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What exactly was said, we’ll never know but Kohli didn’t awaken a beast – he’s been up for a while

Vithushan Ehantharajah03-Jul-20225:48

#PoliteEnquiries: Is Kohli allowed to sledge Bairstow?

The easiest excuse – indeed the best for Search Engine Optimisation purposes – is to blame Virat Kohli.Jonny Bairstow was just 13 from 61 deliveries, with only a single four to his name. He’d survived an lbw appeal from Jasprit Bumrah, and had just about made it through a stern examination from Mohammed Shami, who beat both edges of Bairstow’s bat five times up to that point. England’s hero of the summer so far was in desperate need of rescuing.And then Kohli decided to engage Bairstow. What exactly was said, we’ll never know. But there he was, personifying India’s bolshiness at the time, with the Dukes ball doing just as much baiting of the opposing batters as the former captain. Bairstow boomed a drive at the next delivery, missing completely. Kohli bellowed with laughter. Then Bairstow struck 93 off his next 79 deliveries and moved onto his 11th Test hundred.Kohli, however, did not awaken a beast. “There was literally nothing to it,” said Bairstow with a smile in his press conference at stumps.Besides, the beast has been up for a while. And no longer is it fuelled by antagonism. New Zealand didn’t say a word to Bairstow and look what happened to them.Related

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Test century No. 5 of 2022 means Bairstow is well on course to beat the English record of six in a calendar year, with an innings to come here, three Tests against South Africa before the summer is over, then a couple of Tests in Pakistan in December. Joe Root equalled that record only last year, and no one in their right minds would have thought it would be under threat so soon. We’ve only just got into July.Weird as it feels to say when someone blitzes the last 87 runs of their 100 from 58 balls, but this was pretty regulation by Bairstow’s new standards. Shami and Bumrah were tonked down the ground, and by the time Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj came on, the Jonny Eyes were in. Both were taken for six deep into the leg side in among the fours flicked off the pads and slapped straight or driven square. The boundary that took him over the line, a punch to the cover-point boundary, was more of timing than malice, and still beat the fielder to the sponge.You’d think after three hundreds in the last 20 days, in which time he has scored 8.96% of all his Test runs, we’d have a better answer than “clarity” when asked to explain this absurd hot streak. But that’s exactly it.”I’ve never been a great technician, have I?” he joked. “That’s why you lot have torn me to shreds a few times: going leg side of it, going off side of it, bowled through the gate. Nah, genuinely, I’ve not really thought of technique and stuff like that to be honest with you. I’ve just stripped everything back and trying to focus on watching the ball. There’s my honest answer.”The result is a man batting in a way that is uniquely him. If Root is the poster boy of conforming, perfecting the side on, straight lines of this world, then Bairstow is the radical who is thriving by being himself. No longer is he hamstrung by the need to make all the necessary shapes to fit in. He’s simply trusting his eyes and hands, in turn making believers of countless doubters who had made their minds up on him after, in their defence, averaging 21 in 18 Tests between the start of 2019 and the end of 2021, while he was still trying to do an impression of a Test cricketer.Jonny Bairstow scored his fifth Test century of 2022•Getty ImagesWe should also note, it hasn’t just been brute thrashing, regardless of what a breakdown of his 485 runs so far this summer suggest. The strike rate is 110, and 67% of his runs have come in boundaries (75 in total, 12 of them sixes), with one every 5.9 deliveries. But only four of those have been what you might term “loose”, meaning even at his most aggressive, the likelihood of him going for a big shot and nailing it exactly where he wants is 94.7%. Of the 44 batters who have hit 50 or more to the fence in an English summer, no one has exhibited more control.The other conclusion to take from all of this is that “Bazball” is nothing without Bairstow. In fact, had he not batted as he did at Trent Bridge, blitzing 136 from 92 to see England most of the way to a chase of 299 from 50 overs, “Bazball” might not even be a thing. The broader concept of getting players to express themselves and play for enjoyment and entertainment might still be there, but the scale of belief, the sense of altruism and the fearlessness would not. All of which has come almost exclusively from Bairstow.On Sunday, we perhaps got our clearest indication he can only do so much to carry the team, and that his clear thinking isn’t quite catching on. Root’s tame demise for 31 on the evening of day two, edging behind when trying to cut Siraj when the ball was too close, was compounded by captain Ben Stokes slapping Thakur to Bumrah at mid off. Having been dropped twice, including the ball before by the Indian skipper, Stokes offered an immediate chance to make amends. England were eventually 284 all out and trail India by 257 going into day four, with seven second-innings wickets still to be taken.For all the excitement of Stokes’ charges down the wicket and Root’s reverse lap sweeps, their method carries a freneticism that Bairstow’s does not. They are both more than capable of pumping up the run rate and moving games along, as they’ve shown in previous eras, without needing to take the kind of risks they are. No need to chug – just sip the Kool-Aid.”Whatever they set, they set, and we’ll go about it whatever,” announced Bairstow, reading straight from the pamphlet. “We’ll be going about it in the same manner and we’re looking to take the game forward. Why not?”We know he will. The question is – who else is going to join him?

He has not been sleeping very well leading into the Wellington Test, but come match day, he stood up to make it count

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Wellington22-Feb-2020It was poised to be that kind of day for India. A day when they were bowled out cheaply, just when conditions were getting better to bat in. A day when their bowlers weren’t doing a whole lot wrong, but weren’t at their best either. A day when New Zealand were threatening to pull away.But they kept themselves in the game, just about, thanks mostly to Ishant Sharma.Ishant was coming back from a grade-three ankle injury, having recovered from it at an almost miraculous pace. He had landed in New Zealand less than a week before the Test match, and was still struggling with jetlag.”I could only sleep for 40 minutes last night,” he said, at his end-of-day press conference. “The night before that, I slept for only three hours.”Sleep-deprived and perhaps not yet entirely back at his physical peak, Ishant didn’t bowl the long spells he usually gets through. The 15 overs he sent down on day two were rationed into five separate spells, the longest of which lasted four overs.India looked flat and in need of inspiration almost every time Ishant began a new spell. The others weren’t doing badly, but they weren’t doing well either. This might have been okay on another day, but India had only put 165 on the board here.Jasprit Bumrah was playing his first Test since returning from a stress fracture, and the rhythm wasn’t quite there. He had seemed to find it in the warm-up match, where he hit his lengths almost as soon as he began his first spell, but here he looked edgy, walking back to his mark a little too quickly between deliveries, bowling good balls without necessarily stringing them together into pressure-building sequences, and looking like he was searching a little too eagerly for that one wicket that would make everything okay.Mohammed Shami had begun well, squaring Tom Blundell up twice in his first three overs and finding his leading edge both times. Those balls had fallen safely, though, and the batsmen had become used to the spongy bounce of the Basin Reserve pitch. But as a result of those two balls to Blundell, maybe, Shami was bowling a touch too short, not bringing the batsmen forward enough.R Ashwin was getting the ball to grip and turn more than a fingerspinner might usually do on a second-day Wellington pitch, and had spun one between Blundell’s bat and pad early on, only for bounce to save the batsman from getting bowled. But Kane Williamson was not allowing him to settle at all; against lengths that may have drawn other batsmen forward, he was trusting his back-foot game to keep punching Ashwin into the covers, where a defensive fielder, two-thirds of the way to the boundary, would soon appear.Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah share a light moment•AFPIshant had gotten a little lucky with his first wicket, Tom Latham strangling a catch down the leg side. That dismissal seemed to have happened a long time ago when Ishant came back for his third spell. New Zealand were 72 for 1, with Blundell and Williamson both batting on 30.Little seemed to be happening in the air or off the pitch at that stage, with the sun out, the wind down to a simmer, and the batsmen well set. Ishant’s first ball, however, seemed to swing a long way into Williamson. The ball may have gotten a lesser batsman in trouble, but Williamson had all the time in the world to work it off his stumps and down to fine leg for one.His third ball started on around fifth stump, and seemed once again to swing, this time away from the right-hander. It wasn’t a difficult leave for Blundell, but the fact of the ball leaving the right-hander, that too in the air, suggested Ishant might be finding reverse-swing.Perhaps it was all just an illusion. “No, it was not reversing,” Ishant said. “Actually, nothing was happening. I was trying that something might happen from the wicket. So I was just not holding the ball on the seam but trying different things. Kookaburra, after 40 or 50 overs, the seam really gets soft. So you need to come hard and hit the length very hard if you hold the ball cross-seam. That’s what happened.”So cross-seam then. The next ball jagged off the pitch, inwards, from the perfect length, which had brought Blundell forward but not far enough. A gap appeared between his front pad and defensive bat, and the ball snuck through. New Zealand 73 for 2.They were 91 for 2 when Ishant finished his three-over spell, with Ross Taylor, playing his 100th Test, having just kicked his innings into gear with a slog-swept six off Ashwin. By the time Ishant came back into the attack, 17 overs later, the score was 152 for 2.Williamson and Taylor were batting beautifully, putting together the kind of third-wicket partnership India fans have seen numerous times in their home Tests, between Dravid and Tendulkar, for instance, or Pujara and Kohli. The two best batsmen in the team chugging along effortlessly to consolidate a position of strength, and refusing to let the visiting bowlers settle into any sort of rhythm.Ishant Sharma goes up in appeal against Tom Latham•Getty ImagesTaylor, for instance, wasn’t letting Ashwin bowl his best ball – the flighted offbreak landing outside off stump. He’d played that slog-sweep when he’d only just come in, and when Ashwin tried that line again later in his spell, he got down low to paddle him fine for four. In between, as a result, Ashwin mostly bowled stump-to-stump and a little flatter and fuller than he’d ideally have liked to bowl, just to prevent Taylor from sweeping.Shami and Bumrah, stretching themselves to break the partnership, erred in line or length every now and then. Williamson caressed drives either side of mid-off, or got on his toes to punch through point. Taylor played a couple of leg glances, off balls that may have gone on to hit leg stump or even part of middle, his hands somehow whirring through the shot despite his having to play around his front pad.By the time Ishant returned, eight of the previous ten overs had contained a boundary. New Zealand trailed by a mere 13 runs. The pitch, which had offered so much sideways and vertical assistance on day one, was now appearing a lot more straightforward to bat on.But there was still something in it, and the taller bowlers – Kyle Jamieson and Tim Southee during India’s innings, Ishant now – were seeming to extract that little bit more from it.”I’m not sure,” Southee said, when asked about this at his press conference. “It seems like one of those wickets where the odd one, every now and then, stands up a little bit, and I guess when you’re a little bit taller you can kind of expose that a little bit more.”Ishant had a square-ish leg gully in place when he bowled to Taylor now, in his fourth spell. With the first ball of his third over, he bowled the perfect delivery to produce a lobbed catch to that fielder, and there’s no way he could have bowled it entirely on purpose. Taylor, pressing onto the front foot with his trigger movement, was in no position to deal with one that spat up from just short of a length, all the while jagging back in and cramping him for room.Even if Ishant couln’t have bowled it entirely on purpose, there was still a method to the dismissal, and it was much the same as the method employed by Jamieson on day one. But where Jamieson had used his short ball to push batsmen back, and then used the fuller one as his wicket-taking ball, Ishant had gone the other way.Of all the fast bowlers to have bowled on the first two days – not including the medium-paced Colin de Grandhomme – Ishant bowled the greatest percentage of deliveries (64.44) that brought the batsmen onto the front foot, according to ESPNcricinfo’s data. Southee came closest (63.64) while Shami (48.04) and Jamieson (48.96) brought up the rear.Different bowlers have different methods, and there’s no right or wrong one, but committing batsmen onto the front foot will most certainly heighten the danger of your short ball. Or the shortish ball that rears up unexpectedly.It was just the ball a somnolent India had needed to jolt back to life, even if the man who bowled it would have much rather been in bed himself.

Former Arsenal star Nicolas Pepe has used a Dragon Ball Z analogy to explain the GOAT battle that continues to rage between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The Portuguese superstar is considered to be Vegeta to Messi’s Goku, with Pepe claiming that the eight-time Ballon d’Or-winning Argentine “slaps everyone” when it comes to the greatest of all-time debate.

• GOAT debate: Messi & Ronaldo battle for No.1 spot

  Discussion regarding who can rightly call themselves the best to ever do it has rumbled on for over 20 years. Ronaldo and Messi have spent two decades at the very top of their chosen profession, claiming 13 Golden Balls and countless entries in the record books between them.

  Messi, who has enhanced his standing as the most decorated player in history with an MLS Cup triumph at Inter Miami – taking him to 47 major honours – is a World Cup winner and the man held up by many as the finest performer of this, or any other generation.

  Others have sided with Ronaldo, with the Al-Nassr icon – who has previously turned out for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus – still going strong at 40 years of age as he continues to prove what can be achieved through relentless hard work.

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  Messi vs Ronaldo: Dragon Ball Z analogy

  Ronaldo, who is giving no thought to retirement just yet, has happily billed himself as the GOAT. He is set to grace another World Cup next summer, with Messi also expected to take part at that event as Argentina seek to defend their global crown in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

  Pepe could also make that tournament with the Ivory Coast and has added his voice to the long-running GOAT debate. The 30-year-old forward, who is now on the books of Spanish side Villarreal, has told of why CR7 talks too much to be considered the greatest: “Cristiano Ronaldo does a lot of interviews, and he talks a lot about Messi, and that's how you see that he (Ronaldo) is number two.

  “You know Dragon Ball Z? Vegeta always talked like that (about Goku), and who never talked: Goku. Ronaldo has the same frustration that Messi is always ahead of him.

  “In the Messi or Ronaldo debate, I say Messi, if you only look at football properly, forget the stats, all that, Messi is insane. There is no human on earth that can look Messi in the eyes(play like Messi). There won't be another Messi.”

• Super powers: Pepe explains why Messi 'slaps everyone'

  Pepe, who spent four years tied to Premier League giants Arsenal between 2019 and 2023, added on why he will always pick South American flair over Portuguese passion: “As a footballer? Messi slaps everyone, he's an otherworldly being, and we'll never see a player like him again. In discussions about Messi and Ronaldo, I say Messi.

  “When you talk about statistics and what each player does, there are those who might say Ronaldo, but if you're following football closely because the experts and everyone in the field, in fact, say Messi.

  "Forget the statistics, forget who jumps high, who shoots powerfully, just focus on the football itself! Messi is a crazy thing. Neymar at the peak of his form looks directly into Cristiano's eyes (meaning on the same level), forget about the statistics.”

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  Samba superstar: Why Neymar does not run Messi close

  Brazilian superstar Neymar – who remains the most expensive player in history after joining Paris Saint-Germain for €222 million (£194m/$258m) in 2017 – has run Messi and Ronaldo close at times over the course of his career, but has never been able to land a Ballon d’Or and seen unfortunate injuries limit his powers.

  Quizzed on whether Brazil’s all-time leading scorer occupies the same talent pool as Messi, with his game all about entertaining with quick feet and clever flicks, Pepe said: “No, no, he doesn't look into Messi's eyes, Messi gives him two slaps on the face.”

  Messi has committed to a contract at Inter Miami through 2028, which will take him beyond his 40th birthday, while Ronaldo is working on a new two-year deal at Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr and is being tipped to play on towards more international tournaments with Portugal – having already earned 226 caps and scored 143 goals for his country.

Newcastle United have now reportedly made their first contact to sign Ruben Neves from Al-Hilal, as they look to find a solution for their current problems under Eddie Howe.

The Magpies were in dire form before the international break and defeat at the hands of Brentford just about summed things up. For the first time in his tenure at St James’ Park, Howe is under pressure to get things right and turn things around as soon as possible, but with Manchester City up next there’s no doubt that’s easier said than done.

The manager admitted that Newcastle’s Premier League form has “not been good” at a recent charity dinner, saying: “Our Premier League form has not been good, and our away form has not been good. [But] our home form’s been strong, been good in the Champions League and we’re still in the Carabao Cup, so it’s a mixture of things.

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“It’s been difficult to pinpoint one thing but certainly, we know we have to improve the general performances. We’re looking for more consistency – we’re looking for more goals.

“We’re looking for a big response in this moment and we’re going to need them because we have got game after game. Our schedule for the next two months is relentless, so we can’t allow any sort of negative trend to continue. It’s a really important few weeks for us.”

It’s form that has arrived off the back of a fairly chaotic summer transfer window, in which Newcastle missed out on almost every top target before turning elsewhere.

Under new sporting director Ross Wilson, that simply cannot happen in January and the Magpies have already set their sights on stars such as Elliot Anderson and Neves in a midfield rebuild as a result.

Newcastle make contact to sign Neves

As reported by Caught Offside, Newcastle have now made contact to sign Neves from Al-Hilal in 2026. The midfielder has just over six months left on his current contract and will be available for just €20m (£18m) in the January transfer window.

Whilst PIF, who hold a majority stake in Al-Hilal, could be about to lose Neves in Saudi Arabia, they could use their existing relationship with the Portuguese star to bring him to Newcastle.

Unlike Al-Hilal, however, the Magpies could struggle to meet his current wage demands. As things stand, the 28-year-old earns £15m-a-year in Saudi Arabia, which would instantly make him Newcastle’s highest-earner by around £7m. It’s simply not doable unless he brings his demands down.

Putting those wage demands to one side, though, there’s little doubt that Neves would be an excellent signing. Dubbed “fantastic” by former manager Nuno Espirito Santo during his time at Wolves, Neves would ease Newcastle’s fears of struggling in the face of a potential Sandro Tonali exit and could even form an impressive partnership using the Italian.

Find a way past his salary demands and those in Tyneside should go all out to bring Neves back to the Premier League in 2026.

Newcastle hold strong interest in Elliot Anderson amid Thomas Tuchel comments

Richard Hughes was rightly lauded after overseeing a staggering summer transfer window for Premier League champions Liverpool, but any positivity has been scourged away by the dreadful form that has fractured Arne Slot’s reign.

Nine losses across 12 fixtures is bad enough, but the limp and toothless manner of many of the defeats – especially recent losses at Anfield against Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League – underscores the severity of the crisis Slot is dealing with.

He needs to find answers, or else FSG will be forced into making a rare managerial dismissal. It’s inevitable that discussion is increasing about the security of Slot’s position.

That would be an outcome few of a Red persuasion would want, not least because of a shortage of options.

Jurgen Klopp’s name has been bandied about, but this is not realistic.

Who Liverpool could replace Slot with

Klopp draped the curtain on his Liverpool dynasty at the end of the 2023/24 campaign. He was tired. It had been a tough, gruelling, heavy metal career on Merseyside, where he had devoted nine years to restoring Anfield as a global superpower.

Premier League

1x

19/20

Champions League

1x

18/19

FA Cup

1x

21/22

Carabao Cup

2x

21/22, 23/24

Club World Cup

1x

19/20

UEFA Super Cup

1x

19/20

Community Shield

1x

22/23

There has been some discussion online as to whether FSG should push for a comeback, but this romanticised notion would fall flat.

Klopp is not the answer. His quasi-retirement has seen him assume the post of Head of Global Soccer for Red Bull GmbH, and it’s important to remember that the German tactician’s tactical shrewdness waned toward the end of his tenure. He was tired, after all.

But, if Slot is fired, Liverpool would need to find a replacement, and Spanish sources suggest Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola is on the shortlist.

Iraola, 43, is one of the most exciting young managers in Europe, having shaped the Cherries into a front-footed and sharp attacking outfit.

Compensation pay would be required to pull him away from the Vitality Stadium, but given Iraola’s vision aligns with the club’s long-term project, he might be the one to go for.

Why Iraola could be perfect for Liverpool

It was a bold move for Bournemouth to ditch Gary O’Neil after the pragmatic manager steered the club to safety after promotion to the Premier League in 2022/23. A bold move, but one carried out with diligence, for Iraola was earmarked as a progressive option.

And Bill Foley must be delighted. In 2023/24, Bournemouth recorded a record points total (56) in the Premier League, leading​ journalist James Horncastle to hail him as “the best coach in the Premier League” for his sharp-witted and positive approach.

Iraola likes aggressive and high-octane football. He is not as turbo-charged in his approach as Klopp, but the Spaniard would infuse Liverpool with more risk-taking and directness than Slot prefers, albeit still maintaining an emphasis on retaining possession.

This could play to the strengths of Florian Wirtz, who has had a tough time since joining Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen for £116m in the summer.

A silky and inventive attacking midfielder, the German has yet to register a goal involvement in the Premier League and has lacked the clarity and poise that was expected after the thrill of his official announcement.

There remains a world-class talent in there, and Wirtz’s woes come with the caveat that he has entered a dysfunctional tactical system.

Iraola’s focus on a 4-2-3-1 formation suggests that the 22-year-old could find a natural place at number ten. As per FBref, he does rank among the top 11% of positional peers in the English top flight this term for shot-creating actions and the top 4% for passes attempted and progressive passes per 90.

This suggests that Wirtz has the potential to be a superstar in England, and Iraola can provide the stability and fluency of tactics to help realise that.

He might not be Klopp, but Iraola has labelled his tactics as being akin to “rock and roll”. Klopp’s famous branding of his vision as being ‘heavy metal football’ suggests that Liverpool might hit the jackpot by making this switch.

No one wants to see Slot be sacked, but this pitiful form and level of performance cannot be allowed to continue, and Iraola has the acumen to revive Wirtz and bring the champions back into the ascendancy.

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