India lead England 2-0 in the T20I series as National Team players return to Ranji Trophy

[00:00:08] Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Edges & Sledges Cricket Podcast. I am your host Ashwin, I'm joined by DJ. DJ, late evening for you. I know there's been a lot going on. We shared last week the phenomenal news of your newborn addition to the family, but also tomorrow becomes your first day back to work. So I know if you're seeing a little bit more white in DJ's beard and stuff, it's the readiness to go back to work. But how you been doing man? How's the last week been?

[00:00:36] I'm great man, thank you for asking. Of course my paternity leave from Edges & Sledges was shorter than my law firm paternity leave so I'll be back at work. In fairness, we offered you not to do these episodes. You wanted to be here. You do this because you love it. Fair enough. Yeah, things going well. Enjoying the T20s. I have to say after the kind of downcast mood that followed the

[00:01:05] Australia tour, it's almost a totally different setup. I think it would probably only Washington, Nitish are the common factors there. And Nitish is out, so yeah. Yeah, so it's been refreshing watching this and we had a thriller as well, so we'll talk all about that. No, it's been good fun. Yeah, so really, I mean, the only major news in the world of cricket is the England versus India T20s. And then there has been some action after all the conversation about having our

[00:01:33] mainstays, our test players go back and play Ranji. There has been some action. It hasn't necessarily been good for all of them, but we'll talk a little bit about that in the second half of the show. So DJ, why don't we start with the T20s? India versus England, five match series, two matches done. First in Kolkata, second in Chennai. Both grounds and cities that I've seen so much, that are big T20 cities now, right? Because of all the franchises in both these cities. But

[00:02:00] India leads 2-0. So I guess the second one was a little bit of a humdinger, but going off the bat, England being a good T20 side, this T20 team, which looks different to the team that played the World Cup, we would take 2-0 to start with, right? Yeah, 100% you would. There's already been a bit of controversy because every England tour always comes with a little bit of controversy. And there was that comment by Harry Brooke. But maybe we should talk about like,

[00:02:30] what went well, Varun Chakravarti and Abhishek Sharma and stuff. We shouldn't forget to talk about the smog comment, which was frankly quite ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, because there's no real smog in Chennai. He still didn't play well. So anyway, let's talk about it. The first match was in Kolkata. England bats first. I mean, listen, that's what I'm saying. India, you expect India to win at home,

[00:02:56] but a T20 is a T20. England's an amazing side. You go down the England T20 list, by the way, and you realize probably more than any other country, Australia probably comes close, probably more than any other country. These guys play in India. They play the IPLs like Salt, Butler, Brooke, Livingston, Jafra. And then you start getting bowlers, maybe a little less. So, many of these guys have played so much IPL cricket. And still, by the way, on a Kolkata track,

[00:03:24] 132 all out and India chased it down in 12 and a half overs. I mean, first, let's start with Arshdeep, right? Varun talked a little bit on the show about, listen, you need to start grooming him more for the Champions Trophy to be that left-arm option. He is a formidable white ball bowler. We will come a little bit later to his batting, which you were making fun of before we started recording. But yeah, talk to me about that. I mean, the first, in the third ball of the match,

[00:03:52] if you can get Phil Salt out and then your second over in the spell, you get Ben Duckett. I mean, that's a pretty great start and set you up. Although Josh Butler played great, he really set up the game for Team India, right? Yeah. I mean, Arshdeep was quick, a bit of bounce, bowled a couple of short ones. Yeah, Salt Philman, as Varun likes to call him, was all over the place. So, I don't know why you couldn't just call him Phil Salt. I just couldn't figure it out. Hilarious.

[00:04:20] Well, first he started with Phil Saltman and then it became Salt. Salt Philman. I hope among the baby names you were considering, Salt was one of them. No, but yeah, it was a great start. I think they took a wicket in the first over in both T20s. Arshdeep is the highest wicket taker for India in T20s now. I think for any team, the stat popped up on the screen, which was like, he's the highest

[00:04:49] wicket taker for any team in T20s in the last two or three years. And then there was some caveat because I imagine they're not including the Canadian Premier League and like some of these junky little franchise, international super league or whatever it's called. So, I think it's probably from major teams, right? Including NPLs and international. But yeah. No, but his resurgence, his emergence, I shouldn't say resurgence, has been incredible. He was kind of a death bowler who bowled some slower ones for Punjab, right?

[00:05:18] And he got Andrew Russell out a few years ago. That's where he started. But to have gone from there to being a top contender for one of the spots in the T20, well, not really. I think he walks into the T20 side and a contender for the spot in the ODI side, probably pushing for a spot in the test side at some point. We might give him a debut. I don't know. But he's worked on his game incredibly. I mean, he's come on leaps and bounds.

[00:05:48] It's that development that Varun talked about, I think, in one of the episodes that I missed. But it's like, Siraj hasn't developed. You can see the development in Arshtip's game, how hard he's worked on his bowling. He's got swing, he's got seam, he's got a slower one. I mean, he strikes almost... It's super regular. It's almost a given that Arshtip's going to get you a couple of early wickets. I even remember back in the 23 World Cup, T20, I think he got

[00:06:16] Baba Razam out in that Pakistan game. So, yeah, I mean, he strikes regularly up front with that new white ball and it's been a great factor in contributing to Indian success. Yeah, I mean, the only specialist quick, right? Playing, of course, they're banking on Hardik in a ground like Kolkata to bowl four full overs. And then they did actually have Nitish Reddy in the side, didn't bowl in this game. He's ended up getting a strain that has ruled

[00:06:44] him out of the entire series. Now he missed the second game. But Hardik bowled four. I mean, got taken to the cleaners a little bit, did end up getting a couple of late wickets, but Joss Butler really went after him. But Arshtip finishes the game with four overs, two for 17. And then the two of the spinners finished, so Varun and Akshar, finished with five for 45 in their eight overs. I mean, just a tremendous spell. I mean, when your team only makes 132 and gets all

[00:07:09] out in a T20, you know it hasn't been a great day out. But talk to me about Varun Chakravarti's spell as well, right? He's blown kind of hard and cold. He has become, I want to say, one of the, probably the second spin name on the team sheet in T20s now. But it's just great to see him doing well, right? He had that variation. He had that mystery sort of angle to him that made him the force that he became once. And then after, yeah, after losing it a little, it was nice to see it

[00:07:39] back, right? Great wicket. Also picked up, of course, Harry Brook as his first victim, which I know you want to talk about as well. No, it was great. And he has had a resurgence in the last 12 months. I think the Sri Lanka series was really good for him. He picked up a bunch of wickets there. He's got that overspin drifting back into the right-hander. It goes a lot through the gate. And that's how he got Harry Brook in the first game. He got Liam Livingston that way in the first game, I think in consecutive balls. There were a couple of balls between them. And then he got Harry Brook like that in the

[00:08:08] second game as well. And it was like, you've seen this before, how are you not able to play it? But where he wasn't effective in those conditions in the 21 World Cup, which is when he faded away. Remember the T20 World Cup in 21, which India got knocked out without qualifying for the semis. He's just gone back. He's worked on his game. I think Gambhir being the coach of KKR and backing him for the India side has helped. Maybe he feels more comfortable now.

[00:08:39] But no, he's really a force to be reckoned with. And you can see that he gives the ball some overspin and it kind of seams back in almost sometimes. It's kind of great to watch. It's not really a mystery spin in that we don't know which way it's going, but I guess it's the degrees of spin that come with it. And Chakra has become a mainstay of this T20 side. It's good to see. Yeah, absolutely love it. I mean, it was great to see. It was interesting to see this T20 side that

[00:09:09] has structurally become so reliant on having multiple all-rounders, bold, five bowlers, each bold a full spell of four overs. So I was kind of refreshed to see that in the first game. And then DJ, as one part of Heddy Shake did so many times in the IPL, Abhishek Sharma just came out and went ballistic. I mean, eight sixes. That's great. High fours. Sanju Samson opened with him. Sky came and it actually got out for a first baller

[00:09:39] against Jofra. And, or not first baller, third baller, but a duck. And then Tillac finished it off. And Tillac, we will talk about in the second game, is still undefeated after a series of games. But man, how great was Abhishek Sharma? I mean, it looks like, to use the commentator's cliche, the ball looks like a watermelon to him or whatever. He's just seeing it so pure and just looks like he gets under it early. No, it was great to watch. I mean, he took Jofra Archer for runs. He took the other quicks

[00:10:09] for runs. And it looked like he had a lot of time, but it was also like he was playing shots from places where you wouldn't expect to be able to play those shots. He was cutting the ball off the stumps. He was driving. And we've seen it in the IPL, right? So this is not a surprise to anyone who follows Indian cricket and IPL cricket that Abhishek Sharma has been able to do that. He went off the ball a little bit. I think he got 100 in Zimbabwe,

[00:10:35] but he's back with a bang. And it was like, it was great. He went after the spinners as well. I think he got dropped once by Rashid, which was, he then went out and hit two sixes in the same over. But I mean, remember this guy's keeping someone like Yashaswi Jaiswal out of the 11. So that's not easy to do. He's a left-hander like Yashaswi. I'm sure that he's breathing down his neck, right? I mean, there's Rituraj Gaikwar. There's

[00:11:04] people like, I don't know, Dev, that particle that Varun would like to open for India in T20s. The Ghill, Shuman, Ghill isn't getting a game in the T20 setup. K.L. Rahul, who's a captain of the Delhi franchise, won't get a game. Pant is not playing. So to get a spot in this T20 11, despite there being no Rohit and Kohli and two reserves, but it's really hard to get into this T20 11. And Sharma's, like, he was great. And he kept going to the last ball. He didn't need to get

[00:11:34] out. He could have just done what Tilak did and knock it around and they would have won. They won in 12 overs. They didn't need to get out the way he did. Yeah, but some of that is the mindset, right? This team has come out and the reason they've picked Abhishek is they said just go ballistic. And that comes with pros and cons. I've said that so many times about the punts of the world, that's what you want from a guy like Abhishek. And that's what he delivered. And I don't, I don't think there's any real, like, obviously, unless he has some really, really bad form,

[00:12:00] there's no real competition for who walks in as an opener right now. He is just, all the names you said are incredible players, but for this format, I think he should walk in to any, to any India side to open the batting. I mean, he's just, his form has been absolutely incredible. So 133, like you said, any, any thoughts on, on Sanju being, kind of the opening, like, obviously we could keep her, but being the opening partner,

[00:12:26] do you think that's a model that will stay for a little while for Team India? Look, you just have to take your, whatever spot you're given in this team, right? So I think they will continue with Sanju opening the batting. He, he looked okay. He looked hurried in the second game, which was a bit worrying, I'd say. He was a bit of a pace probably by Jofra in, in that second game, but I mean, Sanju looked, Sanju looked pretty good. He got 26 off,

[00:12:55] I don't know, 20 or something like that. Archer finally got him. Um, he picked out deep mid-wicket, I think on that one, but yeah, he had a few fours, few sixes. Yeah. I think left hand, right hand, Samson, wicket keeper. It's good. It's a good combo actually. It's quite nice to see. Right. So 12 and a half overs to chase down, uh, England's total in the first match. The second

[00:13:23] game came around, England also bad at first. India also had to chase, but it was a very, very different surface and a very, very different outcome. DJ, why don't we take a very quick break? We'll be back. We'll talk about the second T20 and then a little bit about the goings on in the world of Ranji Trophy. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Edges and Sledges Cricket Podcast. Hey, if you're on YouTube, you know what I'm going to say. Hit that like button,

[00:13:53] hit that subscribe button. And if you're anywhere else, we are at OneTipOneHand on all the social media. We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a comment. We always love to read them and engage with you all. DJ, second T20, couple of changes, right? So as you looked at the squad, we had a couple of injuries. Rinku, who was slated to bat at six, didn't actually get to bat or bowl, ended up getting injured. And Nitish, who was slated to bat at seven, also got injured. So in came

[00:14:19] Washington Sundar and Dhruv Jarrell. First off, thoughts on those selections. Jarrell, of course, has kind of really shown his chops as a test player. So has Washi, but Washi's played a lot more T20 cricket for India and in the IPL. Jarrell had a decent IPL as well. What is your take on Jarrell being the first batter to come in lieu of Rinku? Because apples to apples, they don't seem like the same kind of role. No, but they're kind of middle order players. So I guess it was fine.

[00:14:46] Yeah. And Washi's an all-rounder. So again, not apples for apples with Nitish. But I mean, I don't think they have much other choice in that squad, did they? Yeah, I think the key thing is without Nitish, there becomes a different discussion on do you want four more, an option for somebody to bowl two to four more overs of quick. Because otherwise you're relying on Harlik consistently to bowl four. And it worked in the first game. I mean, the second actually, he only bowl two because it was Chepot. But as you go into the rest

[00:15:14] of the series, it'll be interesting to see if they, if Sundar becomes an all-round option instead of Nitish, there's another specialist quick, get the look in, instead of one of the specialist spinners. But Doob and Dube and Ramandeep have been called up. Ah, that's right. So Dube has been. They have no, yeah, Dubeji. So then you're good. I mean, you also have, you do have the options for, I think, Harshit is in the squad. I guess Shami is coming back later.

[00:15:42] Harshit was on as a sub actually, but he's not in the same league as Nitish as a batter. No, I more meant you drop a Bishnoi or somebody to play Harshit. So that Sundar becomes your all-rounder. Absolutely not to Harshit for Nitish. Anyway, let's talk about this game, right? 165. Again, early wickets by Harshit. We've seen this story before. Again, some good runs by Butler. The middle order did all contribute a little bit. So first off, let me ask you,

[00:16:11] how interesting is it to see England's approach where they were very clearly like, even if, and they made a point to say this in press too, by the way, even if we lose games, if anything, we're going to say, come out and go even harder, not become more conservative, go back into a shell. That's been the basketball philosophy. If you win, you win big. If you lose, you lose big. How interested were you to see kind of them come out and embody that approach and not be worried about losing two quick wickets to the openers or both the openers early again?

[00:16:39] Yeah, because remember, this is Baz's first two games in charge of the white ball side now, right? So this is actually smog, not smog ball, a basketball being transferred into like T20. And he's got players like Brooke. He's got players like Butler. Brooke is the vice captain now. Remember, he's a T20 player, but he's also a test player. So there's a bit of like worlds colliding here.

[00:17:05] What was interesting, as you say, is that the more they got out, the harder they seem to go after the bowling. Jamie Smith looked pretty good, but then he holed out. Brighton Kast, not that guy. He had his debut, by the way, Jamie Smith. Oh, was he? But he's another test cricketer, right? Like that's, I know him from the test arena. He's now making his T20 debut and that's, that's the basketball effect. Harry Brooke, obviously, he got bowled by Varun Chakravarti. And made the face and just like... It was hilarious.

[00:17:35] First, it looked like... First ball he's played. First, it looked for a second, like the camera angle, at least for me, made it look like he got stumped. It looked like he had leaned forward. He'd leaned in. Sanju would move with his gloves and then ran forward. Varun didn't exactly celebrate. Then Brooke looked around. Like I had a split second. Maybe Varun couldn't see it because there's so much smog. In Chennai. In Chennai. But really, I had no idea what had happened.

[00:18:00] Then Brooke had this huge smile, which as though like, maybe he thought he had avoided being out or a no ball or something. No, he was just smiling. He had gotten out like an idiot and moved on. So, anyway. You kind of have to rate that as well. He's like, listen, I've said something pretty stupid in the press. And now the first ball that comes from Chakra, I've missed it and I'm out. I mean, it's pretty funny, right? Like, and I'm kind of glad they saw the humor in it. And fair game to England.

[00:18:27] Like, even when there were top edges going for six, Archa was just like, I can't do anything. But Arjdeep is like edging it past his leg stump. But Archa is just like, yeah, this is just funny. It's ridiculous. But no, also Chakra, this was his home patch, Chennai. And KKR was his home team, so Kolkata. So he had two home games in a row, both of which he took Harry Brooke out of. Fantastic. It was great. And then you were saying Bryden Kars, batting it. Yeah.

[00:18:58] I guess he would have come in a situation where there were 104 for six after about 12 overs. And you're thinking, maybe England will only make 130 again, right? But Bryden Kars was the difference. Of course, ably backed by some good lower order support on the other end. But this was not an easy wicket. And for Kars to come out, hit three big sixes. In fact, the only downside was the way he got run out, right? Yeah, hilarious. I feel like Jurel, though. Not bad for a wicket keeper.

[00:19:26] Great fielding, great throw, good presence of mind. But man, it is the most tail-ender running you could think of. They've clearly never really... I don't know if Kars and Archer have batted together. It couldn't have been for too long. But clearly, just no communication. Start, stop, and then, of course, gets dismissed. But 165 for nine, DJ. This time, compared to the first game, seven bowlers used by India. Abhishek got an over and actually got a wicket. He got Jamie Smith, the debutant, out.

[00:19:55] Hardik bowled two overs, one for six, and didn't bowl more. So I don't know, actually, if that was because of an injury or something else. Washi only got the one over. So some interesting captaincy decisions from Sky. But then let's talk about the chase. You look at the scorecard and you think, okay, 166 made in 19.2 overs. India won with four overs to spare. Pretty comfortable. But for anybody who watched it, it was anything but. Talk us through that chase a little bit, right? Because you had these two openers. Abhishek had done really well in the previous game.

[00:20:25] And they both were out by the time the, you know, halfway through the third over. And it became a tricky chase. Yeah, and Surya Kumar came in. So England, interestingly, went hard with pace. They bowled their first five overs with Mubuward and Archer. And they hit India pretty hard, I'd say. Like, Sanju was clearly beaten for pace. Abhishek kind of missed a straight one, which was pretty, like, not great. And then there was a bit of a partnership. There was a bit of a revival with Surya and Tilak.

[00:20:55] But it was actually Tilak that was the aggressor. He was smashing it everywhere. I think that was, he took 18, 19 of one Jofra Archer over. He was smoking it. And he was just, I mean, it was incredible watching him back. And then Surya gets out kind of trying to play a dab. And that was kind of, it wasn't great. Because then Jurel comes in. Jurel, like, hits one to mid-wicket of Kars. And then Kars starts taking wickets. So Surya Kumar is a Kars wicket.

[00:21:25] Jurel is a Kars wicket. Pandya comes in, Overton. And gets him out first ball of his spell. And, like, Jamie Overton, why are you getting out to him? And then Adil Rashid, he actually bowled, I think, what was the best spell of the match. He bowled four overs for 14. Yeah. But he bowled brilliantly. And you kind of… And then there were some moments of madness. Because Akshar's batting with Tilak.

[00:21:49] And Tilak's, like, changed completely his approach to this innings. Because he's realized, okay, we need to buckle down to get these runs. And they bring Liam Livingston on, right? And Akshar, who's now vice-captain. So he has more responsibility, if that is to be believed. Just hits one down to deep mid-wicket. Straight down their throat. It was, like, a ridiculous shot. Completely unnecessary. There was no…

[00:22:18] There was no real run rate pressure or any of that. These guys scored, like, 10-12 runs and over for fun in the last fight. Yeah. They didn't need to do that. Anyway, that was one piece of brainless batting. And then Tilak's left with… I don't want to sound unkind. But he was basically batting with Arshtip, who's not really a number… I don't know. Would you call him a number eight? Number nine? No, absolutely not. I don't think you're being unkind. I was laughing only because I think you're trying not to be unkind. But Arshtip is not a great batter.

[00:22:48] It's fine. Yeah, and Arshtip is backing away, trying to hit Jofra Archer over his head. And Jofra just laughing. And then I think the funniest moment of the game came when Tilak has played out four balls of the over. He's just played out Adil Rasheed, right? Just like, we just need to get through this one over. And then I'll sort it out. And there's probably, like, 20 runs to get at that point with three wickets standing. He plays out four balls. And then fifth ball, he knocks a single.

[00:23:19] So he's just like, okay, cool. So you've got one ball to survive. Play one ball out. So credit to Jofra Butler. He brings in the field. I think they've got a backward short leg. I can't remember exactly what. But they've basically got, like, seven men in the circle. They've removed deep mid-wicket. So Arshtip, you can see, he's looking there. They've got a deep square leg. And they've got one more man out. Like, I think probably deep long on. And this is the last ball of Adil Rasheed's spell, right?

[00:23:48] And Adil Rasheed just, they take their time. And he just saunters up and just, like, tosses the ball up slowly. And Arshtip probably plays four shots in his head before he hits it literally straight to Jofra Archer. The one man on the boundary. Yeah. Yeah. And the best part is Ravi Shastri is in the calm box. And I think Harsha or somebody asked him before that ball, Ravi, if you're in the dugout, is this a free hit for Arshtip? And he went, no.

[00:24:18] He said, he just needs to play this ball out. No panic in the dugout. And so this has all happened because, like, the game is completely slowed down. So Ravi Shastri, as a coach of the Indian cricket team, and he was the coach of the Indian cricket team for a long time, a very successful coach as well. So he was just like, this, Arshtip needs to just play this ball out. There's a reason why Telak has done this. Just don't hit this ball. And, yeah, we've seen common, we've seen Sonny Bhai, you know, go nuts on Pant and why has he played that?

[00:24:47] He should be going to the other dress and all of this stuff, right? We've seen that. That sometimes can get a bit overboard, I feel. But this, you could feel the controlled rage in Ravi Shastri's, like, in his voice. And he was like, this was, like, it was a completely needless shot. And I think, again, he was being very politically correct at that point.

[00:25:10] Because if Arshdeep had played that shot under Ravi's watch, yeah, I don't think he would have been coming back to that dressing room anytime soon. He would have gone for a little bit of a walk or maybe straight to the team bus because you can't go back home by yourself. You have to go home in the team bus. Now you're conflating all kinds of talks. No, but first they go to have dinner together and then they go to the team bus because you can't have your own chef, even if you might make a vada pav every day. Okay. On a complete tangent. We will come back to talk a little more about vada pav in a minute.

[00:25:40] But Ravi Bhishnoe and Zabavidu Khamen does hit a couple of boundaries, gets over the line. But I want to take a quick second to talk about Tilak's knock, right? Yeah. Which we should, actually. Yeah, you walked through everything else, but Tilak just paced this knock to absolute perfection. He was the aggressor when there were wickets in hand. Then the pitch started doing more than we thought or more than it was early on. He started to slow down.

[00:26:05] Just those chases that, you know, not to become like you and bring up Kohli every so often, but you used to bring up Kohli. I'm surprised we've gone 26 minutes. You haven't brought up MS. But just paced that chase to perfection, which we used to see from Kohli and ODI cricket. And it was just magnificent. I just absolutely loved watching it. He looked so mature.

[00:26:27] By the way, DJ, the last time he was dismissed in a T20 international was in November in South Africa, since which he made 107 not out against South Africa in the Centurion, 120 not out at Joburg, 19 in the previous game only because there weren't more to chase, and 72 not out in this game. I mean, he's scored 300 plus runs since he last got dismissed in T20s.

[00:26:54] And just a mix of pace. I mean, that 120 he made was of 47 balls. And then he comes out in a match situation where his team needed it, made 72 of 55. Just tremendously impressed. Outstanding. Outstanding knock and an important victory. I mean, a huge difference going into this seat. The remaining three games is 2-0 versus 1-0 where anything can happen. Yeah, fantastic. And as you said, sole successor to King Kohli.

[00:27:23] I mean, left-handed, calm. And I mean, even the way he finished it off, it was just clinical. Just like creaming it through the cover, along the ground. He was just... I mean, he's come along from the IPL, right? Like he's a Mumbai Indians boy. That's why he made his mark. Yeah. He was playing under Surya Kumariadha. He looks like he's enjoying his cricket. Surya's given up his spot. Surya was number three for India, right? Batting. Deluxe batting. Let's not forget. Surya's playing four, yeah. Yeah. He rates this guy so much that he's given up his batting spot for him. Yeah.

[00:27:53] And yeah, it's been... I mean, it's been great to watch. It's been a breath of fresh air. And it's really nice to see someone else do the job for Team India. Of course, we like it when Kohli and Rohit and the other Donis have done it. But it's like a new generation. Like as our beards both get white, it's nice to see a new generation of Indian batters come through that can kind of finish games. And there was a bit of Yuvraj there. There was a bit of Reina there. It was cool.

[00:28:23] I really enjoyed that now. I love it. I also... It doesn't go unnoticed that just after I made fun of your beard being white, you made fun of mine too in the same episode. I only noticed it actually. All right. DJ, great. So three more T20s to come. We will talk about it at the end of... I guess end of next week once the T20s are done before the ODIs start and we start getting fully into 50 over three ODIs and then Champions Trophy mode.

[00:28:47] But as we talk about everything else in the world of cricket, very quickly, Rishabh Pant, Rohit Sharma, Ravi Jadeja, a bunch of our Arshabh Mangel, a bunch of our test guys went back to play the Ranji Trophy thanks to the new edict that has come out from the DCCI, which includes the Varabha... Anyway, we've been criticized for not asking the right question on the show. So we must address that as well. What is the question we didn't ask?

[00:29:13] How are these rules going to improve Indian cricket and what if there are no results after that? Somebody's asked us that on YouTube. I mean, I feel like we did talk about it. I think we mocked it too much. Anyway. We should address it seriously. That's what this show comes for. Anyway. Walk us through really quickly the results. I know you made a point to send me, by the way, before I had seen the results, you sent me an article about Sharjit's magnificent paddock. And I was reading through it. I was like, wow, yeah, he did show up in both innings for Mumbai.

[00:29:42] And maybe it's, you know, most of the time we reconsider him seriously, he did lose his spot in Team India's side because of injury and never made it back. And then I looked up further and I realized Mumbai lost the game. Yeah, but that's not Sharjit's fault. Like, Sharjit's done everything he can, man. Yeah, but Sharjit's also... It's just been crap. Oh, Sharjit's main role in the team is to be a bowler. Yeah. And I don't think he bowled in the first innings. No, he did. Took a wicket. Where did he?

[00:30:12] He was 0-0 for 45 in the second innings. Yeah. Oh, yeah. 2 for 39. Sorry. Yeah. So fine. He picked up two wickets. Like, it doesn't really matter that he... Yeah, but even Steve Smith made his debut as a leg spinner, right? So just like... All right, fine. So you're now officially put Sharjit's title and Steve Smith in the same category. You're worried that we're losing listeners' credibility on this show. Now you do that. Very well. No, but Sharjit got a... I mean, he actually batted well.

[00:30:38] He got a 50 and a 100 in a game where basically him and I think only Tanishkoti made runs for Mumbai. Yeah. Yeah. See that? Yeah. Back now. Yeah, I was saying. So only him and Tanishkoti made runs for... Yeah. ...Mumbai in the game. Shaman Gill got a 100 in a losing course again. So does that not count as runs?

[00:31:08] Using your previous yardstick? No, no. It does. I just was laughing at the fact that you chose to highlight the skill that he's not really tried to get it back into the Indian team. Yeah. And he didn't... But it seems to be the more important skill if we're playing like Nitesh and these guys. So Shadi's put his name back into the mix with domestic Ranji Trophy performances, which is what people want, right? Sure. So... Yashasvi didn't get runs. I think he's... I think he's in good standing. But... Rohit.

[00:31:38] I saw how he got... You already talked about the daily game. Why didn't you talk about Rishabh? Yeah, but like he didn't get any runs. So what's the point? Yeah, that's fine. But make sure... But he's the number one test keeper. Who's pushing him for the score? But we are equal opportunity offenders. Like if... Yeah, fine. If we're going to make fun of some of these other guys for not taking runs, we should... But Rishabh is now Lucknow super giant captain. So... No, no. That's more important. He's the Delhi Ranji Trophy player. He's the Delhi Ranji Trophy. So important to talk about that.

[00:32:06] By the way, Delhi, as we noticed, we were talking about before the game, Jadeja did get 10 buckets in the match against Delhi. And the other Jadeja got 7. So Delhi lost this match against Sarashtra and lost 17 wickets against guys named Jadeja, which is kind of unholy possible. But anyway, let's come back to the Mumbai game. But no Virat. No Virat, so... Virat's got a next train. I think his next train will be fine when about 8 days. No, but... Yeah.

[00:32:35] I mean, who else played? Pan didn't get runs. Okay, now you can come back to... Khalil got some runs. Khalil got some wickets, sorry. Not runs. Yeah. But he's not really in the reckoning, is he? The problem with all of this is like, yeah, you can go back and play Ranji Trophy, but like, do you actually select people on that basis? Yeah. Or do you not think your own tournament is good enough to play players that are at the test level who are scoring runs in those positions like Ishwaran and Sarashtra? Yeah.

[00:33:03] I mean, come back quickly to the Mumbai game before we wrap, right? Mumbai's Ranji Trophy top five include, four of them are Jaiswal, Rohit, who opened for Team India. Jankyar Ahane plays four and Treya Sayer plays five. I mean, that is a stacked, stacked team. Mumbai has historically been stacked against Jammu and Kashmir, who currently none of their players are in Team India setup.

[00:33:31] I think Abdul Samad is the only one, maybe, who has an IPL contract out of this team. And, I mean, that's a stunning victory for Jammu and Kashmir. But talk to us about... You said Jess Holden, we were just runs. Talk to us about Rohit quickly as well. Yeah, Rohit got out kind of half-pull, half-flick in their first innings, three of 19 balls or something. I just feel really bad for him, man. It's...

[00:34:00] It's almost like if he didn't play this Ranji Trophy round, he would have been better off. He's so desperate to get runs, poor guy. That is... But, in a world of sequential progress, he played three test matches against Australia and made 31 runs. Okay, so... In this match against Jammu and Kashmir, combined in one match, he crossed the two innings, he made 31 runs. He made three in the first innings and 28 in the second.

[00:34:29] I agree. So, in a world where we're measured... I'm going to hit a six. I'm going to hit a six out of the ground. I'm like... He hit three sixes. Why do you need to hit six? What? Like, kya ho raiya? Yeah, it's ridiculous. Just ridiculous. What is going... Like, just... He's just trying to hit himself. It's tough, man. It's tough to watch, actually. It is. Yeah. It's... Yeah. Pujara didn't get any runs, though, sadly. I wonder where... Like, now you... Now, when you look back at the border, Gavaskar, you now see what Pujara did, right? Yeah. It's...

[00:34:59] It was a point of difference in those close series. Absolutely. Yeah. Brilliant. So, Pujara. Right. DJ, that brings us to a wrap. Interesting Ranji Trophy results. There'll be some more Ranji cricket. There will be more T20s. And then, of course, ODIs, like I mentioned. Thank you for joining. I know between the newborn and work, life is crazy for you. So, we appreciate you being here. For everybody who's listening, like I said, again, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button, or leave us a comment on YouTube.

[00:35:26] We will be back next week to talk about the wrap-up of hopefully what will be a 5-0 win for India over England. I think that's unlikely. But it'd be great if we could get anywhere close. DJ, thank you for joining me. Thank you, everybody, for listening. See you next week.