Author: Bharath Ramaraj

“What are those other things?” quipped India captain Suryakumar Yadav in a lighthearted tone to a question that started with the following line: You did well with the bat and other things. He further replied with a smile, “Yes, we did well with the ball too.” In a nutshell, he was having a lighthearted chat with the aforesaid journalist for saying, ‘other things’. The above-mentioned paragraph in a pre-match presser ahead of the India-Pakistan Asia Cup game says everything that you want to know of Suryakumar’s good-humoured nature. On a cricket field, the way the India captain wields the willow,…

Roughly around a year ago, Aamir Kaleem, the veteran Oman cricketer, was cheering for the country’s U-19 boys. With Kaleem as the coach, the duo of Nitish Nadendla and Saumya Sampat had put on sterling performances with the bat and ball to steer Oman to a crushing 100-run victory over Hong Kong in the U-19, Division 2 World Cup qualifiers. At that juncture of his career, Kaleem hadn’t taken part in a T20I for more than two years. But destiny had something else in store for the all-rounder. Just before the Emerging Asia Cup in Oman, a host of national…

Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai On February 4, 2001, when Australia took on Zimbabwe in an ODI, Suryakumar Yadav might have been studying for his fifth standard final exams. It was so long back that even the current Indian head coach, Gautam Gambhir, hadn’t made his Test debut. Despite all that, there is a connecting point between the India-Oman T20I encounter played in the 2025 Asia Cup and that game which was held at the WACA. Both India and Australia experimented with their batting line-ups. With Australia having already qualified for the tri-series final, the two lynchpins – Mark and Steve…

Despite Oman giving India a scare, they slipped to a 21-run loss in an Asia Cup game in Abu Dhabi on Friday. Hammad Mirza (51) and Aamir Kaleem (64) were the cornerstones of Oman’s fightback as they ended up on 167 in a chase of 189. With this victory, India have won all their three games in the group phase of the tournament. It took a brilliant catch by Hardik Pandya in the 18th over at fine leg to settle the nerves in the Indian camp. He moved to his right and showed very good balance to stay inside the…

Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai Here’s an imaginary scenario – India need 14 off three deliveries in the Asia Cup final with Varun Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav at the crease. You may counter that by saying that such a twist in the plot seems unlikely, considering how formidable India look on paper. But in the fast-paced world of T20 cricket, there is still an element of unpredictability. The Indian management, for one, seem to be considering the different possibilities. On a humid Thursday night, almost all of India’s lower-order batters practiced range hitting in the nets – from Varun to Arshdeep…

Over the last couple of months, Kuldeep Yadav, one of India’s premier spinners, might have wondered whether he had lost his rhythm. With India looking to balance the side with an all-rounder, Kuldeep wasn’t picked for the England Tests. He also couldn’t find his mojo in the one Duleep Trophy game that he played before the 2025 Asia Cup. However, in both the Asia Cup games, he has befuddled the batters with his bagful of tricks. The resultant outcome is that he has picked seven wickets. Ahead of India’s final fixture of the group phase against Oman, this was what…

Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai “First of all, this is not our responsibility or our work,” Muhammad Waseem, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) skipper said after the completion of their Asia Cup encounter against Pakistan. “We were focusing on our game. We came here to play the game, and we did that.” The UAE skipper’s answer about Pakistan’s players not arriving at the ground at the scheduled time was short but concise. Amid all the question marks about Andy Pycroft’s continuation as the match referee in the 2025 Asia Cup, and whether Pakistan would boycott the tournament, one couldn’t help but…

Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai Somewhere in October 2021, yours truly ended up watching Daniel Craig’s James Bond movie – No Time To Die. Roughly four years later, while covering the plots and subplots of whether the Pakistan team would arrive at the Dubai International Stadium, it just made you remember this very movie. For a time, it seemed like the Pakistan players would skip their Asia Cup game against the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As per sources, at least some of Pakistan’s players had their kit bags ready as they geared up for their crucial match. Minutes later,…

Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai This is an interesting observation about Afghanistan in the shortest format of the game – They have only beaten sides like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea since the start of December 2023 while chasing down a target. Just scratch the surface further and you will unearth one more fact – They have also lost to teams like Ireland and the UAE while pursuing a target of 150 or more. In other words, chasing targets, especially in excess of 150, has become an Achilles’ heel for the Afghanistan. So, it shouldn’t come…

Bharath Ramaraj Runs: 160 Strike rate: 197.53 Average: 40 The above-mentioned impressive numbers are that of Jitesh Sharma in the slog overs in IPL 2025. Even in the pressure-cooker final game of that tournament, Jitesh cracked an invaluable 10-ball 24. And when Royal Challengers Bengaluru needed someone to play an explosive innings in the crucial match versus Lucknow Super Giants, Jitesh’s 33-ball 85 turned out to be a cornerstone of his franchise’s memorable victory. But what is the relevance of all those numbers? After all, it has been more than three months since the completion of the IPL. The…