Author: Boria Majumdar

India had fought back wonderfully well with Dhruv Jurel playing a masterclass. Despite his brilliance, England still had a 46-run lead. With the pitch deteriorating and balls turning and keeping low, that lead was a handy one. India needed early wickets to stay in the contest. Come in, Ravi Ashwin. Against an opening pair that has been aggressive all through the series, Ashwin needed to stay patient. Back his strengths and absorb the early pressure. Ben Duckett hit two early boundaries and the intent was clear. England wanted to counterattack and extend the lead as quickly as possible. A good…

India is currently a land of sports leagues. Almost every sport has one to its name. But the interesting thing is that very few work. Or rather, very few are sustainable and have commercial traction. While the IPL is the mother of all leagues and is hugely successful, the surprise entrant at number two is the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), which, may I say, has consistently held its own over a decade of its existence. With yet another season about to reach the home stretch, it is clearly a story worth documenting. Kabaddi has forever been a sport with deep…

In a competitive sports market, the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is up against with the Ranchi Test match for newsprint. With India 2-1 ahead and after an intense first day’s action, you needed something spectacular from the inaugural WPL encounter to upstage the Test match. And with Sajana Sajeevan, you got exactly that. With five needed off the last ball, and an uncapped Indian batter against a seasoned pro in Alice Capsey. What were the chances that she would hit it for a six? Maybe one in hundred? And yet, that was what she did. In doing so, she created…

All was going well for England at the end of the first Test. From the jaws of defeat, they had managed to snatch an incredible victory, and all of it was ascribed to Bazball. The truth was that India played badly. The target of 230 was chaseable, and it was more a case of India losing the match than England winning it. But in sport, it is winner takes all. And all of a sudden, the England team could do no wrong. Now, the picture is radically different. Against a depleted India, missing five of their key players, England had…

Rishabh Pant is all set for an IPL return. While he may not keep wicket just yet, despite posting a video of him getting ready behind the stumps, he is expected to bat and captain the Delhi Capitals in the IPL. This, may I say, is the best news for Indian cricket. No Indian keeper, and I say this keeping even the legendary MS Dhoni in mind, has had the kind of impact Pant had in Test cricket. Pant is a once-in-a-generation cricketer. When you read the team sheet and you see Rishabh Pant at No. 7, there is a…

The piece starts with an announcement: Sania Mirza joins the list of stellar speakers at the Trailblazers Conclave 2.0 presented by Tata Steel, on March 7-8 at ITC Royal Bengal in Kolkata. She was much like Aamir Khan’s character in Three Idiots. A once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon who came as a breath of fresh air for Indian tennis. And that’s what begs the question, how did Sania happen? What made Sania ‘The Sania’? How could a middle-class family from Hyderabad with no background in elite sport produce a champion like her? What’s the backstory? Here’s Sania. “Like I have alluded to in…

Bazball. The hype around it has been surreal in recent times. It is as if by being aggressive with both bat and ball, irrespective of the match situation, England will blow the opposition away. The approach, as expected, is condition agnostic. The win in the first Test match in Hyderabad had only added to the Bazball narrative and to the aura around it. Did it push the players to a degree of brazenness? Isn’t there a very thin line between bravado and silliness? Playing a reverse scoop at 224-2 can’t be anything but brazenness. It is a shot that is…

Should India rest Jasprit Bumrah for the Ranchi Test? Or better still, can India afford to do so? With half the side already out due to injury or for personal reasons, India, all of a sudden, look vulnerable even in home conditions. And if we were to pinpoint one reason as to why and how India were able to make it back in Vizag after the shock defeat in Hyderabad, it was the genius of Bumrah. Not taking anything away from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, but it was Bumrah who was the difference between the two teams. And it…

A captain being as good as his team is the ultimate cliche. In cricket, it is the team management that is perhaps as good as the players combined. If the team does well, the captain and the coach looks good, and vice versa. Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid got a lot of flak in the aftermath of the World Cup, and some of it was deserved. They made the mistake of not playing R Ashwin in the WTC final, and were criticised for it. They made the mistake of opening the bowling with Mohammed Shami in the World Cup final…

It was a little over an hour after India had won. Social media was on overdrive and each one who is a fan of Indian badminton was celebrating. That was when Pullela Gopichand called back after seeing the messages. He was trying to sound calm but clearly, he was finding it hard to hide his excitement. “Could this be the Thomas Cup moment for women’s badminton?” I asked. There was a brief pause before he answered. “It is a huge moment for the sport,” said Gopi. “For Sindhu to start like that, and then Gayatri and Treesa playing a fantastic…