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O Fortaleza recebe o Cruzeiro nesta quarta (17), pela 2ª rodada do Brasileirão 2024. A bola vai rolar a partir das 20h (de Brasília), na Arena Castelão, em Fortaleza, com transmissão do serviço de pay-per-view Premiere.

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FICHA TÉCNICA
FORTALEZA X CRUZEIRO | 2ª RODADA – CAMPEONATO BRASILEIRO 2024

Data e horário: quarta, 16 de abril de 2024, às 20h (de Brasília)

Local: Arena Castelão, em Fortaleza
Onde assistir: Premiere
Arbitragem: Bruno Mota Correia (RJ) (árbitro); Leone Carvalho Rocha (GO) e Carlos Henrique Alves de Lima Filho (RJ) (auxiliares); Rodrigo Nunes de Sá (RJ) (VAR)

PROVÁVEIS ESCALAÇÕES
FORTALEZA (Técnico: JUAN PABLO VOJVODA)
João Ricardo; Tinga, Brítez, Kuscevic e Bruno Pacheco; Zé Welison, Pochettino e Hércules; Pikachu, Lucero e Moisés.

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Desfalques: –

CRUZEIRO (Técnico: FERNANDO SEABRA)
Anderson; William, Zé Ivaldo, Neris e Marlon; Lucas Romero, Ramiro, Lucas Silva, Matheus Pereira (Matheus Vital) e Arthur Gomes; Dinenno (Rafael Silva).

Desfalques: – 

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Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has seen all the chatter online about him being “asleep on the job” this offseason since New York hasn’t made a big move yet. At least not the moves fans are really hoping for—like bringing back Cody Bellinger or signing Kyle Tucker, for example.

Cashman poked fun at himself by creating the “meme”—a word he hilariously pronounced incorrectly—when he participated in the Covenant House Sleep Out in New York on Thursday night. As he cuddled up on the ground in a sleeping bag, this is what he told reporters:

“You know this is a meme about how Brian Cashman’s asleep on the job and not doing his job, ‘cause I’ve seen that all over social media.”

Don’t worry, Yankees fans. Cashman also shared with reporters on Thursday that he’s making strides to figure out the moves the team wants to make this offseason. He’s already started conversations about Bellinger and Tucker, and he’s spoken with other teams about other moves. Apart from Tucker, he’s also started talks about bringing back Paul Goldschmidt and potentially acquiring Michael King and Kyle Schwarber this offseason. He’s not totally sleeping on the job.

As they attempt to hold off the Mariners in a furious American League West race, the Astros may soon have back one of their most formidable weapons.

Houston designated hitter Yordan Alvarez will begin a rehab assignment Tuesday with the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks, Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters Sunday via Chandler Rome of .

Alvarez, 28, has not played since May 2 in what has for the most part been a lost season. He slashed an uncharacteristic .210/.306/.340 with three home runs and 18 RBIs before a lingering hand injury forced him onto the injured list; a July setback delayed his return even further.

The ailment pressed pause on Alvarez's extraordinary, still-young career. In seven seasons, he's slashed .295/.387/.573 and averaged 41 home runs, 119 RBIs and 5.7 bWAR per 162 games.

Houston, which leads the AL West by 1.5 games, will close a series with the Orioles Sunday before heading north for a seismic three-game showdown with the Tigers.

It would be easy to say that this is becoming a season to forget for Liverpool, but Arne Slot’s Reds have in actual fact sunk so low that this wretched campaign will be seared into the fanbase’s memory for years to come.

The Premier League champions have lost nine of their past 12 matches in all competitions, including twice at Anfield in a space of just five days. This is beyond concerning: this is a calamity.

For all the mitigating circumstances at the Merseyside club, there is simply no excuse for the lack of fight and intensity that fans have watched all too often since the summer, Liverpool having established themselves as title winners and broken the summer spending record.

Alexander Isak is the most expensive player in British history, joining Liverpool from Newcastle United for £125m on deadline day.

His only goal since joining came against Southampton in the Carabao Cup. The Sweden striker has not integrated well, though it’s not exactly easy to dovetail into this current Liverpool side.

He needs more support, and that’s why sporting director Richard Hughes is surveying the market for a new wide forward to replace Mohamed Salah.

Why Liverpool want to replace Mohamed Salah

Salah’s struggles this season must be viewed through a wide and balanced lens. The 33-year-old has been wildly out of sorts, but he’s ageing, grieving the passing of his teammate Diogo Jota and playing a tweaked role now that Liverpool have signed big-money strikers.

Taking all this into consideration, he’s still struggling to perform to the expected level. This is perhaps why Liverpool are gearing up for winter bid for Bournemouth’s versatile forward Antoine Semenyo, who has a £65m release clause.

But should Liverpool be aiming higher? After all, they need to land an elite winger who will succeed in rekindling Isak’s world-class quality.

Well, they may have found their man in Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise, with Spanish sources suggesting that Liverpool are prepared to fight for the 23-year-old’s signature next summer.

Olise joined Bayern from Crystal Palace in 2024 and has since staked his claim as one of the most exciting forwards in the business. Vincent Kompany’s side know this and will demand a staggering €140m (equating to £122m) sum for his sale.

Arsenal and Manchester United are also keen, so Hughes had better roll up his sleeves.

Why Liverpool should sign Michael Olise

It might have been an unhappy return to English shores for Olise this week as his Bayern team were beaten 3-1 at the Emirates, but the right winger still caught the eye, completing three dribbles and winning eight duels.

A fully-fledged member of Didier Deschamps’ France set-up, Olise has proven himself across a range of different levels, and now he is ready to take the baton from Salah and become a superstar at Anfield.

Should Salah find a purple patch within him once again, the fact remains that his £400k-per-week contract expires at the end of next season, and Liverpool are somewhat short of options on that flank.

The two could cohabit on Liverpool’s attacking flank next season, and Olise has the athleticism and output to ensure Isak reminds everyone that he is “the best striker in the Premier League”, as he was hailed by Jamie Carragher for his form with Newcastle during the 2024/25 campaign.

Olise ranks among the top 1% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for assists and shot-creating actions, the top 4% for progressive passes and the top 7% for successful take-ons per 90, data via FBref.

Harry Kane is a very different type of number nine to Isak, but the Sweden international’s more energetic and mobile playing style might actually give rise to Olise’s finest creative qualities.

Indeed, Isak is fast and furious, skilful on the ball. His ability to split lines open with cleverly-timed runs would play into Olise’s playmaking.

Hailed as “one of the best wingers in the world” by podcaster Henry Swain, Olise would be taking Salah’s place on the right, whereas Isak is tussling for a starting berth with Hugo Ekitike, who also joined Liverpool this summer.

Should the Reds succeed in adding Olise to their ranks, he has the potential to become their star forward. This is quite a claim, Isak, Ekitike and Florian Wirtz are among the attacking options at Slot’s disposal, after all.

But it’s the truth. Here is a player whose proven ability across so many different areas underscores his quality. He is artful on the ball and combative and physical when he needs to be. Isak might have proven himself in front of goal in the Premier League, but his start to life on Merseyside shows that he has weaknesses within his game.

25/26

5 (4)

0 + 1

24/25

34 (34)

23 + 6

23/24

30 (27)

21 + 2

22/23

22 (17)

10 + 2

Olise, after all, has recorded 62 goal contributions from only 74 matches for the German giants, and that after enjoying a talismanic role at Selhurst Park with Palace.

Toward the end of the 2023/24 campaign, Carragher spoke on Sky Sports of Eberechi Eze and Olise’s brilliance for Oliver Glasner’s Palace. He said those Eagles would fly high at top clubs in the Champions League.

The pundit was right. Olise is a superstar, and given his Premier League and European experience, his flair and gusto, he would be the perfect right-sided forward to take Salah’s place and combine with a striker like Isak to fire Liverpool back into the ascendancy – and keep them there.

But given his potential to succeed Salah, and unenviable task if ever there was one, Olise might even prove a better deal than Isak, whose success perhaps runs counter to Ekitike’s own long-term ambitions at the front of the Anfield ship.

As bad as Konate & Van Dijk: £85m Liverpool duo cannot start together again

Liverpool plummeted to new depths after losing 4-1 to PSV at Anfield in the Champions League.

ByAngus Sinclair Nov 27, 2025

Rangers were certainly busy in the transfer market last summer, but supporters will be demanding more new recruits come January.

13 new additions were made in July and August, but this team has got significantly worse, leading to sporting director Kevin Thelwell feeling the need to do an interview with the club’s in-house TV channel during the international break.

Having sacked Russell Martin after only 15 games in charge and appointed Danny Röhl, the German will surely demand new recruits when the winter window opens in just 41 days time, so could Rangers bring in some much-needed defensive reinforcements?

Rangers' need for defensive depth

After taking a couple of matches to figure things out, new coach Röhl has settled on a back three, notably deploying this shape against Hibs, Roma and Celtic.

As a result, centre-back will surely be a key position he’ll seek to strengthen in January, given the Light Blues’ lack of depth and quality in this position.

Summer signing Nasser Djiga has regularly proved himself to be an unreliable figure, making a high-profile error against Club Brugge, having been sent off on his home Premiership debut against Dundee, thereby losing his place in the side (video below).

Meantime, John Souttar has been Rangers’ most impressive centre-back so far, starting 23 of 24 fixtures to date, albeit he can unfortunately never be relied upon to remain fit for a long period of time.

He withdrew from Scotland’s starting lineup mere minutes before Tuesday’s historic World Cup qualifying win over Denmark after suffering an injury in the warm-up and was at fault in the game against Greece, with James McFadden stating that he had a “nightmare” in that clash.

So, right now, even when everyone is fit, Röhl has just four senior centre-backs for three starting positions, one of which is Emmanuel Fernandez, who has not started a match since August.

Perhaps an addition in January would do the trick.

Rangers targeting a new centre-back

According to reports in Belgium earlier this month, Rangers have “made enquiries” as they aim to sign defender Mujaid Sadick from Genk.

Well, Football Transfers believes the 25-year-old is worth around £8m, which would make him one of Rangers’ most-expensive signings of all-time, so would he be worth the investment?

Mujaid began his senior career at Deportivo La Coruña in Spain, making 55 appearances for the fallen Spanish giants, before moving to Belgium in 2021, appearing 136 times for current employers Genk, who finished third in last season’s Jupiler Pro League.

This season, he has been a near ever-present for the Smurfs, including starting all four of their Europa League matches, the first of which was a 1-0 victory at Ibrox, with former Celtic striker Oh Hyeon-gyu the match-winner.

The Spaniard’s statistics certainly make for impressive reading, as outlined below.

As the table highlights, Mujaid’s statistics in Belgium’s top-flight this season are generally pretty imperious.

No players boast a higher pass completion %, while he is also in the top 20 when it comes to tackles and clearances.

The Rangers Journal described the Spaniard as “physical, athletic, good on the ball and aggressive”, while his “versatility” has also been praised, which would certainly enhance his reputation with Röhl, who regularly tinkers with his shape and formation both from one game to the next but also within a match.

Thus, what is clear is that Rangers really need to sign another centre-back in January to avoid having to play stop-gaps as part of Röhl’s back three.

Mujaid’s statistics and potential, still only 25 years and playing in the sixth-strongest league on the planet, according to Global Football Rankings, all suggest he would represent an upgrade on Djiga and Souttar, the latter has been in good form, but is injury prone and whether or not his performances as sustainable remains a question mark.

The Spaniard would be an expensive investment, but one Rangers may have to make to correct the errors made in the summer.

Rangers star looks set to become Ibrox's new Hamza Igamane under Rohl

As Rangers seek to replace Hamza Igamane, who has been on fire for Lille, which “exciting” forward, not Youssef Chermiti, could replicate his success?

By
Ben Gray

Nov 16, 2025

Before the Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to the Giants in June, tension emerged between Boston and Devers over his position this season.

The conflict began when the team signed Alex Bregman and decided to play him at third base over Devers, who previously manned the position for the Red Sox. Devers eventually agreed to be the designated hitter by the start of the season, but tension re-emerged when they asked him to spend time at first base following a season-ending injury to Triston Casas. The Red Sox felt like Devers wasn't living up to the responsibilities of his massive contract with the team, and ultimately traded him to the Giants.

Mike Yastrzemski only played alongside Devers on the Giants for less than two months before he was traded to the Royals, but quickly learned the type of teammate and player Devers is for a team.

"He was the best," Yastrzemski said of Devers on . "Awesome teammate, willing to do whatever he had to. I think he just got thrown into a weird circumstance and sometimes as players you have to stick up for yourself. I think that's what he tried to do and the wording of it was delivered poorly because he's an awesome teammate, he works his tail off, he tries to help everybody.

Yastrzemski continued, "If you're facing a guy that he's faced and you haven't faced him, full scouting report, where you want to look for the ball, what pitch you want to hit, how he's gonna pitch you. He's really smart and he cares about winning so much. I don't understand where all the heat came from."

While Devers's approach appeared to quickly change when he arrived in San Francisco and said he was "here to play whatever [position] they want me to play," he said he wasn't trying to spite the Red Sox or be a bad teammate. He later explained that he felt he had earned respect in Boston and would have been willing to play first base for them had they asked in spring training. The Giants gave him time to train to play first base, and he is beginning to find his groove at the position.

When the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched Roki Sasaki on joining their franchise, they had an ace up their collective sleeve: toilets.

On Wednesday, Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten recalled how the franchise lured Sasaki, partly because of fancy new toilets installed in the team's clubhouse.

Kasten recalled that when the Dodgers were recruiting Sasaki, they were also deep into planning for modernizing their clubhouse. The plan had begun the year before when they were attempting to recruit Shohei Ohtani. Near the end of recruitment, Sasaki asked if the team planned to have fancy Japanese toilets installed.

"I said, 'Well, why do you ask? Is that important?' And he said, 'Oh, yeah, that's really important,'" Kasten said. "And I said, 'Oh yeah, then we're having them in there.' And so overnight we changed our plans, and now the entire locker room has these fancy Japanese toilets."

If only the Padres and Blue Jays had known about Sasaki's love of fancy toilets.

When the Dodgers landed the 23-year-old righty, he was almost universally considered the best pitching prospect in the world. Unfortunately for L.A., he has missed most of the season due to shoulder issues. When he has been on the mound, Sasaki has disappointed, going 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA, a 1.49 WHIP, and 24 strikeouts against 22 walks in 34 1/3 innings.

But hey, at least the whole team gets to use those fancy toilets.

With the CSA board asked to step aside, South African cricket has hit rock bottom. What went wrong?

Firdose Moonda11-Sep-2020South African cricket has hit rock bottom after the CSA board and its executive were instructed to step aside by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) following nine months of administrative implosion.In that time, CSA suspended and dismissed a CEO (and other senior officials), saw another CEO and its board president and three other board members resign, was caught in racially-charged battles, which have exposed deep-seated divisions, and attempted to keep a financial crisis at bay.With the storm at its peak, here’s an explainer to help you navigate the high winds and rough seas which are threatening to drown the South African cricket.So, silly question but who is running cricket in South Africa right now?If you ask CSA, they are. “Business as usual” was the official word on Friday morning with acting CEO Kugandrie Govender continuing to work in her role with her full complement of staff. That may change when the SASCOC appoints its task team, which is expected imminently. And we don’t know if an interim administrator will be put in place.Right, and what’s brought this on?Essentially, unstable governance. In the last three years, CSA has had four CEOs – Haroon Lorgat, Thabang Moroe, Jacques Faul and Govender – and although all but Govender worked under the same president, Chris Nenzani, CSA as an organisation has floundered. It’s facing major financial losses, has lost sponsors and its relationship with the South African Cricketers Association (SACA) is troubled. If we’re looking for a starting point, the failed attempt to launch the T20 Global League in 2017 was probably it.The T20 Global League was Lorgat’s brainchild but just like the tournament, Lorgat too was ditched shortly after. It was replaced by the loss-making Mzansi Super League, for which no television rights have been sold. Combine that with CSA’s plans to restructure the domestic system without consulting the SACA and the stage was set for chaos.The SACA has taken legal action against CSA twice since Moroe was appointed and has come out victorious both times. CSA has since abandoned its restructure plans and is due to be coming up with new ones, but the relationship between CSA and SACA has not healed and the game has suffered as a result.What is SASCOC and why should I care about this acronym?The SASCOC is a legislatively created umbrella body under which all South Africa’s sporting federations operate. In its constitution, it says its main agenda is to “promote and develop high-performance sport”. While it is not a government institution, it can be regarded as quasi-governmental because it stems directly from the country’s laws. The SASCOC is not an example of a well-functioning organisation and is currently operating with an acting CEO and acting president as a result of delayed elections. Sounds familiar?The MSL proved to be a loss-making venture•Mzansi Super LeagueCan SASCOC really do what it has just done to CSA? Yes. According to clause 9.1 35.4 of the SASCOC’s constitution, “members shall be subordinate to SASCOC and must comply with the Constitution of SASCOC and any directives issued by SASCOC from time to time subject to the proviso that any directive shall not be in conflict with any requirement of the relevant international body to which that member is affiliated”.But hang on, doesn’t the SASCOC’s intervention contravene the ICC’s constitution?Possibly. Former ICC head of legal David Becker believes the ICC will be “concerned,” with the SASCOC’s actions and will be keeping a close eye on developments.So the ICC can intervene too?They can, and there are examples – such as in Zimbabwe last year when the country’s Sports and Recreation Commission disbanded the Zimbabwe Cricket board, it led to Zimbabwe’s subsequent suspension from the ICC. But it does not mean they will do the same with South Africa. There are other examples of member countries’ governments who appear to be pushing the envelope of the code of conduct without the teams getting suspended.One such example is Pakistan, where the head of state has always been a patron of the cricket board and has, in the past, appointed members directly to the board and recently decreed a complete overhaul of the domestic game. That has not invited the ICC scrutiny and neither has the role of the Indian government in the cricket-field impasse between India and Pakistan.We might conclude that the ICC is more likely to respond to CSA in the same way they react to the PCB and the BCCI, rather than the way they deal with smaller members like Zimbabwe and Nepal.Is there a Hail Mary CSA can pull out to make things better?There is, and they should have used it weeks ago: make the forensic report public.Wait, what forensic report?The report was first mooted when Moroe was suspended in December last year and was intended to look into allegations of misconduct. Work only started on it in March and there were delays in completing it but CSA now has a copy. It is believed to be 468 pages long but very few people have actually seen it. Not even the vast majority of CSA’s own Members Council – the 14 provincial presidents who form the highest decision-making body in the organisation. CSA required any of the members who wanted to see it to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which some have refused to do.Neither the SASCOC nor the country’s sports minister Nathi Mthethwa has seen the report despite Mthethwa insisting on viewing it before CSA’s AGM, which was scheduled for September 5. Instead of showing Mthethwa the report, CSA postponed the AGM.Why the secrecy?That’s the million-dollar question and we can only guess, educatedly. The report was due to cover CSA’s activities in full, including activities of members of staff other than Moroe and that of the board. CSA’s insistence on keeping the report under wraps seems to indicate there are things they don’t want to be made known. Whispers are that the report implicates several people other than Moroe, which would force CSA to take action against those people too.The players will be fine, right?For now, the players are unaffected with ten men’s players at the IPL and seven women’s players preparing for the WBBL. However, the immediate future of the game in the country is in question. It is already early September and, Covid-19 aside, in a regular season, by now South African cricket would have confirmed domestic and international fixtures for the next summer.Understandably, the pandemic has delayed this but there is no indication of whether CSA has made any progress about when franchise competitions will start and if the national teams will be in action any time soon (albeit that they need the borders open for the latter to happen). If fixtures are scant, CSA will eventually lose money and that will impact the players.

The South Australia batsman had been told his performances weren’t consistent enough

Daniel Brettig05-Nov-2020In spite of a promising beginning that peaked with a polished early stint in Australia’s ODI team, Callum Ferguson’s career ultimately ended with a long, slow fade to retirement after the brief high of a Test debut in 2016.That Test, against South Africa in Hobart, saw Ferguson ignominiously run out on the way to the national team’s fifth consecutive long-form defeat. Ferguson and his fellow South Australian debutant Joe Mennie were summarily dropped after Rod Marsh resigned as chairman of selectors, signalling Cricket Australia’s intent to head into another, more youthful direction after choosing “Ferg” at the age of 31.As much as Ferguson would have liked to prove that selection decision wrong, and had even begun this season with fleeting thoughts of fighting his way back to the front rank of Test team aspirants, the panel’s judgment was born out by how he would slip in and out of the Redbacks’ XI in subsequent years, including his omission from the first game of this season.”It’s a really tough question that I asked myself, why not keep playing through the season,” Ferguson said in explaining his retirement. “I’ve been a bit frustrated at my own lack of consistency over the last few years, I feel like I haven’t been at a level I’ve been comfortable with. I feel like I’ve got punches to throw and I feel like I’m going to make runs every time I walk out to the crease. But more so I think at 35 my dream of playing for the country is probably gone, I was thinking that while I was making the decision. Now it is gone to wear the baggy green again.”I think I went into the season feeling like if I put a big 1000-run year on the board I’ll be a chance to get back there. The selectors have shown in the past they’re willing to go with guys who make big runs at an older age, but probably getting left out at the start of the summer took a bit of the wind out of my sails, and that was a tough one to take, but I’ve been around well and truly long enough to understand how the game works. There’s people put in roles to make tough decisions and tough decisions are what make great teams and great associations.”I would’ve loved to play in a couple of wins the last couple of games. That hasn’t eventuated and I think looking at the fact we’ve got one more game before the break, at the end of this game hopefully get a big win on the board, build some momentum, and I think it’s time for someone to get a crack at Nos. 5 or 3, make it their own and hopefully take us to a big second half of the season. Right now I don’t feel like I’m the right one to take us all the way through.”

I have gone into every innings thinking I’m going to make a 100 in the next one and unfortunately, I haven’t done that consistently enough to be able to say ‘no, that’s my spot’, particularly in the eyes of the selectorsCallum Ferguson

Quite simply, Ferguson was unable to make the spinal runs in the first innings of a Sheffield Shield game that generally define the arc of each contest. The brutal reality of life after that one Test was that Ferguson never made another first innings century in a first-class match, a sequence spanning 44 innings for just 694 runs at 15.77 with three 50s. This was no more frustrating for anyone than Ferguson himself, and it was not a pattern that could be allowed to continue if South Australia is to regenerate as a Shield force.”I was given the message that my performances in first innings over the last 12-18 months hadn’t been good enough, and they hadn’t been good enough in my eyes either, and I can’t argue that fact,” Ferguson said. “I was struggling with the idea that I wasn’t in our best top five, but I think when you get to the stage of my career I’m at, I’m always going to feel like I’m in the best five.”I have gone into every innings thinking I’m going to make a 100 in the next one and unfortunately, I haven’t done that consistently enough to be able to say ‘no, that’s my spot’, particularly in the eyes of the selectors. Obviously at the start of the season they didn’t think that was the case, and I’ve got to live with that.”It was a sad end, too, for one of cricket’s more likeable and at one time promising batting talents. Certainly, Ferguson showed enormous potential in his early years, never more than when he was called into Australia’s white-ball team in early 2009 and proceeded to look very much at home over 30 matches in which he compiled 663 runs at 41.43.How Ferguson might have fared if he had been able to spend more time surrounded by the best of Australian cricket at the top end of the game will never be known: a serious knee injury suffered while fielding during the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa in 2009 cost Ferguson a season, and he did not play a white-ball game for Australia after 2011.Callum Ferguson: ‘I’ve been a bit frustrated at my own lack of consistency over the last few years, I feel like I haven’t been at a level I’ve been comfortable with’•Getty ImagesThree of the key figures Ferguson was surrounded by in the earliest days of his career were there again at the end. The South Australia coach Jason Gillespie, the high performance chief Tim Nielsen were both on hand right at the beginning, as a starry-eyed junior watching them in a Shield game at Adelaide Oval, while the assistant coach Greg Blewett had also been there most steps of the way – as a younger man Ferguson had occasionally been referred to as “mini-Blewey”.”The SACA since I was 12 years old have given me every opportunity to make a success of a cricket career, turn it into a lifestyle and a way of life to an extent,” Ferguson said. “I couldn’t be more thankful, they’ve given me absolutely every opportunity all the way through to the point of making it to a baggy green, cap 445, which is the dream.”I was telling the guys just before I remember being up on the hill as a young lad drinking free coca cola on a Dollar Day, day three of a Shield game, I think it was a Sunday and Dizzy was charging in from one end and I think Vin [Nielsen] was taking the ball behind the stumps and that’s probably where the dream began, if not in the backyard pretending I was David Boon.”Retirement has arrived for Ferguson a few months in the wake of fatherhood, and he is now likely to juggle those duties with a continuing T20 career, most recently as a canny captain of the Sydney Thunder.

All of them approach batting differently and have thrived without the fear of consequences

Sidharth Monga19-Jan-20212:34

‘This win would mean the world to Pant’ – Aakash Chopra

If this series so far had been an esoteric Bob Dylan song, here is a more straightforward one for the man who laid the finishing touches.For a day, it would appear Dylan might have had Rishabh Pant in mind when he wrote ‘. Just as this team had doubters after 36 all out, Pant has had doubters within the team and outside it for playing a game they don’t really understand.Imagine – he is coming off a Test when he got out on 97 trying to hit a six with India fighting to somehow stay alive. He has been nearly stumped trying to hit another here in Brisbane, when India are thinking of the unthinkable on the final day with much more in the pitch than at the SCG. Then he sees a ball turn more than a metre. And jumps out next ball to hit a six against the turn.There will be many waiting to take credit for the way Pant has “matured”, but he played the way he has always played. His childhood coach, Tarak Sinha, told last week that more than fitness, more than “maturity”, Pant needed his bat swing back. If he gets out, he will live with the consequences. If he gets out blocking a ball he could have hit, it will be tougher to live with it. That’s batting for him.In Sydney, and in Brisbane, Pant just batted. In a 16-Test career — 14 of them played away from home, three as the third-choice keeper and three as the second choice — Pant is already among the top-15 six-hitters from India, with 23 such hits. Nineteen of them have come off spinners, including his first runs in Test cricket. He can get out playing any of those shots, and people wouldn’t be talking of the mature Pant then, but he knows the percentages are with him. He knows he is that good.Just imagine being the Australia captain and bowling unit. What do you do when a man simply refuses to care the way you want him to? A man who just bats. Doesn’t think of win, draw, loss on the final day of an epic series. This is not the beat Test cricket is played to. There are cracks on the pitch, you are up against a tiring but excellent attack, you know wickets can fall quickly, you know one shot can undo 17 days of incredibly hard work that has brought you this far, within a shot of history. You know what happened in Adelaide in 2014-15. You know what happened at The Oval in 2018.You should take a draw that is greater than a win, but you just want to bat. You want to back yourself. You are a madman. You are on the verge of securing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy if you just bat out 12 overs. It is going to be the greatest comeback ever, but you risk it all by playing a reverse-sweep? You see, it is not a risk for Pant. He backs his reverse-sweep with that field set. He knows all these incredible chases over the last two-three years – Ben Stokes, Kusal Perera, Jermaine Blackwood – have been sealed by batsmen just batting the way they do. And you can’t bat if you are clouded by consequence.After it was all done, Pant was hugged by every Indian team member, from teammates to coaches to the other support staff. The batting coach and the coach held on to him, the throw-down expert probably received a big thank you with the hug, R Ashwin was like a big brother, but as Pant reached Cheteshwar Pujara, everything went into slow motion. Pujara didn’t want too strong a hug. He had worn so many blows – head, side of the neck, forearm, ribs, gloves, all told 10 in one innings on a pitch increasingly uneven in bounce – that a half-decent squeeze from Pant would surely have hurt him.Shubman Gill batted with calmness and poise•Getty ImagesIf Australia couldn’t force Pant to care enough to doubt himself, they couldn’t get Pujara to care less than enough to make a mistake. Session after session, day after day, match after match, Pujara makes them bowl their best ball to get him out. If it is not good enough, it will not get Pujara out. And it takes Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. Not even Mitchell Starc.And when Cummins bowls that unplayable ball to get him lbw by the barest of margins on the tracker, he is bowling his 157th over of the series, more than he has ever bowled in a series of four matches or fewer. Pujara has faced 42.5 overs of those from this incredible bowler who hardly gives a freebie and has a habit of bowling unplayable deliveries. Overall he faced 928 balls, close to a fourth of the balls faced by India in the series. And yet everyday he must get to hear how he doesn’t hurt the bowlers no matter how long he plays, how he is responsible for others getting out, how the game needs to keep moving.Despite all that is happening around him, Pujara does so almost in trance. Even when he is getting hit, the hands holding the bat are always going down. Even when he is hit on the bottom glove, it is in the process of going off the handle. This is survival batting but Pant and Shubman Gill can keep attacking because they know Pujara is there. If someone needs to shut shop, Pujara can do so even if he is staggering and stumbling. And no amount of blows can push him back to a ball he should be forward to. In fact he goes on to target Starc and upper-cut him, unsurprisingly so. In doing that Pujara is lending a hand to the new one. This old road is not rapidly agin’.One of the new ones is Gill, representing the depth in Indian cricket. Debuting after 36 all out, at a position where batting has never been tougher in the history of the sport, Gill has announced himself regally. In him and Mohammed Siraj lie the riches of Indian cricket. Just as Siraj, Gill has shown he has come ready for the highest level and format of the game. Siraj lost his father during the tour, Gill must be worried about his, given the farmers’ protests in the biting cold of northern India. The personal challenges these players are facing can’t be overlooked.Can you imagine a tougher initiation into Test cricket than the first two overs Gill spent in the middle? From the non-striker’s, he saw Starc swinging it back in to Mayank Agarwal at 145-plus, seam one away, and then rip the pad off with the inswinger. At the striker’s, he saw Cummins continuously seam it this way and that. Yet he never looked out of place, never late, never rushed into playing a shot he doesn’t want to play.All the series’ hard work – for returns of 45, 31*, 50, 31, 7 – finally, for a change, brought him easier batting conditions on the final morning. No one deserved the harvest more than Gill. The morning session was perhaps the easiest for batting all series, likely because of the moisture from the overnight rain, which can tend to re-bind the surface. You need someone to cash in on these conditions without getting out and thus nullifying the advantage of the conditions.Gill has the game for it. He batted with a control percentage of 95, which is scarcely believable for this series. So good is his stroke-play he scored at a strike rate of 62 without taking risks. Batting is an imperfect art. It yo-yos from Pant to Pujara, who bring their own unconventional survival tools, but Gill gets as close to perfection as might be possible when accounting for all the vagaries you have to deal with in Test cricket. Foot movement is precise, defence is solid, the shots are all there, and the eye is quick. If you are a batting enthusiast, this is what you dream of watching on a mildly cold Sunday morning.Even when the ball started to misbehave around lunch and Australia went short, Gill moved his guard towards off, and didn’t give up hooking. He knew he couldn’t control them all, but scored 34 runs off 26 short balls.Between them, Gill, Pujara and Pant represent the might of Indian batting. This is a side that was bowled out for 36 a month ago. Now it has breached Fortress Gabba with a chase of 328. These are chases that will come off only once in a while, but if the batting riches of India find a way to just go out and bat the way they know best, India will keep putting them in positions to pull them off. Tim Paine and Justin Langer perhaps knew it all along or they would have declared sooner.