Author: Boria Majumdar

February 2017, and experts across the world said Australia would be a walk in the park for Virat Kohli and his men. India at home looked invincible and an Australian team with no great slow-bowling pedigree wouldn’t be able to stand up to them. But against all odds, Australia did. Rather, Steve Smith did. A match-winning hundred in Pune, and all of a sudden, it was a very different series. Smith carried on, and so did Australia. He was leading from the front, and the positive energy rubbed off on Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Peter Handscomb and many others in…

He came in when the score was 76 for 3. The game could have gone either way, and India had their tails up having picked up Marnus Labuschagne just after lunch. Both David Warner and Labuschagne had either side of the interval, and that was just what India needed after winning the toss. One more wicket, and the middle order would have had to face the music much earlier than expected. Add to the context the fact that four years earlier, in 2019, Travis Head was dropped from the Ashes Test at The Oval in rather demoralising circumstances, with the…

It was one of the best Wimbledon finals in history. Andy Roddick threw everything he had at Roger Federer and played the match of his life in the 2009 final. And yet he ended up second-best. Roddick’s tears at the prize-giving ceremony resonated with every member of the audience. Here was a champion who had done the sport proud. He had fought, and stayed true, but was eventually outclassed in a hard-fought final by perhaps the greatest to have played the sport. Roddick wasn’t disgraced. His quest continued. There are others like Roddick. Ivan Lendl, one of the greatest of…

It was sometime in August 2019, and the scars from the World Cup semi-final defeat were still raw. India were in the West Indies for a Test series, and Virat Kohli was eyeing a new start. “I had this feeling there would come a World Cup game where I would have an opportunity to steer a run chase and take India over the line,” he had said to me. “The New Zealand match was the perfect set up. But maybe, it was my ego talking.” In that very conversation, he said that the newly launched World Test Championship would soon…

The one wicket that most helped India win the 2020-21 series in Australia was that of Steve Smith. The best Test batsman of his generation, Smith has scored multiple hundreds against India, and could yet again be the defining wicket in the World Test Championship final. Does India have a plan? Can Rahul Dravid do a Ravi Shastri, and Paras Mhambrey a Bharat Arun? Can Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, or R Ashwin stop Smith at The Oval? How did Shastri do it in 2021? How did Ajinkya Rahane implement the plan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)? “Operation Smith” is…

It was the first time I was meeting Rohit Sharma since that fateful day in Manchester in July 2019, and it was expected that the conversation would turn to the World Cup at some point. “The five hundreds really don’t mean much anymore,” Rohit said in a very matter-of-fact manner. “Personally, it was a great achievement but when you are playing a team sport, it is never about personal milestones. When I reached home after the World Cup and everyone was congratulating me for the hundreds, I can very honestly tell you I did not feel any elation. The real…

The focus is clearly on Mohammed Shami. More so in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah. With Mohammed Siraj for company, Shami will have to lead the Indian attack at The Oval, and much will depend on him picking wickets and pushing Australia back. Shami, every cricket fan would agree, has all the skill required to do so. He has pace and can get serious movement up front. He can also bowl with the old ball, and has great control over line and length. And with The Oval offering bounce, conditions will certainly suit Shami’s style of bowling. “Mohammed Shami is…

We had previewed the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February 2023, and the plan was always to do the same for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. And speaking to Gideon Haigh on cricket is always welcome. One of the finest writers on the game, Haigh is also one of its better thinkers. Extracts from the conversation: Boria: Two months of IPL. Do you think the Indians go into the WTC final at a disadvantage as a result? Gideon: No, I don’t think so. Take the example of Cameron Green. I think he has benefitted immensely from the IPL. Playing under pressure…

The cricket world called him a magician. He could do anything with the cricket ball. But the only spin he couldn’t control was the spin of life. A man of incredible talent, Shane Warne was born blessed. He could do unimaginable things with the ball on the field. Win games and stun opponents. Bowl the Ball of the Century, and win Australia many a match single-handedly. And 30 years ago today, he bowled one of the those balls that will forever be talked about in the annals of world cricket. You can still decode the delivery frame by frame. Warne…

In a candid conversation which lasted an hour, Greg Chappell answered many questions relating to the World Test Championship (WTC) final. In this, the second part of the conversation, he addressed the unique challenges of playing Test cricket in England in June, and the difficulties that players on both sides might face when they switch to the red ball after two months of playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). You can read the first part of the chat here. Boria: In 2021, India got to England on the back of half a season of IPL and a Covid-19 lockdown. New…