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The defending World Cup champions have a mountain to climb over the next year and even the return of key names is no guarantee they will turn things around

Melinda Farrell at Old Trafford24-Jun-20186:43

‘Australia need to address their problems facing spin’

The Australia team are resetting after tremendous upheaval and the World Cup is still a year away. But the side’s performance in recent years, not to mention what has been a dismal series in England, suggests they have some major issues to address if they are to successfully defend their World Cup title.Vulnerability to spinIf you were to look solely at Australia’s figures against spin in this series you could be forgiven for thinking Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid were bowling on raging turners in the sub-continent, rather than on good batting surfaces in England that have hardly been conducive to spin. This is not a new issue for Australian batsmen, who learn their craft in a country where fast bowling is king and standard finger spinners must graft especially hard.Since the 2015 World Cup, Australia have one of the worst records against spin of the top 10 countries. They average 34.03 facing spin, compared to India’s 65.71 and England’s 56.15. Only Bangladesh, Afghanistan and West Indies have fared worse.Speaking before the fifth ODI, Rashid pointed to the way he and Moeen had been able to tie Australia down and induce some hesitancy.”Aussies like to hit the ball down the ground, like to hit strong shots,” said Rashid. “And we know that and so we look to block that off, get them to try sweeping or whatever.”Australia may have other batsmen available who are better players of spin, such as Steven Smith (whose ban will be over by the World Cup) or Peter Handscomb, but addressing this glaring vulnerability in a more comprehensive way is far more complex than spending more time in the nets playing spinners.As Ian Chappell told ESPNcricinfo: “You have to have young guys coming through who’ve learnt to play spin bowling properly when they are at school and up through the club system. It’s no good expecting guys to get through first-class and international cricket and they learn how to play spin bowling. It doesn’t work that way.”Absence makes the heart grow fonderIt would be both tempting and easy for Australia to point to the players who are missing on this tour and assume the side will be a far more threatening prospect with the return of Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. There is, of course, some truth in this. Certainly Australia’s attack has more speed and potency when the Big Three are present and the batting is far more robust when Smith and Warner are leading the way.But it would be unwise to assume that all five will be fit and in form next summer in England. Australia’s fast bowlers have Test series against India and Sri Lanka at home before they switch to a diet of white-ball cricket in the build up to the main course of the World Cup and in the past three years they have only on occasion been fully fit at the same time. Billy Stanlake has bowled sharply in spells, and shown his potential at this level. But the rest of the young and inexperienced attack has been exposed in English conditions where, if you don’t quite have express pace and you don’t move the ball sufficiently, the batsmen can fill their boots.If it’s risky to assume the first choice attack will automatically solve Australia’s bowling problems, it is also a gamble to put all the batting eggs in the Smith and Warner basket. While both are so talented they would surely be included based only on their records, a year is a long time out of the game and the effect – both psychologically and on form – of such a long absence in such circumstances, is unknown. Australia rely on Smith and Warner more heavily than any other team; they have scored 30 percent of Australia’s ODI runs since the 2015 World Cup to the beginning of this series. They need to find other batsmen to carry the load.Billy Stanlake struck early for Australia•Getty ImagesKeeping up with the JonesesThere is a whiff of England circa early 2015 in the way Australia construct an innings. Aaron Finch and David Warner have generally given them sprightly starts but the aforementioned vulnerability against spin often sees Australia slow down in the middle overs when the attention turns to accumulation while keeping wickets in hand for an onslaught in the final 10 to 15 overs.Consider the words of Finch after Australia’s defeat at Chester-le-Street: “We could have been more aggressive, no doubt,” Finch said. “But the way we wanted to structure things is to be a bit more conservative with wickets in hand.”Australia are in danger of falling behind other sides who no longer think in terms of 350 being an unbeatable total. There are days when England’s relentless attacking backfires but it has also been a major factor in taking them to No. 1 in the world and while Australia have a number of the sort of batsmen (Finch and Shaun Marsh, for example), who can reliably score, say 100 off 90 balls, more successful sides have several who can score 80 off 50 or 50 off 30.Only three Australia batsmen have scored at a run-a-ball or better since the World Cup (min 10 innings): Warner, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis. And while batsmen have come into selection consideration based on explosive Big Bash form, pacing an innings in 50-over cricket has proved to be a more challenging task. Perhaps the standard of the BBL is not quite as high as the success of the tournament suggests or perhaps we are seeing the impact of five years playing the domestic fifty-over tournament as a kind of pre-season tournament. Either way, the Australia batting plans look decidedly old-fashioned.O Captain, my Captain!Tim Paine has done an admirable job in leading Australia in the wake of the Cape Town fiasco. He has fronted every media obligation and answered every question with maturity and honesty. He instigated the handshakes that ushered in a series that has been played in good spirits. As the Australia players work to rebuild their reputation and prove they can be competitive without being accused of boorish behaviour, he has brought a sense of calm and stability to the squad and projected as much to the outside world.But there is no hiding from the fact he has had an unsatisfactory series with the bat; he has averaged just 7.20. Alex Carey has outscored him in the two opportunities given to him and with Australia needing to shore up their batting it appears incongruous to have two wicketkeepers batting in the middle order when only one of them is making runs.There would be no shame in Australia splitting the red-ball and white-ball captaincy roles and putting the experienced and eloquent Finch in charge of the one-day side while leaving Paine to captain the Test team.Aaron Finch made his sixth ODI hundred against England•Getty ImagesWho goes where?Trying to predict Australia’s batting line-up before each match has proved to be more difficult than selecting the winning lottery numbers. Finch has yo-yoed up and down the order, D’Arcy Short started as an explosive opener before becoming a spinning allrounder and bowlers have done the hokey-pokey in and out of the side as Justin Langer gives each an opportunity to make their mark.With so many players missing this series is very much about experimentation and experience. While the middle order undoubtedly needs shoring up, it’s doubtful Finch will become a regular No. 5. As Chappell said: “I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to weaken a strength to try and strengthen a weakness. And that’s what Australia are doing by moving Finch down to the middle order.”As Agar noted when asked about England’s strengths: “They are playing like a team where everyone knows their role and they back themselves and each other to just go and do it. They’ve set the benchmark, no doubt.”And if a confident, aggressive England side in which everyone is comfortable in their is the benchmark, Australia have a long way to go if they are to succeed in their title defence.

With an average of 25.80 from 15 Tests in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia, should he continue being one of India’s first-choice openers?

Ankur Dhawan14-Sep-2018After another overseas defeat, India find themselves in a quandary. What to do about Shikhar Dhawan? A prolific run-getter at home, Dhawan has struggled to make the same kind of impact on the road, in conditions where the ball moves as though it has legs and a mind of its own. He finished the England series with a top score of 44 in eight innings, which meant the middle order was exposed to the new ball far too often.It wasn’t for lack of effort, but there were no tangible rewards for Dhawan. Dropped at Lord’s following two dismissals to loose strokes in the first Test at Edgbaston, he came back with a changed approach, and tried hard to play close to his body and resist the temptation to drive on the up when the carrot was dangled. Inevitably, though, Instinct prevailed over discipline, and even after getting his eye in at the Ageas Bowl, he was lured into poking at deliveries in the channel outside off stump, either driving away from his body or defending on the walk.The most successful team in England over the last decade or so has been South Africa. For all the talent that ran through their middle order, their backbone was their captain and opener Graeme Smith, who scored the ugly runs, which allowed the Amlas and de Villiers to score the pretty ones. That’s not to say Amla and de Villiers didn’t score tough runs, only that Smith’s solidity gave them more freedom against a usually older ball. Dhawan has generally shown a brittleness incongruent to seeing off the shine.Virat Kohli’s India discovered the value of a solid opening stand in Nottingham, the only time the openers blunted the new ball in both innings, putting on 60 both times. It was no surprise that those starts were followed by middle-order partnerships of 159 and 113.In Southampton, however, old maladies resurfaced for Dhawan – perhaps because they had never really gone away.At the beginning of India’s previous cycle of overseas tours, in early 2014, Dhawan played two of his best knocks, back to back, a century in a fourth-innings chase in Auckland and then a 98 in Wellington. The salient features of both innings were common – meditative discipline outside the off stump until the shine wore off, patience, and a desire to play as straight as possible.The adjustments he made, however, never became habits. As a consequence, he hasn’t repeated those scoring feats outside Asia (excluding the West Indies) since.When India toured England in 2014 his outside edge and the away-moving delivery had reunited. In Nottingham, where England’s No 11, James Anderson, made 81, Dhawan was caught behind pushing at a full ball from the same bowler for 12. Twice in the next four innings, Anderson squared him up, exploiting his tendency to fish at the late-moving ball without getting across with his feet to cover the line, and had him caught in the slips.Zoom back to the just-concluded series in England, and Dhawan has been out caught by the keeper, slips or gully five times in eight innings. And while one would expect a high percentage of such dismissals among openers in these conditions, he hasn’t necessarily fallen to unplayable deliveries that threatened his off stump or moved prodigiously late. They’ve generally been full, wide and swinging further away, luring Dhawan, who has eventually taken the bait. In the last Test at The Oval he was lbw twice, and the second-innings dismissal in particular seemed like a consequence of his struggles outside off stump: he fell over, going too far across his stumps in an attempt to cover the away movement, and was lbw to the inswinger.Getty ImagesOnly once since that first innings in Wellington – when he made a second-innings 81 in Brisbane – has Dhawan managed to face 100 or more balls in an innings in the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries. The most he has managed in England is 85 balls. In his 14 outings in England, Dhawan has faced an average of 35.93 balls per innings.By the end of the previous cycle of away tours, Dhawan’s average in the SENA countries was 29.00. It has now fallen to 25.80.Not much seems to have changed between the previous cycle of tours and this one. The weaknesses Dhawan has shown on this tour of England are the same ones that led to India dropping him after the third Test of their previous tour here. They are the same weaknesses that cost him his place for the final Test of their Australia tour of 2014-15.Why then was he part of the first-choice opening partnership on their tours of South Africa and England this year? Perhaps this was because India played all their Test cricket in the subcontinent or the West Indies between the previous SENA cycle and this one. In these conditions, Dhawan averaged 51.78, scoring three of his four hundreds against Sri Lanka and the other against Bangladesh.There were accomplished innings against spin in that period, such as his first-innings hundred in Galle in 2015, but his technique against fast bowling wasn’t really tested that often. On the rare occasion when he did come up against seaming conditions, as in the Kolkata Tests against New Zealand in 2016 and Sri Lanka last year, he did not entirely convince with his handling of the new ball.Now, after the series defeats in South Africa and England, India’s next Test assignment is a home series against West Indies. It could be another chance for Dhawan to score runs in conditions where his technique won’t really be scrutinised to the fullest, but India will have to be mindful that a sterner test awaits them thereafter: in Australia, against one of the best pace attacks in the world.

It has been a breakout season for the left hander and also one in which the Blues have found a new team ethos

Daniel Brettig27-Mar-2019″Coming from such a large talent base everyone has to fight for their spot just a little bit harder. That fight and that drive, it’s the same for any player, but in New South Wales a bit more selfishness comes out, which in the end helps the team.”This was how the former Australian spin bowler Nathan Hauritz summed up the hyper competitive universe of NSW cricket in mid-2011, capturing the environment that has existed in the nation’s largest cricket state for as long as anyone can remember.It was that November that a tall, slender left-hander called Kurtis Patterson first made his name, pinging Western Australia’s’ bowlers all over the SCG while becoming, at 18 years, 206 days, Australia’s youngest ever first-class centurion on debut. Arriving just a week after Pat Cummins’ storied Test debut at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, Patterson’s teenaged blooming seemed a further vindication of a ruthless system where individual progression and talent identification were key.Yet the starburst of these two debuts masked another, harder side to things. The Blues, having made the Shield final earlier that year, did not make another one until 2014, and none again until this week, when they will face Victoria at Junction Oval. To get there, they have had to reconsider the fundamentals of the state team: sink or swim has been replaced by greater recognition of the need for support and help among peers, with Patterson right in the thick of the changes.But before that paradigm shift, Patterson endured his own share of dead ends. Not least of these was waiting another three seasons before getting the chance to play for the NSW Shield team again. The crush for spots, which saw the likes of Usman Khawaja and the late Phillip Hughes move elsewhere, left Patterson bereft at times in his search for the technical and mental skills to follow up on what he has since reflected was a reasonably fortunate afternoon’s batting by a naive and developing talent.2018-19 State Cricket Award winners

Sheffield Shield Player of the Year: Scott Boland (VIC)
Men’s Spirit of Cricket Award: Tasmania
Women’s Spirit of Cricket Award: Tasmania
CA Umpire Award: Paul Wilson
Taverners Australia Indigenous Cricketer of the Year: Scott Boland (VIC)

“I’ve watched that innings a couple of times since it happened and I just think I look so ugly as a player,” Patterson told ESPNcricinfo. “I was in a different vein of form to what I was this season around the Test stuff. I feel like now I know my game, particularly with four or five-day cricket, I know what I need to do and during this year I was able to really believe and stick to that. Whereas back then I was hitting the ball really well but I was probably a bit more of a slogger than I am now.”I just went out there as an 18-year-old with no fear and just thought I wasn’t going to get out. I’d come off three hundreds in a row and then it was a small case of fortune favouring the brave because I had a couple of lbw shouts early on there that on other days one, possibly two of those are given out. I had a few nicks through gully early on, before I’d got to 30 or 40, slightly thicker or thinner edges on those and they’re out on other days. I certainly look back then and see I was a very different player, a bit young and naive and I was able to get away with it that day.”He was far less successful in getting away with it the following two summers, in which only a single appearance in a tour game against the 2013-14 English tourists broke up his time in club cricket with St George. He learned from painful experience that getting hung up on his own place on the fringes of the state team was serving only to stop him from progressing any further.”I’m not sure if difficult is the right word but it was an interesting little time in my career,” Patterson said. “I guess after that when I was dropped it certainly hurt. I’d had a taste for it, like the Test matches this year, once you have a taste I really want more. I wanted more back then as well.”I think I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit disappointed how it transpired but also from the point of view that I started overthinking about what do I have to do to keep my spot in the team. I think it led me down an overly negative path and I think that reflected in my cricket that following year when I had my first contract was actually my worst year of club cricket. I barely scored a run for my club, all my focus was on NSW, which didn’t help. Fighting to get a game for the Thunder as well.”Once the state season had finished that year, I hadn’t played a game but I just felt this wave of relief, I felt a lot more relaxed and I wasn’t even in the team. Once that carrot was taken away and finals time started for St George, I just felt like a different person. Went out there, scored a couple of hundreds and a 50 in the three games in the finals, felt like a weight was off my shoulders and was able to go out there and just play. We ended up winning the first grade title. But that was a real learning curve for the first year of professional cricket for me.”

Dad was terrific for the fundamentals of batting and also the fundamental aspect that you need to work hard to get anywhereKurtis Patterson on the impact of his father

Patterson’s schooling in the hard ways of NSW came via his father Brad, an accomplished grade allrounder for Northern District and Sydney University, and in his close observation of the major players of his childhood: Steve Waugh most of all. “I remember when I was growing up I got to an age where I understood cricket, knew what was going on,” he said. “Dad and I would go along and watch the old ING Cup games and see the Waugh brothers turn out, Shane and Brett Lee turn out, players who were dominant players for Australia as well but also playing for NSW. It really gave me motivation that this is who I want to play for. I was lucky I was one of the young ones who gets noticed a bit younger, because it doesn’t happen all the time.”Dad was terrific for the fundamentals of batting and also the fundamental aspect that you need to work hard to get anywhere. Him and I did a lot of hard work when I was young, particularly once cricket season came around, we’d be down at the park for probably a minimum three days out of those Monday to Fridays at school, outside of all my school and club and rep training, we always found time. It was never pushed on me by him, it was always me asking him and he was very big on that. It wasn’t going to be him to push me, it was up to me whether I got the motivation to go down there, and he would always come along and throw balls. “From the time Patterson secured his NSW spot in 2015, the dividends have been consistently accruing, aided this season by technical and mental advancements made with the help of the state’s batting coach Beau Casson and the team psychologist Gerard Faure Brac to score hundreds more frequently – two in the Shield, two in a single tour game against the Sri Lankans, and then another in his second Test at Manuka Oval.However, Patterson’s individual story has been paired with an equally compelling one for the NSW team as a whole. Following several years of underperformance there were personnel changes such as the departure of the coach Trent Johnston (replaced by Phil Jaques), the retirement of Doug Bollinger and the move southwards of Nic Maddinson. Arguably more significant was a change in attitude that had the Blues, this collective of ambitious, talented individuals, thinking far more about each other. “Selfishness…which in the end helps the team,” as Hauritz put it, was no longer the order of the day.Kurtis Patterson’s parents celebrate his century•Getty Images”The biggest difference from last year was I think the senior players have really bought into not only improving their own game but trying to up-skill our younger players,” Patterson said. “That’s not just the younger players in the Shield or one-day XI but there’s been a really good focus since day one in pre-season that we’ve adopted a young squad this year and it’s up to us to make them feel as comfortable as possible and up to us to help them improve their cricket in any way.”We’ve got to give a lot of credit to Phil Jaques and Peter Nevill but also guys like Moises [Henriques] and Trent [Copeland] as well. I think sometimes, if you ask players who are still obviously trying to play cricket for Australia, and do the best for themselves, to take an extra role of taking a couple of young guys under their wing and really making an effort as a leadership group to be there for those young guys, I don’t think every cricketer would take time out of their own schedule to do that.”Contributions have been far more even as a result, from Nick Larkin and Daniel Hughes up the top of the batting order to the recent breakout displays by Sean Abbott and Harry Conway with the ball. A team that had in recent years developed a reputation for only winning games when the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Cummins, Steven Smith and David Warner were available now face Victoria in a Shield final with a far richer array of burgeoning talents. NSW cricket is still very much a place for survival of the fittest, but these Darwinian traits are no longer quite so evident in the dressing room.”We’re all aware of how competitive it is to play for the Blues,” Patterson reflected. “But I think what was overarching everything is if we do this and help these young guys, there’s an element that potentially down the track they may be good enough to take our spots, but the reality is we’re making the NSW cricket team better, both in the short and long term by adopting that. We all really bought into trying to be better people and better mentors to our younger guys, which is a great testament to Phil and Pete who are the ones who really drove that early on and it has shown great results.”

Chennai Super Kings’ fifth home game stood out by dint of the MA Chidambaram Stadium surface enabling better stroke-making than it has all season. Here’s why

Deivarayan Muthu in Chennai24-Apr-20196:45

I would’ve been dropped in my previous teams – Watson

The season opener at Chepauk was played on a dubious slow turner, with the spinners taking ten out of the 13 wickets to fall in a match that produced only 141 runs. Both the captains, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli , expressed their displeasure after the low-scorer last month. “I never expected the wicket to play how it actually played,” Dhoni said during the post-match presentation. “It was too slow.”The track continued to be slow in the following three games here as well, making stroke-making difficult. On Tuesday night, though, it was a whole different story. ESPNcricinfo looks at how it played in Chennai Super Kings’ fifth home fixture on Tuesday.Spin to win? Not necessarilyIn the first four matches in Chennai, the ball turned viciously, particularly in the first match where Royal Challengers Bangalore were rolled over for 70. On Tuesday, the ball did not turn as much and, instead, slid on to the bat.David Warner and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s new No. 3 Manish Pandey took advantage of it as Sunrisers hit 54 for 1 in the Powerplay – the joint-highest score in the first six overs at Chepauk this season.Hope the scouts were out in Chepauk•BCCIHarbhajan Singh, who had earlier sent back Jonny Bairstow caught behind with one that didn’t turn, then had Warner stumped with one that pitched on middle and broke away, but that was an aberration. Ravindra Jadeja and Imran Tahir could not find turn off the pitch and, in all, Super Kings’ spin attack was taken for 110 runs in 12 overs.Dew then set in later in the night and made things more difficult for Sunrisers’ spinners. While Shakib Al Hasan, who was only playing his second game of the season, got away with none for 27 in his four overs, Rashid Khan leaked 44 in his four overs while picking up the solitary wicket of Suresh Raina.Rashid got some fizz off the surface when he hit the middle of the pitch with his wrong’uns and sliders, but didn’t quite threaten the edges enough with turn. In any case, Rashid isn’t a big turner of the ball, but Tuesday’s pitch was more friendly to the batsmen.Okay, was there something for the seamers?Yes, both Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar swung the new ball and muzzled the batsmen in the early exchanges. Bhuvneshwar posed a greater threat by extracting extra bounce in the first over of the chase – a maiden to Shane Watson. Once the ball grew old, though, the batsmen could hit through the line, as Warner, Pandey, and later Watson showed. So, what has changed?Ahead of the first four matches and during practice sessions, the groundstaff had shielded the playing square from getting too dry under the blazing Chennai sun by setting up a tent-like structure. The inhospitable heat made way for a welcome drizzle on the eve of the Super Kings-Sunrisers clash, ensuring the conditions weren’t as dry as it had been over the past few games here.Watson, who plundered 96 off 53 balls, conceded that this pitch was more favourable to stroke-making, and a much quicker outfield meant he could hit through the line with greater freedom. It wasn’t too dissimilar to the Pune pitch (Super Kings’ home base last year), where Watson had flourished.In Pune, in IPL 2018, Watson had struck 264 runs in five innings at an average of 52.80 and strike rate of 168.15. Before Tuesday, he had managed just 56 runs in four innings at an average of 14 and strike rate of 100.”The conditions this year is drier compared to the previous years I’ve played in the IPL,” Watson explained. “Especially coming from the Big Bash [League] where the pitches aren’t that dry and the PSL [Pakistan Super League] in Dubai and then Karachi. So, the wickets here have been drier and the ball has turned a bit more and there has been inconsistent pace and bounce in the wicket, and I just lost my batting rhythm.”

With India having torn up their old T20I template, the offspinner is back to present his case for being in the T20 World Cup squad next year

Deivarayan Muthu in Bengaluru20-Sep-2019Washington Sundar had disappeared from India’s limited-overs radar after making a splash in the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka last year. A freak football injury, sustained during training, sidelined him from the limited-over matches in England last year. The pain came back during his stint with India A in New Zealand, and although Washington returned to top-flight cricket in the 2019 IPL, he barely bowled in the Powerplay for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Now, with the T20 World Cup a little over a year away, he has re-emerged to take the new ball for India.Watch cricket on ESPN+

India v South Africa is available in the US on Hotstar and ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune into the third T20I and three Tests.
Sunday, Sep 22, 9.20 am ET on ESPN+: India v SA, 3rd T20, Bengaluru)

India have already torn up their old T20I template and are searching for specialists. Deepak Chahar made an early case with his swing and variations in the Mohali T20I and his experience of bowling in the Powerplay for Chennai Super Kings even prompted Virat Kohli to liken him to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. India’s other Powerplay option in recent times has been Washington. The 19-year-old is also a competent batsman – he has opened for Tamil Nadu in first-class cricket – which is partly why India have recalled him, swapping out their premier wristspinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.ALSO READ: Not worried about exclusion from T20Is – KuldeepIndia currently have three other spinners – Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Rahul Chahar – in the mix but none of them has been as effective with the new ball as Washington in T20s. Since his T20 debut in April 2017 in the IPL, Washington has been among the best fingerspinners in the Powerplay, taking 13 wickets in 24 innings in that phase while conceding only 7.02 runs an over. Among spinners, he is head-to-head with the likes of Rashid Khan, Sunil Narine, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mitchell Santner in terms of economy rate in the first six overs of an innings.Interestingly, while Narine and Mujeeb have some mystery balls in their repertoire, Washington, like Santner, simply relies on turn – or the lack of it – and has excellent control over his lines and lengths. Washington can also generate some extra bounce from a high-arm action apart from getting the ball to skid off the pitch. When at his best, he denies the batsmen the swinging room and length they crave for and aims to outsmart them – all of this while having the tiny cushion of just two men outside the circle.Washington hadn’t played a single T20 before making his foray into the IPL in 2017, but he soon established himself as the go-to Powerplay bowler for Steven Smith and MS Dhoni at Rising Pune Supergiant. All told, he bowled 108 balls in the Powerplay in IPL 2017, giving away 118 runs at an economy rate of 6.55 while claiming four wickets.Washington then excelled in a similar role with the new ball in the Nidahas Trophy but hasn’t been used regularly in the Powerplay in the IPL since moving to Royal Challengers. He has bowled only seven overs in the Powerplay in the ten games he played for them in the last two seasons.Chahal was Royal Challengers’ first-choice spinner and Washington slipped down the pecking order. But now, at India, the teenager has a chance to move up with his all-round skills and fit into India’s T20 World Cup plans.Associated PressWashington gave a good account of himself on his return to international cricket in the Caribbean, posing a big threat to the left-hand batsmen with his offbreaks as well as non-turners. He took only two wickets in three matches, but his economy rate of 6.62 stood out. In the Powerplay, his economy rate was even more impressive: 4.75.During his rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and later in Chennai last year, Washington wondered if he could replicate his success with the new ball on return. But he managed to overcome those doubts and even got Kohli’s vote of confidence. From not giving Washington enough overs in the Powerplay at Royal Challengers, Kohli banked on him to smother the batsmen with the new ball.”Washington has been really good, especially starting with the new ball against guys who come hard at the ball,” Kohli told the host broadcaster after the spinner collected figures of 3-1-12-1 in the second T20I against West Indies in Lauderhill. “[He’s] very aggressive upfront, especially in the first six overs. He has done a tremendous job, picking up wickets and controlling the runs as well.”The composure he has shown after being away for so long, he has been outstanding to come back and do the job he used to do. He’s definitely going to be a big factor for us and is handy with the bat. He has become fitter, leaner and sharper in the field also. All in all, I think he’s in a good space and is executing what he wants to at the moment.”Washington also bowled a thrifty spell against South Africa in Mohali, returning none for 19 in three overs. He had a left-hander in Quinton de Kock to work with upfront and although he couldn’t dismiss the opposition captain, he restricted de Kock to six off eight balls, including five dots. After de Kock cracked Navdeep Saini for three successive boundaries, Washington returned to the attack in the Powerplay and tied him down with his usual disciplined lines and lengths.It is hard to see Washington getting game-time with the bat – he is listed at No. 8 or below in this line-up – and with legspinner Rahul Chahar yet to get a proper trial, opportunities may be limited in the coming months. They will shrink further when Chahal and Kuldeep slot back into the side. India have around 25 T20Is to play before the T20 World Cup in Australia next year, and Washington is racing against time to break away from the pack.

Former pillars of the Zimbabwe team, Tatenda Taibu and Henry Olonga, rally calls to re-establish the body to help the cricketers out of the current crisis

Liam Brickhill20-Aug-2019Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) and the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) have agreed terms on a settlement, and the dust is starting to clear in what has been one of the deepest crises in the country’s cricketing history. But the resolution has come too late considering Zimbabwe’s men’s and women’s teams are out of the T20 World Cup next year. Could a players union have kept them out of the administrative power struggle and made a difference to their fate?Zimbabwe is one of the few Full Members to not have an active players’ association, but that’s not for lack of trying on the part of players. In the last few decades, they have tried several times to self organise, bargain collectively and engage in industrial action with the board. There have been minor victories along the way, but sustainable solutions have remained elusive, and the formation of a union in the Zimbabwean context is a knotty subject.

If we survive this, we still have a mountain to climb in changing the cultureHenry Olonga

A divided history
“Zimbabwe is a complex country,” says Henry Olonga. The country’s first black Test cricketer began his career when some of the issues originally arose. Now he’s one of the millions of Zimbabwean scatterlings living around the world, part of almost an entire generation that left home looking for a better life. He had as good a reason as any to take flight.”It’s drawn along tribal lines,” Olonga tells ESPNcricinfo. “Shona vs Ndebele. Whites vs blacks. Rich vs poor. There’s so many lines.”Those lines are no less apparent in cricket, but Zimbabwe’s current crop didn’t invent the problem; they inherited it. “All of this began way back,” Olonga says. “It’s not a recent thing.”At the turn of the millennium, Olonga explains, “the players were starting to understand their value. We were starting to understand how much money was coming in from the ICC. We might not be the smartest cookies in the country, but we can certainly do some math, and we figured it out. That began the process of a shift in power from the board, ZCU [Zimbabwe Cricket Union] as it was [at the time], towards the players.”Death threats forced Henry Olonga to migrate to England, where he took his music career forward•AFPThe first thing they did was pass a vote of no-confidence against their coach, Dave Houghton, during a tour of the Caribbean. Then, ahead of their next trip, to England, they threatened to go and the board offered them a better deal. They enlisted John Bredenkamp, a controversial but well-connected businessman, to represent them.”For the first time, players were recruiting someone who had money and political influence,” Olonga says. “We certainly started to show that if we stuck together, we had bargaining power. We didn’t really have that before, so that was a major power shift. In effect, the gloves were off between us and the board. So the board had to respond, and they did.”When I use that phrase ‘divide and rule’, that’s exactly what they did. In other countries, you’ve got very strong labour laws which might prevent them from exploiting or abusing you. But we just don’t have that in Zimbabwe, at least not enforceable.”A union broken
If anything, the problems faced by the average Zimbabwean cricketer in the early 2000s have only become more acute since. A decade on from Olonga’s premature retirement in 2003, players remained riven by inequalities of their own, and easily taken advantage of.Godwill Mamhiyo moved on from captaining Zimbabwe Under-19 in 2011 to leading Matabeleland Tuskers in the 2014-15 season. Then he stepped away from the game entirely, ending his professional career while still in his early 20s. Last month, Mamhiyo took to Twitter to spell out a considered take on how the country’s cricketers have come to be divided and ruled, and how that contributed to his decision to leave the game.”The system is definitely to blame,” Mamhiyo tells ESPNcricinfo, although he also had first-hand experience in the break-up of a player union during his time as Matabeleland Tuskers captain.

If 15 players are going to eat up the whole cake, then what happens to the rest of the players?Godwill Mamhiyo, former Matabeleland Tuskers captain

In late 2014, all the country’s domestic players went on strike, their second in as many seasons. Through a representative, lawyer Eliah Zvimba, an agreement was brokered to get them playing again, and it hinged on the upcoming World Cup, and the financial windfall that would come with it for participating teams.”The agreement was that that money should filter down all the way from the national captain to the club cricketer in Zimbabwe,” Mamhiyo says. “All the players agreed to this. But the battle went on and on, and again it was [the] divide and conquer [plan].”Instead of being shared among all the cricketers in the country, the World Cup money went primarily to the national squad. The union was broken. “If 15 players are going to eat up the whole cake, then what happens to the rest of the players?” Mamhiyo asks. “It’s things like that that will always cripple the players.”Players are made doubly vulnerable by the extremely challenging economic situation in Zimbabwe and the lack of any alternative to cricket, having turned professional straight out of high school. “At times, people are pressed to make choices that they wouldn’t normally make,” Mamhiyo says. “Sometimes it’s just the economy that dictates things. A sport is an extension of the culture of a nation, and the culture in Zimbabwe is being extended into sport.”Fast bowler Carl Mumba receives his Zimbabwe Test cap from former captain Tatenda Taibu•AFPStronger together
There have been many more attempts by Zimbabwe’s cricketers to organise themselves. Between Bredenkamp and Zvimba came Colin Blythe-Wood, Clive Field and Blessing Mahwire. They have even sought help from the South African Cricketers Association in their efforts over the years. In June last year, there was yet another attempt to form a union, with Brendan Taylor spurring calls for change and mooting Gerald Mlotshwa – the current chairman of the SRC, who has been at loggerheads with ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani – as a potential representative.Tatenda Taibu, Zimbabwe’s first black captain and a firm believer in the need for players to organise, spoke out about ZC’s treatment of Taylor at the time. Taibu calls the nullifying of such player movements “the main element of the old divide and rule tactic.””I also think that part of the problem is that: either not enough players are educated enough to understand certain things or don’t have exposure to know how things are done within an organisation,” Taibu tells ESPNcricinfo. “Definitely, a strong players union is needed and will sort out these problems.”Olonga agrees that an active players’ union is necessary. “If we survive this, we still have a mountain to climb in changing the culture,” he said. “To retain players and value players, and put that all together to turn us into a winning combination. It’s hard enough to win matches at the best of times. To make yourself a competitive team, you need all your ducks lined up in a row. I don’t know how they’re going to deal with it. They need a vibrant players body.”

Following the white-ball leg of India’s domestic season, here are eight young talents who could make a splash at the IPL auction

Deivarayan Muthu02-Dec-2019Yashasvi Jaiswal (Mumbai)Quite a few IPL franchises were reportedly interested in the Mumbai teenager in the lead-up to the IPL 2019 auction as well, but they wanted him to expand his range and power-hitting before they could invest in him. Jaiswal has shown the talent scouts this season that he can roll out the big hits, cracking 25 sixes in six Vijay Hazare Trophy 50-overs games. Only Kerala’s Vishnu Vinod – who has earlier been a replacement player with Royal Challengers Bangalore – hit more sixes than Jaiswal, but he had the benefit of playing eight matches.Twelve of Jaiswal’s 25 sixes came during his remarkable double-century against a Jharkhand attack comprising Varun Aaron, Shahbaz Nadeem and Anukul Roy in Alur. Before he travels to South Africa for the Under-19 World Cup next year, the 17-year old could well have a fat IPL contract in his kitty.ALSO READ – Yashasvi Jaiswal: From selling pani puris to smashing List A double-tonR Sai Kishore prepares to bowl at the Chennai Super Kings nets•R Sai KishoreR Sai Kishore (Tamil Nadu)Sai, a left-arm fingerspinner who thrives while bowling in the powerplay in the TNPL (Tamil Nadu Premier League), showed he could perform a similar role for his state team in their run to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final. Sai is six feet three inches tall, and often hits awkward lengths in the powerplay. He finished the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament as the leading wicket-taker, with 20 strikes at an average of 10.40, and an outstanding economy rate of 4.63. And 15 of those 20 wickets came in the Powerplay, when there are just two fielders outside the circle.While some of the tracks in Surat were helpful to spin, Sai also impressed in the league phase in Thiruvananthapuram, and held his own while bowling in dewy conditions later in the tournament. From Chennai Super Kings net bowler to a member of their squad come December ’19?ALSO READ – Sai Kishore – spinning fingers and sweet dreamsPriyam Garg (Uttar Pradesh)India Under-19 captain. Already a regular for Uttar Pradesh in first-class and List A cricket. And in November he made a counterattacking 77-ball 74 in the Deodhar Trophy final on a slow pitch in Ranchi with his side in tatters around him. Get more acquainted with 19-year old batsman Garg, who is already known for his fluid strokeplay in domestic circles. Garg seems to have the game to dominate attacks as well and while he might not break into an IPL first XI immediately, he provides a good back-up option.Ishan Porel runs in to bowl•ICC/Getty ImagesIshan Porel (Bengal)Fast bowlers who can hit speeds of 140kph and beyond usually pique the interest of IPL sides, and Bengal’s Porel might do so too. When Porel had broken into the India Under-19 set-up, he largely bowled at the 125-130kph range, but can now bowl accurate bouncers and yorkers at 140kph. The 21-year old fast bowler has also been an India A regular recently, and bagged 5 for 43, including the wickets of Jaiswal, Kedar Jadhav and Vijay Shankar, in the 50-over Deodhar Trophy final in Ranchi in November. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy that preceded the Deodhar Trophy, Porel had picked up 10 wickets in six matches at 25.60, while maintaining an economy rate of 4.68.Rohan Kadam during a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy game•Rohan Kadam/KSCARohan Kadam (Karnataka)Kadam, the top run-getter in the 2018-19 Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, came good this season as well, helping Karnataka defend their T20 title with 258 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 131.63, including a busy 35 in the final. Just when Tamil Nadu were threatening a comeback, Kadam absorbed the pressure along with his captain Manish Pandey. But his most impressive knock was his 47-ball 71 against against Mumbai, which helped rescue Karnataka from 19 for 3 and vault them to 171 for 6.Kadam missed an IPL trial with defending champions Mumbai Indians a day before the Hazare knockouts, but has now given various franchises enough reason to think about bidding for him at the auction.ALSO READ – Fitness revolution helps Kadam chart a new courseRavi Bishnoi (Rajasthan)A legspinner who can also bat lower down the order, Bishnoi is part of the Garg-led India Under-19 side for the World Cup. Bishnoi, who bowls a skiddy wrong’un, has grabbed 12 wickets in seven youth ODIs at an economy rate of 4.37. He also bowled thrifty spells in the Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali tournaments and could well be on the radar of teams who are on the lookout for a young wristspinner. Last week, he came in as a like-for-like swap for Rahul Chahar in Rajasthan’s semi-final clash against Tamil Nadu. Although the left-handed Washington Sundar nullified his threat with the ball, Bishnoi contributed an unbeaten 22 to help Rajasthan post a decent total.Shahrukh Khan plays an uppercut•NurPhoto/Getty ImagesM Shahrukh Khan (Tamil Nadu)”He’s got some special shots and is very promising but more importantly the journey for him is to understand these situations and try and come out doing the best he can. He’s training hard, he’s on the path, doing everything he can to succeed.”This was Tamil Nadu captain Dinesh Karthik’s assessment of batting allrounder Shahrukh during the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Shahrukh was the state side’s finisher in the 50-over tournament and made a crucial unbeaten half-century in the semi-final in Bengaluru to lead his team into the final.Shahrukh floated up the line-up in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament and, although he couldn’t make big scores at the top, he got Tamil Nadu off to a few quick starts. While speaking to ESPNcricinfo during the white-ball season, he recalled vague memories of Chennai Super Kings’ Faf du Plessis being present when he won the Junior Super Kings tournament in 2012. Will he get to play alongside du Plessis for Super Kings next year? Or will Shahrukh Khan and Karthik scoop him up for Knight Riders?ALSO READ – Shahrukh Khan, and a potential box-office hitVirat Singh (Jharkhand)Say hello to Virat, who is a big fan of MS Dhoni and is a former India Under-19 player. The left-hand, top-order batsman from Jharkhand enjoyed a productive Syed Mushtaq Ali season, hitting 343 runs in 10 innings at an average of 57.16 and a strike rate of 142.32. He made three half-centuries, including an unbeaten 76 off 44 balls that threatened to topple eventual champions Karnataka in the Super league. Virat was also at it the Deodhar Trophy, his 76 off 96 balls forming the centerpiece of India C’s recovery from 126 for 5 against India B. So, has he done enough to attract the attention of the IPL franchises?

It has been a strange season for Alejandro Garnacho. The Manchester United attacker has ten goals and eight assists across all competitions this term, but just six of those 18 goal involvements have come in the Premier League, in 31 games.

With that being said, the 20-year-old has achieved a huge milestone this season. Last weekend, he scored his 15th Premier League goal, coming against Newcastle United as Ruben Amorim’s side slipped to a 4-1 defeat.

Impressively, that took him past his idol, and one of the best players in United’s history, Cristiano Ronaldo, for goals at the same age. At 20 years old, the former Red Devils number seven had just 14 top-flight goals.

However, Garnacho certainly has a way to go before he can match Ronaldo’s legacy at Old Trafford.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Man Utd legacy

Once described as “the greatest player of all time” by former teammate Gary Neville on Sky Sports, few in history have done it like Ronaldo. The 40-year-old is now plying his trade in Saudi Arabia, but his extraordinary career really took off during his first spell at Old Trafford.

After signing for United in 2003 for a reported £12.24m, the Portugal star scored 118 times and grabbed 60 assists in 292 appearances for the English giants.

He was phenomenal, winning three Premier League titles in a row and the Champions League in 2007/08.

That 2007/08 campaign was nothing short of extraordinary, with United winning the double and Ronaldo the Ballon d’Or in 2008, becoming the best player on the planet. He scored 42 goals and provided eight in 49 games in all competitions that season.

His move to Real Madrid in the summer of 2009 for a then-world-record £80m was certainly devastating for the Red Devils. He was, in many ways, irreplaceable. Although their success continued, it was never easy to replace someone like Ronaldo.

Well, they might well be in danger of a repeat situation this summer, in a deal worth even more than Ronaldo’s back in 2009.

Man Utd’s new Ronaldo in 2025

If you asked United fans 16 years ago which player they would least like to be sold, Ronaldo would likely have been the answer. Well, in 2025, the answer to that question would surely be Bruno Fernandes.

It has been an unforgettable season for United’s captain Fernandes, in what has been a poor season as a side. He has an incredible 16 goals and 18 assists in 46 games in all competitions for the Red Devils.

His eight goals and ten assists in the Premier League this term ensures it is his second-best season in terms of output since his move to United back in 2020. The only season he exceeded those numbers was 2020/21, when he scored and assisted 29 goals. As Statman Dave said, he is a “machine”.

It isn’t easy to pinpoint one performance from the Red Devils’ number eight that has been his best this season. He has managed multiple goal involvements in a single game eight times, but his best was arguably the excellent hat-trick against Real Sociedad in the Europa League.

Indeed, Fernandes’ underlying FBref numbers compared to other midfielders in the last 365 days are astounding. For example, the 30-year-old averages 9.32 progressive passes, which ranks him in the top 3% of midfielders.

Goals and assists

0.65

99th

Key passes

3.15

99th

Progressive passes

9.32

97th

Shot-creating actions

5.93

99th

Ball recoveries

6.10

85th

United fans – and Amorim – may be worrying that their captain will leave the club, given Madrid were recently linked with a move. At the end of March, the Daily Star claimed Los Blancos are targeting a £90m move for their talisman.

That would see him leave for even more than Ronaldo did all those years ago, and given Fernandes’ importance to this United side, there is certainly a case to be made that this would be an even bigger loss.

The Red Devils will surely be hoping Fernandes doesn’t become their new Ronaldo, in that sense.

Upgrade on Rashford: Man Utd leading the race to sign £30m "monster"

Man Utd are looking for attacking reinforcements this summer

ByJoe Nuttall Apr 16, 2025

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has been immensely successful throughout his time with the Scottish giants, in his second spell now with the club.

The Northern Irish boss won seven trophies in just over two-and-a-half years at Parkhead between 2016 and 2019 in his first go at it with the Hoops, before joining Premier League side Leicester City.

Rodgers won two trophies in his first year back at Celtic last term, securing the Scottish Premiership title and the SFA Cup, and is currently on course to land the domestic treble.

The Hoops beat Rangers on penalties to win the League Cup in the first half of the season, they are one game away from winning the league title, and they are in the SFA Cup final against Aberdeen.

This means that the former Leicester and Liverpool head coach could have won 12 trophies in his career with Celtic to date by the end of this season.

The Northern Irish tactician has clearly been hugely successful for the Scottish giants, but that does not mean he has been perfect throughout that time. In fact, there have been some question marks over his centre-back selections of late, with Liam Scales getting the nod at the weekend.

Celtic's centre-back debate

The Hoops started the 2024/25 campaign with Cameron Carter-Vickers and Stephen Welsh as the two first-choice options in the right centre-back role and Auston Trusty and Liam Scales as the two first-choice options on the left side of the pairing.

Rodgers recently revealed that he prefers to play a left-footed player on the left side of the defence because it “allows you to get through the pitch quicker”, but he has had problems in that position this season.

Scales and Trusty have both dropped out of the team at times, with neither able to definitively say that they are the number one option, and thay may be because of the mistakes that they have made in the Premiership.

Appearances

22

20

Starts

17

20

Error led to shot

1

4

Error led to goal

0

1

Penalties committed

1

0

Dribbled past

4x

10x

As you can see in the table above, they have both started a similar number of matches and have combined for five errors that led to shots, one error that led to a goal, and one penalty conceded. Trusty has also been dribbled past twice as much as the Irishman, as opposition forwards have found it too easy to get the better of him.

These statistics show that the two naturally left-footed defenders in the squad have not been particularly reliable at the back, because of the errors that they have made in the Premiership.

Scales started the 5-0 win over St. Johnstone in the SFA Cup and the 5-1 win over Kilmarnock in the Premiership, suggesting that he is currently ahead of Trusty in the pecking order.

That is despite Scales (£3m) being worth significantly less than Trusty (£6.4m), as per Transfermarkt, who joined the club from Sheffield United last summer.

The Irish defender’s value may have been higher, however, if he had more game time on the pitch because he has only started 17 times in the Premiership, which means that the centre-back has not had as many starts to showcase his quality as Trusty has had.

But Scales is not the only central defender who falls into that category. Rodgers has also messed up with Polish stopper Maik Nawrocki, whose value has plummeted during his time at Celtic.

Why Maik Nawrocki's value has plummeted at Celtic

The Hoops were in the market for a replacement for Carl Starfelt in the summer of 2023 and decided to splash a reported fee of £4.3m on the Legia Warsaw squad to bolster their options in that position.

That was a significant outlay, given it was the most expensive signing of the summer as per Transfermarkt, for Celtic and that suggests that they expected him to play a key role on the pitch.

That was not what happened, though, as Nawrocki went on to play just ten times, starting seven of those outings, in the Premiership during the 2023/24 campaign.

He won 57% of his duels and did not make a single error that led to a shot, goal, or penalty in those ten matches, but that was not enough to earn him a regular place in the team.

Carter-Vickers has nailed down the right-sided centre-back role and that has left Nawrocki fighting for a place on the left, which leaves him at an immediate disadvantage as a right-footer.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

He did not make a single appearance in the league until March of this season, when injuries to Trusty and Scales presented him with a chance to shine against Rangers and Hearts.

Nawrocki took his chance to impress in both of those matches, as you can see in the table below, by dominating opposition attackers in duels and being reliable in possession.

Minutes

90

90

Clearances

7

9

Blocks

0

3

Tackles + interceptions

5

1

Duels won

7/10

8/9

Dribbled past

0x

0x

Pass accuracy

93%

98%

Error led to shot/goal

0

0

These performances from the £12k-per-week star were not enough to keep his place in the side, however, as he has been an unused substitute for the last two Premiership matches and did not make the matchday squad against St. Johnstone in the SFA Cup.

As a result of his lack of minutes on the pitch in the last two seasons, Nawrocki’s Transfermarkt value has plummeted millions down to just £1.7m, making him worth even less than Scales and Trusty.

This shows that Rodgers has messed up with the defender because Nawrocki was brought in for a whopping £4.3m and has rarely been used by the manager, despite his impressive performances, and the club now have a depreciating asset because of it.

Celtic fumbled the next Dembele when "generational" star left on the cheap

Celtic fumbled another Karamoko Dembele when they lost Ben Doak on the cheap.

ByDan Emery Apr 22, 2025

It will now be interesting to see what Celtic do with Nawrocki in the summer because he is not worth anywhere near as much as the fee they paid for him due to Rodgers’ reluctance to use him, and he does not seem likely to be a key player moving forward due to his lack of minutes.

Leicester City are preparing for life back in the Championship and could now land a bargain signing as they begin to build for next season and beyond, according to a report.

Leicester City begin to build for life after relegation

Relegation is hardly a death sentence, but this season is something Foxes supporters will be keen to forget about as they return to England’s second-tier under Ruud van Nistelrooy or indeed a new boss. The former Netherlands international is under scrutiny at the King Power Stadium and may be at risk of the axe despite securing a rare Premier League victory over Southampton last weekend.

With Leicester’s managerial position potentially up for grabs, Bristol City boss Liam Manning could replace Van Nistelrooy in the dugout after leading the Robins to the Championship playoffs this campaign.

Russell Martin and Danny Rohl are other reported Foxes candidates, which could cause a temporary hold-up when it comes to transfer dealings as their hierarchy decide whether to stick or twist. Earning promotion at the first attempt is never easy. Still, the theory of clubs in receipt of parachute payments standing a better chance has proven to be true over recent years.

Leicester City eye move for new 40 y/o manager who has same agent as Vardy

He’s been in the Championship before.

ByCharlie Smith Apr 9, 2025

If anything, there is still encouragement for Leicester in the face of some dark recent times. Jamie Vardy’s departure signals the end of an era, but a new one can begin provided the club make some savvy additions in the next few months.

Pre-season will breed optimism that they can return to the top-flight, and supporters could now have another reason to be excited following recent developments.

Leicester City ready to strike for Manchester United's Jack Kingdon

According to EFL Analysis, Leicester are one of four clubs circling for Manchester United youngster Jack Kingdon, who is set to leave Old Trafford on a free transfer once his contract expires at the end of the month.

The former Scotland Under-19 international is also on the radar of Wrexham, Millwall and Derby County following an impressive spell on loan at Rochdale.

Jack Kingdon’s combined statistics in 2024/25 – all competitions

Appearances

25

Goals

0

Assists

1

Only Southampton have conceded more goals than the Foxes in the Premier League this season, which may have prompted Van Nistelrooy and company to seek reinforcements to counter inevitable outgoings this summer. Realistically, Kingdon is unlikely to be a first-team starter straight away at 19 years of age, though his availability on a free transfer and potential to develop could be worth taking a chance on.

Lausanne Sport tried to sign the central defender in January and have been mooted as another potential destination amid Manchester United’s decision not to offer the Bolton-born man fresh terms.

Kingdon is likely to have the pick of several exciting destinations this summer, and Leicester will hope to convince the prodigious talent that there is a place for him to learn and develop at the King Power.