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The most pressing fitness worry may be over Jofra Archer, who has a “tightness in his left side” and will be assessed ahead of the India match

George Dobell26-Jun-2019England left Lord’s with concerns not just for the defeat against Australia but the fitness of several members of their squad.Partially due to earlier results – notably the defeats against Pakistan and Sri Lanka – England have been persuaded to pick their first choice XI whenever possible rather than providing rest to key players. As a consequence, there is a real danger that a couple of those key players could be below their best – or even unavailable – for the crucial last couple of group matches against India (Sunday) and New Zealand (Wednesday). England may need to win both games to ensure themselves of a semi-final place.The most pressing concern may well be over Jofra Archer. The fast bowler, England’s leading wicket-taker in this World Cup, passed a fitness test ahead of Tuesday’s game but then looked stiff and below his best in the field. The England management have confirmed he has “tightness to his left side” and “will continue to be assessed ahead of the India match.”Archer is a precious talent for England. The pace he generates and the skills he possesses mean he should have a big role for England in all formats for much of the next decade. England will, therefore, have to think very hard before taking any further risk with his fitness. A side strain could rule him out not just of the remainder of this tournament but much of the Ashes that follows, too.There are also concerns over Adil Rashid. He came into the tournament suffering from a sore shoulder and has never at his best as his bowling average (51.85) and economy-rate (5.76 runs per over) illustrate. Both are the worst figures by England bowlers in this tournament.Rashid pulled out of an event at which he was due to appear on Wednesday in order to have further treatment from the England physio.
While the team management have confirmed he is “expected to be available for selection on Sunday”, there must be concerns whether he is able to bowl at his best.Getty Images

There is better news on Jason Roy. The England management say he is “making good progress from his hamstring injury”. He batted in the nets on Tuesday and took part in shuttle runs on the outfield. It remains too early to know whether he will play on Sunday, but he is expected to train on Friday and Saturday. Given James Vince’s travails – he is averaging 13.33 at the top of the order – England will be keen to see Roy return if at all possible.Ben Stokes, meanwhile, is confident he will be fine for Sunday. He received treatment on his calf while batting on Monday, but insisted it was not serious. Stokes, who struggles to eat and drink during games, is a habitual sufferer of cramp as he tends to be heavily involved with bat, ball and in the field.

As he announces his retirement from Test cricket, we chart Moeen’s many ups and downs over the past four years

Matt Roller09-Aug-2019 • Updated on 26-Sep-2021Ashes 2017-18Moeen went into the 2017-18 Ashes on the back of a brilliant 2017 home summer, which included a haul of 10 for 112 at Lord’s and a hat-trick at The Oval in the South Africa series, and a swashbuckling hundred against the West Indies in Bristol.But after spending weeks in the nets and with Mark Ramprakash preparing for a barrage of bumpers from Australia’s quicks, he endured an awful run against Nathan Lyon: he was dismissed seven times in nine innings by him, and his struggles spilled over into his bowling, as he returned five wickets at 115.New Zealand 2017-18Moeen Ali is cleaned up•Getty Images

With Jack Leach in the squad as a possible replacement, Moeen needed to prove he was England’s best spinner, and that he could contribute with the bat, in the pink-ball Test at Auckland.Instead, he made 0 and 28, and took 0 for 59 in 17 overs, as England slumped to an innings defeat. By the time the Christchurch Test had come around, Leach was in for his debut.Pakistan 2018While England stumbled at Lord’s and then bounced back emphatically at Headingley, Moeen was playing for Worcestershire in the One-Day Cup, his Test career at a crossroads.With Leach injured, England plumped for Dom Bess as their first-choice spinner, who made one half-century and a 49, as well as taking three wickets in Leeds. The path back to the Test side for Moeen was far from clear.India 2018After controversially selecting Adil Rashid, who hadn’t played a first-class game in 11 months, England raced into a 2-0 lead before capitulating at Trent Bridge, and then found themselves facing a turning pitch at the Ageas Bowl.Step forward Moeen, to come into the side alongside Rashid, and take nine wickets at Southampton to propel England to victory. He was even promoted to No. 3 to allow Joe Root to return to his favoured number four, digging in for a 170-ball 50 at The Oval. Following six months in the wilderness, all seemed well with the world.Sri Lanka 2018-19Jack Leach, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid shared 19 of Sri Lanka’s 20 wickets•Getty Images

Pushed back down the order after two failures in the first Test, Moeen didn’t allow his loss of form with the bat to affect his bowling, as his 18 wickets at 24.50 underpinned England’s stellar efforts with the ball.With Leach (18 wickets) and Rashid (12) to keep him company, he formed part of a spin triumvirate that led England to an improbable 3-0 whitewash.West Indies 2018-19Despite 14 wickets in the series, including seven in the win in St Lucia, Moeen was outbowled by West Indies’ allrounder Roston Chase, and managed only 77 runs in his five innings.Following two brilliant series, this was a note of warning, and after an underwhelming World Cup and no red-ball cricket before the Ireland Test, Moeen was under pressure.Ireland and Ashes 2019Moeen Ali lost his off stump not playing a shot•Getty Images

Scores of 0 and 9 at Lord’s against Ireland, including a particularly soft dismissal to Boyd Rankin’s predictable short stuff, and only 4.2 overs in the match meant Moeen went into the Edgbaston Test sweating.And after an embarrassing duck in the first innings – bowled by, you guessed it, Lyon again, without playing a shot – Moeen found himself on a spinning pitch in Australia’s second innings, and needing to make a match-turning contribution.Instead, he returned 2 for 130 in his 29 overs, figures that were shown up horribly by Lyon’s 6 for 49, and not those of a man who leads the world for Test wickets since the beginning of August 2018. To make matters worse, he made only 4 when trying to save the game, prodding his opposite number to David Warner in the gully.By the time Lord’s rolled around, the selectors decided it was time up.Post-Ashes 2019Moeen declared he would take a break from Test cricket, citing a desire to “refresh my batteries” on the day it was announced he had been omitted from England’s list of centrally contracted Test players. It means missing England’s two Tests in New Zealand in November, and possibly the red-ball leg of the South Africa tour in December and January.While he retained his white-ball contract, and will be a central part of England’s plans for the World T20 in Australia next year, this was the first time since 2014-15, the year of his England debut, that Moeen had been overlooked for the top tier of ECB contracts.England’s director of cricket, Ashley Giles stressed that Moeen’s decision did not spell the end of his 60-Test career and revealed he had “encouraged him to leave that option open to come back” to the longer format in the future.Moeen Ali celebrates one of his four second-innings strikes•BCCI

India 2020-21Moeen’s recall, for what would prove to be his final tour as an England Test cricketer, was doomed from the outset. He was diagnosed with Covid-19 on arrival in Sri Lanka in January, and so spent ten days in quarantine, wrecking any chance of playing in either Test at Galle, or the opening match of the subsequent India series – a famous England win, as it turned out.His comeback for the second Test was a success in isolation. Moeen claimed eight wickets for the match, four in either innings, although his economy-rate, pushing four an over, was too leaky to compete with the parsimony of his India rivals, Axar Patel and R Ashwin. His most arresting moment came with the bat, as he slammed 43 from 18 balls from No.9 in the dying moments of the match – a volley of strokeplay that may well have played a part in his subsequent £700,000 pay-day at the IPL auction.By that stage, however, Moeen had already departed from England’s Test tour, his pre-arranged downtime, as part of the ECB’s rest-and-rotation policy, courting controversy when Joe Root erroneously claimed he had “chosen” to fly home from the tour. Though he returned in the summer for three final Tests, the writing for his Test career was already on the wall.

Career-best scores by both top-order batsmen steered the visiting side to victory in the fourth T20I after the bowlers had restricted Netherlands

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Aug-2019Ashfaq Ahmed smashed a career-best 75 while Ghulam Shabber hit 58 not out – his first T20I half-century – to lead United Arab Emirates to a seven-wicket win against Netherlands in the fourth and final match, completing a 4-0 series sweep.Ashfaq ended the series with scores of 54, 25, 26 and 75, after having failed to get into double-figures in six previous T20Is.Netherlands captain Pieter Seelaar won the toss and chose to bat, but while there were several useful contributions by the home side’s batsmen, nobody carried on to get a big score. Netherlands ended with 150 for 6 in their 20 overs. Each of the top six got into double-digits, but none made more than 28.Opener Max O’Dowd got the game off to a brisk start, and when he fell for a 21-ball 28, Netherlands had 46 in five overs. However, that 46-run stand between O’Dowd and Stephan Myburgh would remain the highest of the innings. Myburgh and Seelaar both made 25, and Antonius Staal’s unbeaten 28 off 16 gave the innings fillip at the death, but Netherlands couldn’t really kick on in the middle.Ashfaq had a good first half too, giving up just 20 runs in four overs and castling Myburgh, to be the most economical among the UAE bowlers. Sultan Ahmed bagged 2 for 29, the best figures of the innings.In UAE’s chase, Zawar Farid fell in the second over, but Ashfaq and Shabber got together to put the match beyond Netherlands. The two put on 111 runs in just 14.3 overs, both scoring freely. Ashfaq’s wicket broke the partnership, but not before he had hit 11 fours and two sixes in a 53-ball innings. Muhammad Usman fell three balls later, but Shabber stayed the course to steer his team home in 19.4 overs.

Bangladesh pushed Soumya Sarkar down to No. 8 and accommodated three right-hand batsmen in the top four, but it didn’t go according to plan

Mohammad Isam08-Sep-2019As one Bangladesh wicket fell after another on Sunday, the Afghanistan players could scent a historic win. At the end of the fourth day’s play, they found themselves just four wickets away from a famous victory in Chattogram.Amid all that joy, however, there was a question on wicketkeeper Afsar Zazai’s mind. Where was Soumya Sarkar, who opened in the first innings, and why didn’t he show up in one of his usual top-order positions?”I was asking one of their batsmen if Soumya Sarkar was injured. He said no. Then I asked why he didn’t come out to bat, but he didn’t give me the answer,” Zazai said.Indeed, Soumya was sent all the way down at No. 8, the plan being to accommodate three right-hand batsmen in the top four. Mohammad Nabi was seen as the first major threat, and Bangladesh, to their credit, managed to see off his first spell of ten overs without losing a wicket.But in turning all their attention on Nabi, they were exposed to the wristspinners at the other end, as left-armer Zahir Khan removed Liton Das and Mosaddek Hossain soon after the tea break. Liton played back to a delivery that spun into his pads, while Mosaddek was caught at long-off, miscuing an ambitious inside-out shot. Rashid Khan then snared Mushfiqur Rahim, the third right-hand batsman pushed up the order to tackle Nabi.With three right-hand batsmen gone, there was no more variety left in Bangladesh’s batting, and by the time Mominul Haque was trapped lbw by Rashid, the hosts’ plan to thwart Nabi had backfired.Shakib Al Hasan, the captain, said that he initially planned to send both right-handers – Liton and Mosaddek – to open the batting but was talked out of it by the others in the team management.”We changed the batting order because to chase 400, we needed to do something different,” Shakib said. “If we were chasing 200, we wouldn’t have changed the batting order. We made only 200 in the first innings, on the same wicket. We make plans to do something good. When it works, we say, ‘wow, what a plan’. When it doesn’t, it seems the plan is wrong.”Their first threat was a pace bowler and Nabi from the other end. The pace bowler will try to bowl economically for four or five overs, get the ball a bit older. Nabi’s job would be to get one or two breakthroughs. He didn’t get a wicket in the first spell, so we were successful. But we didn’t get the big innings that we expected from one of the top four. If the decision was only mine alone, Mosaddek and Liton would have opened the batting. But after discussions with everyone in the team meeting that this should be our batting line-up, we came to the ground.”Shakib said that sending Mosaddek to No. 3 wasn’t just to negate Nabi, but because he had a strong first-class record with three double-hundreds and two more scores of 150-plus.”To be honest, he (Mosaddek) looked the most comfortable among our batsmen against spin in the first innings,” Shakib said. “We planned last night that he should bat up the order because of the way he batted in the first innings, and the experience he has of playing long innings having scored a few double-hundreds in first-class cricket.”If we are to chase 400 or 500, we need a player to play a big innings. At the same time, Nabi is more effective against left-handers, so we wanted to have a left-right combination, which was another reason to promote him. He batted well but he couldn’t execute that shot. If he had hit it along the ground, he would have got four runs for it. Things would have been different if he was around for longer.”The ill-timed shots aside, Bangladesh are also close to losing because of a pitch that is highly favourable to spinners, something even Zazai was surprised by.”We thought they would make a flat batting wicket,” Zazai said. “A month and a half ago, I played against Bangladesh A, and the wicket was flat. We thought it would be the same here. We were surprised to see less grass on the wicket. Then we thought we can beat them on this wicket. It will turn after two days.”

He also advocates making pace-friendly pitches in the Caribbean to encourage quicks

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Oct-2019Darren Bravo was dropped from West Indies’ squad for the one-off Test against Afghanistan, but former fast bowler and current commentator Michael Holding believes the left-hand batsman is “too talented to be left out”.ALSO READ – West Indies selector Roger Harper backs Bravo to return to Test sideHolding’s endorsement comes after chief selector Roger Harper also backed Bravo to return to the side.”I would tell him to find something that works. If he has a technical problem – and I don’t know if that is the case – I would tell him to find someone and get it sorted,” Holding said on the podcast this week. “If it’s just a matter of going through a bad rut and you don’t know exactly what the problem is, again find someone who is highly qualified and skilful enough to look at you and suggest something that may be going wrong and try and get it sorted.”Bravo still has a central contract, having been awarded an all-format deal in July.”Him being out of the team, I hope he will not take it personally and won’t be upset,” Holding added. “I just read that Jonny Bairstow was left out of the England team, and I also read that the chairman of the selectors and another selector actually went to visit him and sat down and talked to him. I hope that they will do the same thing for Darren Bravo. He is too skilful and talented a player to just be washed up on the shore. He is too talented to be left out.”Holding also advocated for West Indies going back to their traditional strength of fast bowling, and supporting upcoming pace bowlers by preparing pitches accordingly. He cited India’s example, and their recent stock of pace bowling riches, to emphasise his point.”I would hope that the pitches in the Caribbean will be prepared to encourage fast bowlers,” Holding said. “Because if you don’t have pitches that encourage fast bowlers, you’re going to struggle. Look at India. They have started [to] prepare different pitches over the last six-seven years, and they’ve started to produce a lot of fast bowlers. And they are now winning series away from home. That is what you need.”Look at the quickest pitches renowned in the Caribbean – Jamaica and Barbados. Where have most of the Caribbean fast bowlers come from? Jamaica and Barbados. In recent times, a few more have been coming out of Antigua. But Trinidad have not produced a lot. Ian Bishop definitely would have been a great but for injury. Colin Croft was from Guyana. But those flat pitches that don’t encourage people to run in and work hard, will not produce fast bowlers. So one would hope that pitches that have good pace and bounce will be prepared in that manner so that we can encourage our youngsters to bowl fast.”

Kane Williamson recovers from hip injury to captain 15-man squad to play England and Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-2019Lockie Ferguson is set to make his Test debut over the coming weeks, having been named in a 15-man New Zealand squad to play England and Australia.Ferguson, who finished as second leading wicket-taker at the 50-over World Cup this summer, has played 44 white-ball internationals, but a Test call-up has escaped him despite an impressive first-class record on account of New Zealand’s strong seam attack.ALSO READ: Ferguson has sights set on Test breakthroughKane Williamson returns from the hip injury that kept him out of the recent T20I series against England to captain the side. There are two changes from the squad that drew 1-1 in Sri Lanka, with Ferguson and legspinner Todd Astle replacing fingerspinners Will Somerville and Ajaz Patel.”There’s no doubt Lockie has been knocking on the door for a while now and we’re delighted to finally bring him into the Test fold,” said selector Gavin Larsen.”It’s well documented he has raw pace, but he also possesses a quality bowling skill set and has proved his durability. He showed good form against England in the recent T20 series and backed that up with a solid outing for the Auckland Aces in the Plunket Shield, where he claimed 4 for 23 against the Wellington Firebirds.”Our pace bowling stocks are strong at the moment and we feel Lockie will add another dimension to the picture, and will create some great competition.There is also a place for Matt Henry, alongside established seam trio Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner, and head coach Gary Stead has suggested that his side will learn from Australia’s rotation policy during the recent Ashes series as a blueprint for selection.”It would be silly for us not to look at that,” he told . “They did rotate their bowlers and it was horses for courses a bit. Like us, they have quite a bit of difference in their attack and definitely we have to consider that.”There had been fears that Williamson’s injury would keep him out for a prolonged period, and he has played only four games since the World Cup final on July 14. But he is set to lead the side in both series, starting with the inaugural Test at Mount Maunganui on November 21.”Kane’s made good progress over the past fortnight,” said Larsen, and we’re delighted to welcome back a player of his class and experience.”New Zealand Test squad: Todd Astle, Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Jeet Raval, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling (wk), Kane Williamson (c)Fixtures:vs England (home)November 21: First Test, Mount Maunganui
November 29: Second Test, Hamiltonvs Australia (away)December 12: First Test (D/N), Perth
December 26: Second Test, Melbourne
January 3: Third Test, Sydney

Led country to first global Physical Disability title in 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Dec-2019Iain Nairn, captain of the England Physical Disability team, has announced his retirement from international cricket after a seven-year career.Nairn, 39, who plays with a prosthetic right leg, led England to victory in the T20 World Series in 2015, which was organised by the Red Cross as the first global Physical Disability Cricket tournament ever staged.In 2019, he guided England to the final of the Physical Disability World Series in Worcester – a tournament that showed the extent to which PD cricket has grown since Nairn’s first involvement seven years ago.”I’m so fortunate to have experienced everything I have for England and I’m also jealous of the lads who will continue to do it, but the time is right for me to go out while still being a valued member of the team and knowing I’ve got an exciting future at home,” Nairn said.”We’ve now got four people under the age of 20 who are mainstays in the team, but even now the ‘old hands’ are only reaching their mid-20s. If they can get towards my age and still be playing, they’re going to have another 13 years left of playing for England and it’s exciting to think where disability cricket will be in 13 years’ time given the steps we’ve made in the last seven.”The biggest part of it, for me, is seeing the development of their interpersonal skills and their personalities outside of the game. A lot of disabled people don’t have high self-worth or self-confidence, and we’ve seen those things really develop in this group over the last seven years.”Seeing individuals achieving personal success is as much part of the game as it is them scoring 50s and taking wickets. I would encourage anyone with a disability to have a look at disability sport as a way to improving their lives and health.”Ian Salisbury, Head Coach of the England Physical Disability team, said: “Iain has been a fantastic servant to English cricket and it has been an absolute pleasure to work with him over the past few years.”The phrase ‘model professional’ springs to mind, but let’s remember that Iain, like all of our disability cricketers, has balanced a full-time job and his family commitments throughout his England career.”His attitude towards sport, captaincy and life is exemplary and he has been an incredible role model. He is not only a fantastic cricketer, but also a fantastic human being who is the epitome of ‘anything is possible’, and I’m lucky to have a friend for life.Ian Martin, ECB Head of Disability Cricket, said: “I want to express my huge gratitude to Iain and congratulate him on such a fantastic international career.
“While we work to provide our England Disability Cricket teams with the best possible opportunities, it’s really down to people like Iain performing to a high standard on the pitch that we’re able to grow the game in the UK and around the world.”His passion for the sport and for the team is remarkable and the work he does to promote awareness of disability cricket is inspirational. Iain has led from the front in his five years of captaincy, during which the standard of physical disability cricket has raised immensely.”I’m sure that even in retirement, Iain will continue to be a positive force for cricket in this country and our PD players will continue to build on the foundations he has laid.”

The West Indies allrounder will captain Rajshahi Royals in the 2019-20 season

Mohammad Isam10-Dec-2019Andre Russell prefers the “shorter” and “more fun” Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) to Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL). The two tournaments often occupy the same space in the global cricket calendar, forcing players to choose one or the other.Russell is set to play for the Rajshahi Royals in the 2019-20 BPL season, and was unveiled as their captain on Tuesday.”This tournament is more fun,” Russell said, during Rajshahi’s jersey launch on Tuesday. “It is shorter [than the BBL]. So less time away from home. I get a lot of love here. The hospitality and everything is amazing. You get a warm welcome on this side of the world. I never really think twice.”Russell has been a BPL regular, and winning the title twice, with Comilla Victorians in 2015-16 and Dhaka Dynamites in 2016-17. He has featured in three BBL seasons too, but hasn’t played in the Australian competition since 2016-17. Last year too, Russell chose the BPL over the BBL, and played 15 matches for Dhaka Dynamites.ESPNcricinfo understands that Rajshahi Royals are paying Russell slightly more than the USD 170,000 offered by a BBL side for the 2019-20 season.Russell said the changes to the BPL this year – the BCB owns all seven teams – piqued his interest in signing up for the BPL once again.”Once I heard this was happening – new rules, new teams, new owners, new franchise – I was interested to be part of it. I wanted to get the ball rolling.”I am honoured to be given the responsibility of leading the team. Regardless, I always look at myself as a player in the heat. I have a very big role in any team I play for. It is going to be something new for me outside the Caribbean. I have led Jamaica Tallawahs before. It will be interesting and I am up for a challenge.”Rajshahi will begin their BPL season on December 12, the second day of the tournament, with a match against Dhaka Platoon. Their squad contains plenty of experienced cricketers including Shoaib Malik, Ravi Bopara and Russell himself.”I won’t say we have the best squad but we have a good team on paper,” Russell said. “It is a good start for any captain, coach and any team. We want to use the experience of each player, which will put us in the right foot.”We have Shoaib Malik, myself, Ravi Bopara and [Hazratullah] Zazai and [Liton] Das at the top. We have a few good local talents. I have been watching videos, seeing what they can do. We have a balanced squad including local and international fast bowlers. We have good options.”Unlike Rajshahi, Sylhet Thunder don’t have too many big names to call upon, and are seen as underdogs leading up to the new season. Their coach Herschelle Gibbs said they are happy to be the unknown quantity in the tournament opener against Chattogram Challengers, but pointed to one gap in their line-up.”If you fly under the radar it is nice to get one out of the way. There will be nervous excitement and energy for everybody including me,” Gibbs said. “Once tomorrow comes, if you play with freedom, you can achieve anything irrespective of who play against.”There is no guarantees in the game which is fantastic. You do not need big names. You need one guy to fire. The unknown is a good place to be in because no other teams know the unknown.”As far as our skillset is concerned, we have got a variety of spinners. We have [Krishmar] Santokie from West Indies as our only left-arm seamer. Unfortunately, we do not have top order left-handed batsman. We might be little be short there. We have to do with what we have.”

After a summer of outstanding Test returns, Labuschagne is turning his attention to a new challenge

Daniel Brettig10-Jan-2020Having dominated the home Test summer, Marnus Labuschagne wants to become a multi-format master in the vein of Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root and his friend and team-mate Steven Smith as he embarks on a first ODI tour for Australia to face India on the subcontinent.It was in the 50-over game that Labuschagne first showed promise as a busy middle-order batsman, winning player of the tournament in the domestic limited-overs tournament in 2016 for Queensland before being part of the National Cricket Centre intake the following year.He subsequently earned his chance for Australia in Test matches, making a quantum leap during the 2019 Ashes in England and then carrying on to still more masterful displays against Pakistan and New Zealand. Now, granted the chance to be part of Australia’s white-ball squad for the first time, Labuschagne has revealed the long-term consistency and a role across formats for the national team are his major goals for the future.ALSO READ: ‘Clinical’ Glenn Maxwell still in ODI frame – Aaron Finch“You look at the guys I look up to and aspire to – Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root. They’ve been doing it for a very long time, five, six years they’ve been consistent, not just in one format, but two or more formats,” Labuschagne told ESPNcricinfo before departing for India. “So for me personally there’s a lot to learn and a lot to grow, because I’ve had some success this summer but the real challenge for me is to be more consistent going on and being able to keep putting continued performances on the board.”If I can continue to do that, then that’s obviously going to be the challenge for me, and getting an opportunity in this one-day series is an opportunity for me to show a slightly different part of my game that we haven’t seen this summer, but that’s a really exciting challenge too.”As an example for the type of adaptable, evolving batsman Labuschagne would like to be, he admitted that the standard set by Michael Hussey for Australia, where he started life as an opening batsman but developed into a player capable of playing just about any role in the top six, while also adding power to his game to dominate the back end of an innings, was a hard one to ignore.