic before the second Test of this series last week about his desperation to break the 100mph barrier when, he hopes, he returns from injury in time for the fifth and final Test at the end of this month. 'You can't write them, but some people write them themselves.' A post shared by We Are England Cricket (@englandcricket) We should not get too carried away. It was noticeable that Archer coaxed minimal movement away from the right-handed Indian batters. He averages 23.80 per Test wicket when bowling to left-handers, as opposed to 33.82 against those who are right-handed. And there was to be no further success for the Barbados-born bowler in his two further short spells on a slow pitch on the second day of an evenly-poised match which ended — a staggering 15 overs short because of dreadful over-rates — with India on 145 for three, still 242 behind. Advertisement But this was a significant step forward for a player who had insisted he was ready to return before now, texting 'Zim?' to England captain Ben Stokes in May in an attempt to force his selection for that month's one-off Test against Zimbabwe. England preferred to wait until Archer had made a County Championship appearance for Sussex, bowling 18 overs and taking one for 32, at Durham, and included him in the squad for that second match of this series at Edgbaston so he could acclimatise to a very different Test setup to the one he was last part of under Joe Root and Chris Silverwood in 2021. This time, it was Stokes who sent a text message to Archer, saying 'Ready?', to which the reply from a bowler with whom the England captain has maintained a close relationship over the past four years said simply: 'Been ready.' The Eric Hollies Stand at Edgbaston welcomed Archer back during that second Test when he walked around the boundary on 12th man duty, all standing to salute him and singing his name. 'He didn't know how to react,' smiled Stokes before this Test. 'But he loved it.' Now here was Archer, on the same ground where he not only enjoyed that super-over success with the white ball but then, just a couple of weeks later, made a dramatic Test debut, striking Australia's Steve Smith on the head with a delivery during one of the sport's great passages of play. How England will hope he can repeat that level of ferocity in the Ashes this winter. England will handle their precious asset more carefully now he is back. There will be no more Tests when he bowls 42 overs in a single innings, as he did in New Zealand in his first Test winter, when then captain Root said Archer had to 'learn to make each spell count'. Now Root is delighted for Archer. 'It's so exciting to see him back affecting games for England,' said Root, who completed his eighth hundred at Lord's off the first ball of the second day, and then took a world record 211th catch in Test cricket with a stunner to his left to dismiss Nair off Stokes. Advertisement 'It's great. The noise of the crowd and the pure joy everyone has of seeing him back in whites. He brings that X-factor to this attack and a different dynamic to what we've already got. It's like India turning to Jasprit Bumrah. It was great to see Jofra being so impactful and keeping his pace up.' Archer will be used in short, sharp spells from now on, but his biggest test will come if India bat on deep into the third day tomorrow and he needs to come back and put his body through a workload he has not known since those dark days in New Zealand. England are convinced he can take the strain and that he is back in the long-form game for good. And that would be wonderful news for them, their supporters, the health of the oldest and greatest form of the sport and for Archer himself. How he has earned a return that, for so long, had seemed beyond him. Click here to read more cricket stories on The Athletic.
