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At 18 years, she is already just the fifth Indian woman to 1000 T20I runs, and the youngest to do so in all of women’s cricket

S Sudarshanan08-Oct-2022Is it easy being Shafali Verma?She burst into the international scene in T20Is as a teenager in 2019, bringing with her a fresh, big-hitting ability unlike many in Indian women’s cricket. She made people sit up and take note every time she walked out to bat and almost single-handedly took India to the final of the T20 World Cup in 2020. After a longish break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, she resumed from where she left off in the three-match T20Is against South Africa, smashing a 26-ball half-century in the final match.In the 20 T20I knocks since then, Shafali has crossed 20 only five times – four of which were scores in the forties. The phase also saw her make her Test and ODI debut, including playing her maiden 50-overs Women’s World Cup earlier this year. She endured a tough tour of England last month, where she was dismissed in single digits four times out of six innings, including being castled in back-to-back ODIs by Kate Cross’ nipbackers.Related

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Did playing in multiple formats take a toll on Shafali? Was she torn between out-and-out attack and constructing a long innings? Did that dilemma creep into her T20 game and mess with her head?Ahead of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup, Shafali received the unequivocal backing of India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and she repaid the faith with an all-round show against Bangladesh.Shafali’s love for boundaries is an open secret; a wristily-flicked six over deep midwicket off left-arm fast bowler Fariha Trisna – who picked up a hat-trick during her T20I debut – truly saw her get going. With the deep midwicket fielder moving squarer following the shot, she heaved one to the left of the fielder for a one-bounce four before a cross-batted wallop beat long-on to her right. Soon after, she slinked down the track to belt left-arm spinner Nahida Akter over wide mid-off to end the powerplay on 26 off just 15 balls.Shafali was unafraid to move across the stumps and explore the arc between square leg and long-on. Deliveries like the juicy full toss from medium pacer Ritu Moni on the hips – which was nonchalantly flicked over deep square leg – also helped. It was not a flawless knock by any means; she faced 16 dots through her knock and had a tough time getting the experienced offspinner Salma Khatun and legspinner Fahima Khatun away.But that did not prevent her from getting to just to her fourth T20I half-century off 40 balls, the slowest of her career. She then followed it with her career-best T20I figures of 2 for 10, including the wicket of an on-song Nigar Sultana. It was another feather in her ever-growing, impressive cap, having stood in as a substitute wicket-keeper for Richa Ghosh on at least two occasions in the competition.At all of 18 years, Shafali is already only the fifth Indian woman to 1000 T20I runs, and the youngest to do so in all women’s matches. She also has hit the third-most sixes in T20Is for India and is only one behind Smriti Mandhana’s tally of 42.Being consistent is perhaps not her strongest suit. But she substitutes it with impactful knocks. She may get to scoring runs regularly. Or maybe not. And that’s why, perhaps it is not easy being Shafali Verma. But from the looks of it, it is quite fun being Shafali Verma.

There are no prizes for guessing what Celtic’s priority in the transfer window is likely to be in the coming days or weeks, as they look to add more quality to Brendan Rodgers’ squad.

The Hoops have already snapped up Ross Doohan, Kieran Tierney, Callum Osmand, Hayato Inamura, and Benjamin Nygren to bolster their options across the pitch.

However, Celtic are not done there and they are set to be in the market to add another winger to their squad, as they are about to lose one of their star forwards.

Nicolas Kuhn is reportedly set to undergo a medical with Como either today or on Tuesday ahead of a £17m switch from the Scottish giants this week.

The German forward’s exit will come as a blow for Rodgers, given what he produced in the 2024/25 campaign, but it also represents a masterclass by the club.

Celtic have played a masterclass with Nicolas Kuhn

The Scottish Premiership champions hit the jackpot when they swooped to sign the left-footed attacker from Rapid Vienna for a reported fee of £3m at the start of 2024.

Kuhn had a relatively slow start to life in Glasgow, with a return of two goals and two assists in 14 league games in the second half of that season, but his first six months in Scotland helped him to adjust to the country and the league.

That experience helped him to then hit the ground running in the 2024/25 campaign, as the 25-year-old star went on to become a key player for Rodgers.

The German attacker, who came through the youth set-ups at Leipzig and Bayern Munich, ended the season with a haul of 21 goals and 15 assists in 51 matches for the Hoops, which shows that he made a big impact in the final third for Celtic.

xG

0.46

Top 10%

Goals

0.62

Top 8%

Shots on target

1.30

Top 14%

xA

0.34

Top 10%

Assists

0.43

Top 10%

Chances created

2.49

Top 12%

As you can see in the table above, Kuhn ranked very highly among his positional peers in a host of key attacking metrics, which further illustrates the impact that he had on the team, particularly in the Premiership.

Celtic hit the jackpot with Kuhn because they turned a £3m signing into a Premiership superstar and are now set to make a £14m profit on him within 18 months.

Celtic eyeing deal for new winger

The Scottish giants could be on course to repeat the masterclass that they played with Nicolas Kuhn, as they are eyeing up a player from his former club.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

According to The Scottish Sun, Celtic have identified Rapid Vienna winger Isak Jansson as a potential replacement for Kuhn, as a player who can play on either side of the pitch.

The report claims that the Swedish forward is one of a number of attackers on the club’s radar as they look to add more quality to their frontline, amid the German’s proposed move to Como.

It adds that the 23-year-old dynamo, who was signed by Rapid Vienna to replace Kuhn, is valued at a fee of around £3m by the Austrian Bundesliga outfit.

However, it currently remains to be seen whether or not the Hoops are prepared to accelerate their pursuit of the right-footed star by offering that kind of fee for his services.

Why Jansson could be Kuhn 2.0

Despite being a right-footed winger who predominantly plays on the left flank, there are a lot of similarities between a potential deal for Jansson and the deal they completed for Kuhn in 2024.

For starters, a fee of £3m would be the exact same figure that they paid Rapid Vienna for the German sensation, which would leave plenty of room to make a healthy profit on him in the future if he follows in the left-footed ace’s footsteps at Parkhead.

The Swedish star, who was once hailed for his “beautiful” goal by ex-head coach Robert Klauß, could also be a Kuhn repeat for Celtic because, of course, he would arrive from the same club.

Jansson has caught the eye with some impressive performances in the Austrian top-flight for Rapid Vienna, just as the £17m-rated winger did before his move to Parkhead, which suggests that he could be an exciting addition to Rodgers’ squad this summer.

Appearances

22

16

Goals

7

2

Goals per game

0.3

0.1

Crosses per game

0.5

0.5

Big chances missed

2

8

Assists

2

5

Big chances created

5

11

As you can see in the table above, the right-footed attacker delivered nine goal contributions in 22 matches in the Bundesliga last season, two more than Kuhn managed in 16 games for Rapid Vienna before his switch to Scotland.

When you see the way that the German winger had adapted to life in the Premiership, as a scorer and a creator of goals, after thriving in Austria, Jansson’s performances for Rapid Vienna are incredibly exciting.

The Swedish star could aim to follow in Kuhn’s footsteps as another £3m winger to make the switch from Austria to Scotland to thrive in the final third as a forward who makes a big impact on a regular basis.

At the age of 23, the Celtic target would also arrive at Parkhead with plenty of time left on his side to develop and improve over the years to increase his output in front of goal, and his market value.

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Celtic have slapped a huge price tag on the head of one of their star players.

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Therefore, this is a signing that could make a lot of sense for the Hoops, despite not being a like-for-like replacement for Kuhn from a stylistic perspective, because of his quality and potential for the reported fee that would be needed.

They will only get better the more games they play, but finding games to play might prove a problem

Saurabh Somani in Lucknow30-Nov-2019Afghanistan are ranked No. 10 in Test cricket. The same in ODIs. Marginally better in T20Is at No. 8. West Indies are ranked 8, 9 and 10 in those formats respectively. When they play each other, you might think it’s more or less a contest of equals. It’s not.The ‘contest’ is most lively in the shortest format. As the overs grow, so does the gulf. That’s why, in the series gone by, West Indies won 3-0 in the ODIs and finished off the lone Test in short time: it took just two days and half a session.But given how young Afghanistan are in Test cricket, that’s to be expected. Unlike, say, in T20s, you can’t suddenly be parachuted into Test cricket and win, or even compete in matches because of natural ability. Test cricket demands discipline to a level that you cannot achieve unless you actually and imbibe it through repeated iterations.Since their debut in June 2018, Afghanistan have played just four Tests. Ireland and Zimbabwe have two each, but the established countries are all in double digits. Expecting any country to be a force in Test cricket with that sort of playing time is futile. Even after Jason Holder had surprisingly chosen to bowl first on a pitch that assisted spin from the first day, even after the Afghanistan top order carried the team to 84 for 1.

If you don’t score big runs against top teams, it does not matter however good a bowling line-up you haveRashid Khan

Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan was realistic about the path that remains to be travelled. “This is just the beginning in Test cricket for us and definitely, we will be struggling, especially in the longer format,” he said after the nine-wicket defeat against West Indies in Lucknow. “We have struggled in the ODIs as well.”In this Test, we had the best opportunity in the first innings to score some runs to put them under pressure. But again, it’s a matter of experience and we didn’t have enough. We got the start, we got the partnership initially, but then we just slowed down. In this format, once you get on the back foot against opposition like West Indies, they won’t let you get up again. That’s what happened with us as well.”Ibrahim Zadran defends one•AFPAfghanistan had a competent spin attack in Rashid himself, left-arm wristspinner Zahir Khan and debutant left-arm spinner Amir Hamza, but as Rashid pointed out, without runs on the board – Afghanistan got just 187 in the first innings – there was little the bowlers could do. Even in limited-overs cricket, Afghanistan’s strength has always been their bowling. In the cauldron of Test cricket, where you can’t always hit your way out of trouble, the batting hasn’t yet reached a level to consistently make first-innings totals that can give Afghanistan control”We need to work hard in the batting department when coming up against the big teams,” Rashid said. “If you don’t score big runs against top teams, it does not matter however good a bowling line-up you have, you will struggle. We did not have enough runs in the first innings, and that let them play freely and get the lead. Again, we did same mistakes in the second innings.”Holder, when asked what advice he would give Afghanistan, agreed that the batsmen needed to step up, but also felt they needed to develop a more rounded bowling attack. Even on a very spin-friendly Ekana Stadium pitch, West Indies benefited from the control Holder could exert at one end with an overall match economy rate of 1.81, while Rahkeem Cornwall spun the Afghan batsmen out.

I always remember a conversation I had with Clive Lloyd, and he would always say he only learned to play Test cricket after three yearsJason Holder

“I think they’ve got some really good players. They just need to understand the dynamics of Test cricket,” Holder said. “You learn it over a period of time. I always remember a conversation I had with Clive Lloyd, and he would always say he only learned to play Test cricket after three years. It takes time to get the hang of it.”I think they need to rely a bit more on their seamers. Over the month I’ve been here, they’ve got some quality seamers. They need to put more confidence in them and try to make a balanced attack. And then obviously their batters have to take responsibility to put runs on the board.”For Rashid, the long-term solution lay in a two-pronged approach – play more Test cricket and improve the first-class structure in Afghanistan.”As you know, practice makes perfect, and the more you practice in Test cricket, the better it is,” Rashid said. “If we were play them (West Indies) again in a Test match in a short time from now, we will know better what are the right things to do and what are the right options against them.”We need to play the longer format more — ODIs and Tests. The more we play, the better we will be. It can’t be something like you play one Test in a full year, and then you are waiting for the next one. That kind of momentum, the kind of experience and the rhythm you have in that game, that just goes away – if you play after a year. Let’s hope (we play more). It’s tough for us to get more Tests against big teams, but we are still trying our best to get as many as possible.”Jason Holder discusses his batting with coach Phil Simmons•CWI Media/Philip SpoonerGetting Test cricket against the bigger sides is the goal, though with Afghanistan and Ireland not part of the World Test Championship, it is difficult. Equally important, the finances of hosting a Test match don’t always work out in favour of several teams.Former Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell, who was one of the commentators for this Test and has been a long-time observer of Afghanistan cricket, reckoned that this game would have set back the Afghanistan Cricket Board by a considerable amount, with no revenues to show for it.The match wasn’t broadcast on television in India, even though it was played in Lucknow, with no takers for the rights. “It’s great that Afghanistan have got some more Test match playing experience, but with the costs involved, it’s difficult for teams like them to host Tests on a regular basis,” Campbell told ESPNcricinfo.It’s a challenge alright, but what Afghanistan can do is strengthen their first-class system. The Ahmad Shah Abdali four-day tournament is the main first-class competition, and Rashid felt it needed some investment and fine-tuning to come up to speed.”We need to work a lot on our first-class cricket. It is still struggling there,” Rashid said. “The quality is not as good as it should be, being a Test nation. Once we get the quality, the first-class structure, and stuff like that in place, then it will be easy for us to adjust to the longer format quickly. We should focus more on longer formats back home, like 50-over cricket and four-day cricket.”We are famous for T20s, people love T20s back home, but where we are struggling is the longer format. Improving in that comes from domestic cricket. Once we have a proper domestic structure for first-class cricket, we can be better in the longer formats in the future.”Given the difficulties of playing Test cricket regularly, that might well be Afghanistan’s best option for the near future.

It’s likely to impact the confidence of other teams due to tour Pakistan over the coming months

Danyal Rasool04-Mar-2021It’s difficult to overestimate the impact of Thursday’s dramatic developments for Pakistan cricket. The decision to indefinitely postpone the Pakistan Super League strikes at the heart of one of the most salient buds of optimism that had begun to pervade cricket in the country. It throws a T20 franchise competition that didn’t exist five years ago, and rose to become arguably the world’s second-most valuable league of its kind, into some jeopardy; the possibility, at least, that this season may never be completed looks the likeliest scenario.Since Fawad Ahmed tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week, organisers scrambled to try and get a potential outbreak under control, but it was already too late. Further cases were discovered at several different franchises, meaning the league wasn’t just dealing with one outbreak, but any number of them. The decision, taken late on Wednesday to vaccinate all participants, in the desperate hope it would stop the outbreak in its track, looked neither feasible nor scientific; vaccination takes weeks to have an impact. On Thursday morning, when further cases at various franchises turned up, the inevitable happened: the league was off.Compared to last year’s postponement when the pandemic first hit, this is different – and by an order of magnitude – more damaging on two counts. To the PCB’s credibility as a board that can responsibly organise cricket during a pandemic, and to the chances of this season ever being completed. Little was known about the virus when one player displayed symptoms and tested positive last year, and even less about the measures necessary to prevent an outbreak. Cricket across most of the world was being called off, and the PCB was desperately trying to get through the final few games of 2020’s season, even getting rid of the playoffs to try and shave a few days off the competition’s length. Even when the season had to be postponed, there was an inevitability it would be back on at some point; there were only four games remaining, and with most teams unable to play almost any cricket due to global restrictions, there would always be time to carve out a week-long window.Related

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There will be lesser sympathy, and even fewer excuses, this time. PCB CEO Wasim Khan said on Thursday the players and franchises needed to take individual responsibility, but expect that responsibility to be passed around between the league, the franchises, the officials and the board over the coming days. It has been observed throughout the world that without effective centralised standard operating procedures that are enforced, cracks invariably appear. For a virus that spreads collectively through populations, quixotic expectations of individual responsibility don’t cut it.The PCB will have had the best part of nine months to analyse how the likes of England, India, the UAE and New Zealand pulled off extended cricket events in their countries without much of a hitch, and cautionary tales with regards to how England’s tour of South Africa last year panned out. They will have had the chance to consult doctors, pandemic experts and sports organisers. Test and tracing procedures will have been fine-tuned, isolation protocols perfected. With the experiences of others who have had success in staging complex, lengthy cricket tours, the PCB will have backed themselves to possess the professionalism and expertise to follow in those footsteps.With PSL 2021 indefinitely postponed, it’s time for the broadcasters to pack their equipment up•Getty ImagesThe failure to do that is likely to impact the confidence of other boards whose cricket teams are due to tour Pakistan over the coming months. There was great excitement in Pakistan over a two-match T20I series England were due to play just before the T20 World Cup. Whether they opt to do that now, and potentially expose their players days before the start of the world’s biggest T20 event is a much bigger doubt, now.A New Zealand tour later this year was also pencilled in, but that country’s confidence in Pakistan’s pandemic protocols was already at a low following the eventful – and at times bitter – three weeks Pakistan spent in quarantine in New Zealand, leading to the Director General of Health berating the side for violating safety protocols, and veiled threats of deportation. What has transpired in the PSL over the past few weeks is unlikely to have bolstered confidence that Pakistan has learned lessons from what happened there.With a congested international window coming up that stretches right through to next year’s PSL, it isn’t yet obvious when the PCB can find the time, not to mention the availability, of most of their star foreign players to viably conduct this tournament. The T20 World Cup in October and November means the window that was used last year doesn’t exist.Another possible avenue to go down is to conduct the remainder of the competition in May. That has the considerable disadvantage of clashing with the latter stages of the Indian Premier League, with which no T20 competition can currently compete for eyeballs and financial might. However, fewer than ten players who are part of the PSL are also scheduled to play the IPL, meaning if the PCB went down that route, player unavailability might not be as significant a concern as at first it appears.Laughed at, even as a concept, five years ago, because Pakistan weren’t able to play these matches in front of its home crowd, the PSL survived those nascent years, and games gradually trickled their way back to Pakistan. Last year, with the entire league played in Pakistan to overflowing crowds, it looked like fate had been kind, even to Pakistan, of all countries. Unbeknownst to all involved, an incipient threat, one far more potent than security concerns or TV viewership figures, was awakening from its slumber. Enter the Covid-19 pandemic.Being compelled to organise the latter stages of last season – and then played in front of no crowds in Pakistan – was a cruel twist of fate for a league whose for returning to Pakistan was to avoid empty stadia. Following that, the PCB established what it believed were stringent security protocols, and conducted its fullest home season in over a decade, albeit not without some alarm bells. It looked like the PSL would pass off with just a few problems, but little could be further from the truth.