Author: Atreyo Mukhopadhyay

Restricted by rain but getting most things right before and after those breaks, India moved to a position of strength in the second and final Test against West Indies. The visiting side, looking for a 2-0 series sweep, set the home team a target of 365 to win and had to wait for success in the second innings. Once Ravichandran Ashwin got Kraigg Brathwaite and Kirk McKenzie in successive overs, India were in control. With West Indies on 76-2 at stumps, India’s biggest worry on the fifth day would be the forecast of rain. Having lost a few hours to…

Two rain delays, coupled with some resilient albeit slow batting by West Indies, kept India from taking a firm grip on the third day of the second and final Test. The home team looked hell-bent on survival even if it meant scoring at a snail’s place. The lifeless surface played its part, offering little assistance to the bowlers, apart from some reverse swing and turn from the rough in the latter part of the day. Proceedings were dull, with the ultra-cautious nature of the home team batters making things painstaking at times. Resuming at 86-1, they added 143 more in…

For the first time in this series, India faced some resistance from the West Indies batters. Kraigg Brathwaite (37 not out) and Taegnarine Chanderpaul (33) were not dominating, but dogged, and helped their team to get off to a steady start in response to the visiting side’s 438. The opening partnership of 71 runs took West Indies to 86-1at stumps on Day 2 of the second and final Test. The highest partnership for Brathwaite’s team in the first Test was just 41. The highlight from an Indian point of view on a rather uneventful day was Virat Kohli’s 29th Test…

In a tale of three sessions, India ended the opening day of the second and final Test against West Indies the better placed of the two sides. India won the pre-lunch and post-tea periods at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain. West Indies made a strong comeback in the second session, taking four wickets, but were not as effective before and after that. India would have expected to end the day on a stronger note following an opening partnership of 139 between Rohit Sharma (80) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (57). West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite’s decision to field with…

The worst part of the ethnic violence in Manipur is that the situation is getting worse. The unrest, which started on May 3, has claimed over a hundred lives, destroyed scores of houses and left a few thousand homeless. And the toll keeps rising as attacks on properties and human lives continue unabated. Life in the state has come to a standstill and people are living in fear. A fallout of this brutal conflict between the Meitei community and the Kuki tribe has been an abrupt and prolonged halt on normal activities. Not that the demands of either side are…

Is there anyone in the Indian team ultra-charged to excel in the second and final Test against the West Indies? The opposition outplayed in the first Test, the entire team will be keen to take maximum points from its first series in the new World Test Championship cycle. A couple of batters, who did not get runs, will also be giving it their best, like the fast bowlers who did not get many overs in Dominica. With them, yearning to do something notable will be Ishan Kishan. Of the three debutants from the two sides in the series opener, he…

Should India send its men’s football team to the Asian Games? The question has started doing the rounds. Going by sports ministry rules, individuals or teams get the clearance if they are in the top-8 in continental rankings. Exceptions are made in special cases. There is another way, if the federation concerned sends its players on a ‘no cost to the government basis’. As far as the football team goes, it has achieved success of late, against some ordinary teams and some good yet lower-ranked sides like Lebanon and Kuwait. After many years, India are back in the top-100 in…

Their careers have followed a common path so far. Both shone at the U-19 World Cup — Prithvi Shaw in 2018 Yashasvi Jaiswal in 2020 — and got into the Mumbai side at the age of 18. Success continued to chase them and after some heavy scoring that turned many a head, they made it to the Test team as instant hits in domestic cricket. The similarities have increased, in an eye-catching manner. Like Shaw against the West Indies in Rajkot in October 2018, Jaiswal made a century on Test debut against the same team in Roseau in Dominica last…

The term ‘home advantage’ is almost as old as the game of cricket. It means the host team tuning conditions to its strengths. Mostly, it’s about preparing pitches the visiting side is uncomfortable with. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has imposed sanctions on too much of doctoring of conditions, but home advantage remains everywhere, in varying degrees. It seems that in the guiding manual of the shoddily run West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), ‘home advantage’ does not exist. Else, why on earth would they roll out a slow surface with assistance for spinners and precious little for the quicker bowlers!…

It’s called Test cricket for a reason. It tests the different facets of a player, like skill set, temperament, mental makeup, ability to adapt and play according to the situation. Not against the best attack in the world, Yashasvi Jaiswal ticked a few vital boxes while becoming the 17th Indian to score a century on Test debut and seventh to achieve the mark away from home. Jasiwal’s appetite for runs is well known. He had been piling them up with clockwork regularity since the junior level. The graduation into the senior league was seamless and he has scored heavily in…