Author: Bharath Ramaraj

Here’s a list of good and great all-rounders who have enriched Test cricket with their performances – Garry Sobers, Imran Khan, Keith Miller, Aubrey Faulkner, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee, Shaun Pollock, Mike Procter, Jacques Kallis, Ben Stokes, Shakib Al Hasan and many more. The idea behind the list is to not pit them against each other, but to ram home the point that possessing an all-rounder balances the side. It gives you an option to play five bowlers, which in turn helps the team complete one of the key tasks in the longest format – Pick 20 wickets…

By Bharath Ramaraj When a top sportsperson hangs up his spiked boots, we delve deeper into his stats and records. We also try to excavate information about some of the athlete’s best performances. The idea behind it is to gauge where does he or she rank among the pantheon of greats. When Virat Kohli, the biggest brand in the cricketing landscape quit Test cricket, obviously, a lot of time was spent on dissecting his numbers. But there is more to Kohli than just 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85 and 30 hundreds. It is about how legions of fans…

David Warner and Usman Khawaja castled by Josh Tongue in the 2023 Ashes Test at Lord’s – Two deliveries that would echo in the minds of the fast bowler even after he retires from the game and sits on a rocking chair to reminisce old memories. Those two peaches also tell something about Tongue’s immense potential. While reading through the above-mentioned paragraph, a question might arise in your mind – If Tongue has so much promise, then why has he played a mere two Tests in an 8-year first-class career? The simple reason for that is a spate of injuries. …

Bharath Ramaraj What is the blueprint to win Test matches in South Africa, England, Australia and New Zealand? Yes, having a batting unit that can handle alien climes is important. Even more significant is to have a pace attack with variety. So, while considering the prevailing conditions in England, what could be India’s pace arsenal for the forthcoming England tour? At Revportz, we list out the possible Indian pace battery for the Test series. Jasprit Bumrah – It is a foregone conclusion that the Indian spearhead is a guaranteed starter. The ace fast bowler has all the tricks up…

For a while, in the Punjab Kings-Delhi Capitals game played in Dharamshala, Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya seemed to be once again in a mood to power Punjab Kings to a sizeable total. By the completion of six overs, PBKS had motored along to 69 and they were 122 for the loss of one wicket at the 10-over mark. But there was something else brewing in the skies of Northern India – India-Pakistan border tensions. At 9.29 PM, the match was called off due to a power outage. The larger context being the match was abandoned as a precautionary measure. …

Last-ball thriller. Rain stoppages. Fours, sixes and a wicket in the final over, alongside a collapse. The Gujarat Titans-Mumbai Indians game had all that that you expect from Indian Premier League – action, drama and entertainment. It was T20 cricket at its very best. Amid the festive atmosphere, the two skippers – Hardik Pandya and Shubman Gill – would have completely different emotions. For the Gill-led side, this victory should boost their confidence multi-fold. They took one step closer to finishing in the top two positions in the league table. This victory, in front of a sea of blue at…

Perhaps Pat Cummins has an automatic switch fitted in his brain, and he turns it on during a crunch game. Granted that Sunrisers Hyderabad went into the game against Delhi Capitals (DC) with only a slim chance of qualifying for the playoffs. However, when Cummins was ripping through DC, that window of opportunity seemed bigger than what it was in reality. The first ball itself told you everything that you would want to know about Cummins’ relentless bowling. It was a delivery that pitched on a good length and moved away just enough to catch the edge of Karun Nair’s…

The following words can be used to describe Rishabh Pant’s dismissal against Punjab Kings in the 2025 Indian Premier League – His willow ended up somewhere at square leg, and the ball in Shashank Singh’s hands at deep point. Basically, the bat finished up some 40 yards away from the fielding position where Shashank took the catch. As Pant looked heavenwards, muttered a few words to himself and trudged back to the pavilion, all one could think of was his poor form in the ongoing IPL – 128 runs at an average of 12.80, and at a strike rate of…

Who is Yash Dayal? The left-arm pace bowler who gave away 30 runs in a single over while bowling to Rinku Singh in the 2023 IPL game. But that point is juxtaposed by Dayal’s last-over heroics over two Indian Premier League seasons, where he stopped MS Dhoni from taking his side home. The first one of them came at the Chinnaswamy stadium on May 18, 2024, leading to wild celebrations among Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s fans. Roughly a year later, he repeated his heroics at the same stadium. Interestingly, that one over in the just concluded RCB-CSK game serves as…

Just scroll through the top four run-getters of the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) and you will notice an interesting pattern – Sai Sudharsan (504 runs), Jos Buttler (470 runs) and Shubman Gill (465 runs) all belong to the same side. All three of them happen to bat in the top order for the Gujarat Titans (GT). Now, one can envisage why GT continue to find themselves in the upper rungs of the season’s IPL table. A little more number-crunching helps understand their importance to the side: In every single IPL game this season, at least one of the…