Alick Athanaze, Justin Greaves, Brandon King, Khary Pierre and Jomel Warrican all bring with them qualities that could stand West Indies in good stead in India

Deivarayan Muthu29-Sep-2025Alick AthanazeThe 26-year-old left-hand batter from Dominica has impressed a number of greats from the Caribbean, including Brian Lara and Ian Bishop, as well as those elsewhere. After he made his Test debut at his home ground in 2023, where he made 47 and 28, R Ashwin, who played in that fixture, picked him among a group of players who could dominate the next decade. While Athanze has scored only four fifties in 25 innings, his ceiling is high and he is being seen as a future all-format regular for West Indies.In the 2018 Under-19 World Cup, he had emerged as the highest run-getter, with 418 runs in six innings at an average of over 100, with Shubman Gill behind him (372 runs in five innings). Athanaze has grown to become one of the better players of spin in this Test squad: he stood up to Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan Miraz during his 90 against Bangladesh in North Sound last year.Jomel Warrican was a revelation on West Indies’ tour of Pakistan earlier this year•PCBJomel WarricanA left-arm fingerspinner who tosses the ball up and also gets it to fizz through, Jomel Warrican is now West Indies’ first-choice specialist spinner, especially after leading West Indies to their first Test win in Pakistan after 34 years with a match haul of nine wickets in Multan in January this year. His pace variations and accuracy stood out during the two-Test series in Pakistan, where he claimed the Player-of-the-Match award for his 19 wickets at an absurd average of nine.He will, of course, face a stiffer challenge in India and will be expected to bowl long spells in conditions that might be conducive to his style of bowling. He is also West Indies’ Test vice-captain and can contribute with the bat lower down the order too.Khary Pierre is 34, has never played Test cricket, but is tipped to be West Indies’ second spinner in the India Tests•Getty ImagesKhary PierreWith Motie getting a break, Khary Pierre, who turned 34 last week, is set to make his Test debut in India as West Indies’ second specialist spinner. If he gets his maiden cap in Ahmedabad, he will become the oldest player to debut for West Indies in the longest format since 1973.Like his senior partner Warrican, Pierre is adept at keeping the stumps in play and varying his pace, though he doesn’t give the ball a big rip. His recent form in the West Indies championship – he bagged a chart-topping 41 wickets in 11 innings at an average of 13.56 – strengthened his case for a maiden Test call-up though he isn’t exactly young. Pierre works closely with Akeal Hosein, another left-arm spinner from Trinidad, and is a multiple CPL winner with St Lucia Kings and Trinbago Knight Riders. He is also electric in the field, which Jamal Smith, CWI’s senior talent manager, acknowledged at a press conference earlier this month.Brandon King is still largely unproven in Test cricket•AFP/Getty ImagesBrandon KingBrandon King is the CPL’s batting royalty – his unbeaten 132 is the highest score in the league and his unbeaten 83 off 50 balls led Jamaica Tallawahs to the title in 2022. He has since become a T20 globetrotter and was recently picked by Joburg Super Kings in the SA20 auction, but is unproven in Test cricket. He has played just three Tests so far and his first-class average of 33.56 is not flash.But then again, West Indies don’t quite have the depth that India and some other countries possess, and with Brathwaite falling out of favour, King, 30, might open the batting along with the returning Chanderpaul in the first Test in Ahmedabad. He is proficient against pace and his biggest challenge will be against India’s spinners in potentially spin-friendly conditions. If he manages to counter Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav, he might boost his Test and IPL prospects.Justin Greaves hasn’t passed 40 in 13 innings since scoring his maiden Test century but his seam-ups provide balance to the XI•Cricket West IndiesJustin GreavesIn Shamar Joseph Test at the Gabba in 2024, Justin Greaves had scored a steady 33 in the second innings and in his next Test, at home, against Bangladesh, he made his maiden Test hundred to go with two wickets.Greaves, however, hasn’t passed 40 in 13 innings since but his seam-ups have provided balance to the XI. Against Australia, he picked up nine wickets in three games and could have a role to play as West Indies’ third seamer in India, with Pierre likely to play at the expense of a frontline seamer. Having missed CPL 2025 with injury, Greaves will have to shake off the rust and adapt quickly to Indian conditions.

The offspinner took key wickets and kept a lid on Afghanistan’s scoring in the game’s decisive performance

Mohammad Isam17-Sep-20252:27

Abhinav lauds Bangladesh’s spin-choke tactic

Nasum Ahmed finds himself in controversies, and then bounces back with match-winning performances.He was at the wrong end of a senior cricketer’s ire a few years ago. Nasum was also the recipient of the alleged slap from then head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe. He lost a year of cricket because of the second incident. In his first match back after that, also against Afghanistan, Nasum hit 25 in 24 balls before taking 3 for 28 in the second ODI.This time, at the Asia Cup, Nasum was again making a comeback dealing with an off-field controversy. As soon the Bangladesh team landed in Abu Dhabi, Nasum had to issue a clarification about a private matter that was more complicated than what was reported. The incident had weighed Nasum down, as was evident in his voice when issuing the clarification.Related

• Controversy in the past, Nasum makes a comeback and a big statement

• Bangladesh finally see the power of hitting sixes

• Tanzid, Mustafizur keep Bangladesh's Asia Cup campaign alive

Give him a cricket ball, though, and Nasum is in his element. Against Afghanistan on Tuesday, his miserly 2 for 11 handed Bangladesh a lifeline in the Asia Cup. They remain in the tournament till Thursday, at least, when a favourable result (and a net run-rate swing) in the Afghanistan-Sri Lanka match could get them in the tournament’s second phase.Despite Afghanistan’s woeful record in chasing 150-plus totals in major tournaments, they held the momentum at the break in Abu Dhabi. Afghanistan had fought back with the ball, conceding just 35 runs in the last five overs. Early wickets was the only way Bangladesh could have mitigated their batting drop-off.Enter Nasum. He claimed a wicket off the first ball of the Afghanistan innings. The delivery spun back into left-hand batter Sediqullah Atal’s back foot. It was so plumb that Atal didn’t bother to review. It was also a wicket-maiden, and was followed by another wicket in his third over, when he got another delivery to crash into the back pad of right-hand batter Ibrahim Zadran.However, Litton Das kept Nasum out of the attack after that until Mustafizur Rahman conceded 14 runs in the 17th over. Nasum’s first ball again produced a wicket, albeit a run out – it was Nurul Hasan’s wicket, really, as put on a bit of the spectacular to send back Karim Janat. Nasum gave away just four runs in the over, leaving Afghanistan with a mountain to climb in the last two, which they couldn’t.Nasum Ahmed wheels ahead during his celebration during his match-winning spell•Associated Press”It is a wonderful and positive aspect that he makes an impact every time he returns to the playing XI,” Tanzid Hasan said afterwards. “He changed the complexion of this game from his first over. I think we won because of his bowling.”We have a lot of healthy competition within the team. Everyone is giving their 100% at every opportunity. He gives the same effort in training and match situation. Everyone does the same in the team.”Nasum’s start was crucial, but it was also followed by Rishad Hossain taking 2 for 18, while Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur picked up five wickets between them.Despite the fifth-bowlers’ quota going for 55 runs in four overs, Tanzid praised the Bangladesh bowling for using their wealth of experience to pull off the win. “We have a world-class bowling line-up, who are well experienced in T20s,” he said. “We believed that we could defend the total. The credit goes to the bowlers.”Nasum also bowled 16 dot balls in his four overs. It is very rare for a Bangladesh bowler to be so miserly in a crucial match in a major tournament.Saif Hassan and Tanzid Hasan gave Bangladesh a rapid start•AFP/Getty ImagesBefore Nasum, Taskin bowled a similarly tight spell against Pakistan in the 2016 Asia Cup. For the other such example, were have to go all the way back to 2007, when Syed Rasel bowled 15 dots against a rampant West Indies line-up in the T20 World Cup.This was also Bangladesh’s first win against Afghanistan in an overseas T20I. Nasum was a key contributor but Bangladesh also started well with the bat. Tanzid and Saif Hassan added 63 runs for the first wicket, with Tanzid scoring a half-century. It was a crucial turnaround for Bangladesh, who had started their innings with two wicket-maidens against Sri Lanka in the previous game. Saif replaced Parvez Hossain in the line-up, among four changes, which paid off for Bangladesh.”We communicated well about the first couple of overs,” Tanzid said. “We struck boundaries in back-to-back overs, which helped us do well in the powerplay. I am not too worried about the past. It won’t come back. I tried to start afresh. I tried to give my best with the bat in a do-or-die match. I always try to be positive. You have to take risk in powerplays. I try looking for boundaries as much as possible.”Asked whether they were given any messages during the game about their net-run-rate equation, Tanzid said that they knew what they had to do, but were satisfied with just the win. “We had the opportunity [to increase our net run-rate]. We could have done it… but we couldn’t quite do it. We are happy to winning the game.”

The trophy belongs as much to the current players as the past, who represented India with limited means, often shuffling between jobs to make ends meet

Vishal Dikshit03-Nov-2025

India’s world champions celebrate with Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra•Getty Images

The most ironic celebratory scenes unfolded as the victorious Indian team took the ODI World Cup trophy around the ground in Navi Mumbai to Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra and they all said “Thank you”.As a weeping Goswami towered over captain Harmanpreet Kaur on one shoulder and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana on the other, she whispered those two words with her eyes shut, almost not knowing how else to appreciate the gigantic effort of finally bringing the trophy home. Mithali then held the trophy high with the squad surrounding her, offering rapturous applause. She had come so close to winning it herself eight years ago. Now that she had it, she cuddled it as tight as she could, big, beaming smile on her face.Chopra threw her arms around Harmanpreet with “you have done it,” not long after she had said, “finally, finally, finally” on commentary, just as the Indian team’s celebrations had begun. Perhaps she was counting the two World Cup finals India went down in, in 2005 and 2017, and that the third time was the real “finally” that sparked an endless celebration for the players and their families, both at the ground and the adjacent team hotel, all the way to the wee hours of Monday morning.Related

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• BCCI to give India women INR 51 crore cash prize for World Cup win

They took the trophy to Reema Malhotra as well, who turned out 64 times for India, and was Harmanpreet’s senior in the 2009 and 2013 World Cups. The duo reunited and sang “”, a popular Hindi song that means “give me my rights, here and now,” and largely symbolises rebellion and struggles against social and political norms.The irony of thanking the current side lay in the fact that these former players were the ones who had paved the way, laid the foundation and groomed some of these players who were wearing World Cup medals around their necks.It is the current fast bowlers who should be thankful to Goswami, who convinced her parents to let her play cricket as a teenager, for which she had to take a train every morning before dawn from her hometown in Chakdaha to Kolkata (about 80 kilometres away).It is the current batters who should be thankful to Mithali for smashing a Test double-century four months before she turned 20 and then taking up the India captaincy at 21, chaperoning the side to two World Cup finals.It was under Goswami that Harmanpreet made her international debut in 2009; it was under Mithali that Harmanpreet became vice-captain and then took over after Mithali’s departure in 2022. Chopra, too, had shown a young Harmanpreet the ropes more than 15 years ago and now fondly calls her protégé , an Indianised version of captain.8:05

‘What dream? We’re living it’

“Yes, Jhulan was my biggest support,” Harmanpreet said after the final. “When I joined the team, she was leading it. She always supported me in my early days when I was very raw and didn’t know much about cricket.”I used to play with boys, and the school principal picked me up, and within a year, I started representing the country. In the initial days, Anjum supported me a lot. I always remember how she used to take me along with her team. I learnt a lot from her and passed it on to my team.”Both of them have been a great support for me. I’m very grateful that I got to share a special moment with them. It was a very emotional moment. I think we all were waiting for this. Finally, we were able to touch this trophy.”Even though Harmanpreet was feeling “numb” at the press conference, she explained how this historic feat belonged to a myriad of people behind the scenes – families, close friends, coaches, who stood by them through the highs and lows. And all the former players, some of whom laid the foundation stone of women’s cricket in India decades ago.Two of them are Diana Edulji and Shantha Rangaswamy, who watched the players from the stands at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday night. They are two pioneers of the game who started with nothing and continue to contribute in administrative capacities to date.Rangaswamy was India women’s first official captain in 1976, and was the first to lead them to a Test series win. Born in a family full of academicians, Rangaswamy didn’t have the means to take a bus to college but went walking around Bangalore (now Bengaluru) to study and train for multiple sports. Early in her career, she even played with her father’s broken bat against Australia before establishing herself as an allrounder.Edulji, just two years younger than Rangaswamy, forced her way into boys’ cricket teams in South Bombay and came from the generation that had to raise funds on their own for India women’s first overseas tour of New Zealand in 1976-77.Mithali Raj has been a role model for a lot of the current players•ICC/Getty ImagesExpectedly, the finances accrued weren’t enough and they were forced to stay in the houses of a few Indian families and local players, which then became the norm for some of the future tours. Edulji was the first to lead India in a Women’s World Cup, in 1978 at home, before Rangaswamy did it in 1982.The trophy that the Indian team are still shooting reels with, perhaps belongs as much to the players who represented India, not just without contracts or match fees but especially under the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI), a body set up by lovers of the game in 1973.The WCAI’s history is dotted with its own share of financial difficulty before every overseas tour, before every World Cup – which even made India miss the 1988 edition – and until the BCCI took the women’s game under its wings in 2006. By then, India had featured in six World Cups without much formal support or money.The prize money of INR 51 crore that the BCCI announced the day after the World Cup glory in a way also belongs to those who shuffled between jobs to make ends meet while playing cricket. To those who defiantly fought against gender norms and initial administrative hurdles to set in place a system for girls to start thinking about cricket professionally, even after the likes of Harmanpreet and Mandhana had picked up their bats.”This one’s for those who were before us and set the foundation,” Jemimah Rodrigues wrote on her Instagram on Monday.It has taken generations of players, their parents, close friends and relatives to make all these efforts materialise into a World Cup trophy. The role of the media to popularise the game was also not lost on Harmanpreet.As soon as she finished her press conference after the final, she called some reporters to the podium – especially those who have contributed to the coverage of women’s cricket – and took selfies with nearly all of them holding the trophy. Coincidentally, they used the same words everyone around Harmanpreet had been saying: “Thank you.”

Extreme pitches have minimised the chance of draws and levelled the playing field, but what about the contest between ball and bat, and between runs, wickets and time?

Karthik Krishnaswamy15-Nov-20256:00

A ‘miscalculation’ in pitch preparation?

If the Eden Gardens Test ends the way it seems likeliest to after two days of cricket, India and South Africa will have a 3-3 record over their last six Test meetings. These six Tests – five in South Africa, and one now in India – have produced breathtaking cricket at times, showing just how good these two teams are, and how closely matched.Most of these contests, however, have lacked any semblance of balance between bat and ball. India have passed 200 only five times in 10 innings when they’ve had the chance to get that far (they chased down a target of 79 in the other innings), and 250 only twice. South Africa have passed 200 only four times, and 250 just once, in 11 innings.Only one of the six Tests has gone into a fifth day, and if the Kolkata Test finishes on Sunday, as it looks set to, it will be the third in a row to end in three days or fewer. The Cape Town Test of January 2024 ended inside two days, and lasted just 642 legal balls; the shortest of all result matches in Test history.Related

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This, with some exceptions, has been the way of the World Test Championship (WTC), where the reward for Test wins (12 points) and the relatively negligible benefit of draws (4 points) over losses (no points) have led teams en masse to roll out bowler-friendly decks in home Tests.Kolkata, though, has been a head-scratcher. It has served up extreme conditions, but it’s unclear whether they’ve come about through the usual route of the home team demanding them.Through their last Test series against West Indies, India suggested more than once that they were looking to move away from their post-2021 trend of square turners, and prepare home-Test pitches aiming for balance between bat and ball. Both the pitches in that series roughly corresponded to this template, with Ahmedabad starting out with help for the seamers before flattening out, and Delhi playing slow and low throughout.And in the days leading up to this Kolkata Test, neither team, judging by their public pronouncements, expected anything other than a traditional Indian pitch where batters could hope to score big runs in the first innings, and where wear and tear would begin to show its effects only around day three or thereabouts. South Africa left out their third spinner and picked a third seamer. India picked two seamers and as many as four spinners, which suggested they were expecting a heavy bowling workload.Wiaan Mulder was undone by the extra bounce•Getty Images”I think the conversation, leading up to the game, was that it was going to be a good wicket and it’s going to be hard work for us,” India bowling coach Morne Morkel said in his press conference at the end of day two. “We planned and focused more on how we are going to attack and target the South African batting line-up, we sort of took the thought of the conditions out of the equation and said, okay, we’ll adapt on the day, play it session by session.”But we definitely thought it was going to be a good wicket and sort of deteriorate as the Test match goes on, and play it from there.”The deterioration, as it turned out, began virtually from the first over of the match, during which one ball from Jasprit Bumrah kept low and two reared up. Uneven bounce has only grown more frequent and more pronounced in the sessions since, with the ball routinely causing bits of the pitch’s top layer to disintegrate and explode on impact.With 27 wickets already having fallen, 39 remains the highest individual score, even though there have been nine scores of over 20, suggesting that this is the kind of pitch where a batter is never , and where an unplayable ball is just around the corner.Matches like this often make for riveting viewing. And just as they are in other kinds of Test match, every run and wicket is earned. Batters are always remembered for scoring runs in difficult conditions. And if tricky conditions make wickets likelier to occur, they also ramp up the pressure bowlers face to take them, with fewer runs to play with, with every opposition partnership bringing greater consequences.For all that, though, this Kolkata Test, like so many others of its kind, has lacked two defining elements of Test cricket.One is time pressure. Runs, wickets and time are the three sides of the triangle of tension that elevates some Test matches to epic status. Without the pressure of time, you lose the possibility that a game could go into its final session, or even its final day, with all four results still possible.The other is the full physical challenge that Test cricket poses, asking fast bowlers if they can maintain their speed and intensity into their third spell of the day; asking spinners if they can keep sending down ball after ball, over long spells, with both control and high revolutions; asking batters if they can stay sharp, physically and mentally, through two, three, even four sessions at the crease.2:57

Philander: Batters being challenged technically here

The ideal Test pitch, then, would create conditions for the runs-wickets-time triangle to exist. It would challenge, physically and mentally, batters and bowlers of all types without leaving them feeling that their exertions will be futile. It would reward bowlers for bowling good lines and lengths, and punish them from straying from them. It would have true bounce, which would ensure edges carry to close-in fielders, and allow batters to trust their defensive and attacking strokes if executed properly. If these conditions are met, the ideal pitch could be tilted either towards seam or spin.Pitch preparation, of course, is far from an exact science, and the best intentions of curators can often come to nothing, particularly if the weather comes in the way. But Test matches like Cape Town 2024 and Kolkata 2025 leave in their wake the question of whether the best intentions existed – or were allowed to exist – at all.That home teams influence pitch preparation all over the world is incontestable. India have experienced both sides of this in recent years. They tend to come up against pitches designed to negate their spinners when they travel outside Asia and the West Indies – New Zealand, for example, prepare noticeably greener pitches against India than they do against South Africa or England. And at home, India have prepared numerous pitches designed to weaponise their spinners at the cost of the opposition’s fast bowlers.In Nagpur in 2023, for example, they prepared a true designer pitch against an Australia side full of left-hand batters. It was selectively watered, rolled and mowed to have bare patches on a spinners’ good length, particularly in the areas outside the left-handers’ off stump at both ends. It turned out less spiteful than it appeared, but the intentions were clear.Ravindra Jadeja spun a web around South Africa•AFP/Getty ImagesThis Eden Gardens pitch was the opposite, looking more benign than it proved to be. Was it, then, what India wanted, and asked curator Sujan Mukherjee to prepare? Or was it a pitch prepared to hold together for much longer than it did, which ended up behaving in an unexpected manner? Or was it caught between two sets of intentions?The answer isn’t clear-cut, but on TV commentary, the former India keeper Dinesh Karthik suggested that the pitch had not been watered on the eve of the match. If this happened, India’s team management probably had a role to play.Now India aren’t alone in having a significant influence on their home pitches, so it would be wrong to point fingers only at them. But does a thing become okay if everyone does it? And is it, well, good for Test cricket?You could legitimately argue that it is. That extreme pitches minimise the chance of draws. That, rather than exaggerating home advantage, they have actually levelled the playing field, enabling West Indies to win Tests in Australia and Pakistan in the last two years, and New Zealand to pull off one of the greatest upsets of all time by beating India 3-0 in India. That this Kolkata pitch has left South Africa with a chance, still, of going 1-0 up.You could argue that all the costs – such as, for example, the Test averages of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, which suffered irrevocably from a relentless diet of seaming, turning and/or uneven tracks from 2021 to the ends of their careers – are worth the upside of a Test-match landscape with fewer draws and a greater likelihood of unexpected results.But what of Test cricket as a contest between ball and bat, and between runs, wickets and time? What of Test cricket as a showcase for the full range of the sport’s bewitching skills?

MatériaMais Notícias

Após anos na elite, o Fortaleza foi rebaixado para a Série B do Campeonato Brasileiro. Em meio às mudanças no elenco por conta da queda, cinco jogadores do clube cearense estão em fim de contrato.

continua após a publicidadeRelacionadasFortalezaImprensa argentina reage ao rebaixamento do Fortaleza de PalermoFortaleza08/12/2025FortalezaApós cirurgia, Brítez lamenta rebaixamento do FortalezaFortaleza09/12/2025FortalezaEm fim de contrato, Yago Pikachu não fica no Fortaleza para 2026Fortaleza09/12/2025

➡️ Tudo sobre o Leão agora no WhatsApp. Siga o nosso novo canal Lance! Fortaleza

Dois dos nomes são zagueiros. Gastón Ávila está emprestado pelo Ajax-HOL e não deve ficar, visto que custaria um alto valor. O outro defensor é Lucas Gazal, que foi cedido pelo Atlético-GO nessa temporada.

Já o meio-campista Pierre foi emprestado pelo Tombense até o fim do ano. O volante chegou com uma opção de compra em seu vínculo e, após boas apresentações, é possível que o Tricolor adquira seu passe.

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➡️ Fortaleza é rebaixado e cumpre apenas uma meta em 2025

Os outros dois nomes da lista são atacantes. Yago Pikachu está de saída após 286 jogos no clube, como apurou o Lance!. No mesmo setor, Marinho também só tem contrato até o fim deste ano.

Há ainda a questão do técnico Martín Palermo, que assinou um vínculo somente para a atual temporada. Mesmo sem a renovação automática em caso de permanência, o Fortaleza deseja contar com o argentino para 2026.

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➡️ Rebaixamento interrompe marca histórica do Fortaleza na Série A

Queda interrompe marca histórica do Fortaleza

Com o rebaixamento, uma marca histórica do Fortaleza na Série A foi interrompida. Isso porque, como estava no Brasileirão desde 2019, o Tricolor permaneceu na elite por sete temporadas consecutivas. Esse é o recorde de uma equipe nordestina desde 2003, quando teve início o formato de pontos corridos.

O Leão ficou no G4 em duas oportunidades ao longo dessas sete edições. Além de frequentar a Copa Libertadores, as campanhas renderam idas à Copa Sul-Americana.

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BrasileirãoFortalezaFutebol NacionalMercado da Bola

Double-World Cup winner and Ashes star, but Woakes’ everyman qualities were his defining trait

Matt Roller01-Oct-2025When a sportsman retires, it is only natural to focus on their successes, and in Chris Woakes’ case, there were many. He is a double world champion, playing in both the 2019 (ODI) and 2022 (T20) World Cup finals, won the Compton-Miller medal in one of his five Ashes series, and finished a 62-match Test career with a batting average over 25 and a bowling average below 30.Woakes became a stalwart for England across formats: he spearheaded the one-day attack throughout Eoin Morgan’s white-ball revolution, regularly ran through touring Test teams, and lent balance to every side he played in. His record in England is outstanding: in 39 home Tests, he took 148 wickets at 23.87, outstripping even James Anderson and Stuart Broad.Yet the response to his international retirement on Monday – he will play on in franchise and county cricket – has underscored the sense that Woakes’ lows were an essential part of his story. His everyman quality made him the most relatable England regular of his generation, and was a huge reason why he is so highly regarded by both team-mates and fans.Woakes was a brilliant all-round sportsman, earning his nickname ‘The Wizard’ when cleaning up at a darts tournament on an Under-19s tour. Yet as a cricketer, for all his qualities, his attributes were relatively unremarkable: a swing – and, later, seam – bowler who spent most of his career bowling closer to 80mph than 90mph, and a solid if unspectacular batter.Woakes claimed three wickets as England prevailed in the 2019 World Cup final•IDI via Getty ImagesHe was not blessed with the natural pace of Mark Wood, Broad’s height, or the freakish athleticism of Ben Stokes, but developed himself into one of England’s most loved players through resilience and determination. He is a rare example of a player who undoubtedly fulfilled his potential, turning his early promise into a stellar international career.There were plenty of challenges. The timing of Woakes’ career meant that he was often competing for a single spot in England’s Test team, with Anderson, Broad and Stokes all automatic selections. He suffered various injuries – an occupational hazard – and, perhaps most notably, he struggled away from home, finishing his overseas Test career with a bowling average of 48.93.Related

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He reflected on those challenges in a candid Sky interview on Tuesday. “[Fans] don’t see it all,” Woakes said. “They don’t see the tough days… the hard moments where you are struggling. It happens in sport, where we often put on a brave face but behind the scenes, within the dressing room and within hotels, there are some dark times.”Woakes also recognised the benefits that overcoming adversity had on his career: “It moulds you as a person, moulds your character. It certainly helped me, the fact that I’ve had those setbacks… There’s been highs, there’s been lows, but the lows make sure that, when you do get success and you get those rewards eventually, that means a hell of a lot more.”Inevitably, there has been a great deal of focus on Woakes’ final act as a Test cricketer since his announcement, and his decision to come out to bat with a dislocated shoulder at The Oval – in a valiant, if ultimately vain, attempt to get England over the line against India – deserves immense credit. It is a reflection on his selfless character that he saw it as his only option.Ben Stokes greets Woakes after his valiant effort at The Oval•Getty ImagesBut as the dust settles, it will be his late arrival in the 2023 Ashes that ought to be the abiding memory of Woakes’ England career. He had not played a Test match for 18 months before he was thrown into the series at 2-0 down with three to play; a month later, he was bowling England to a series-levelling victory at The Oval, finishing the series with 19 wickets at 18.15.It was trademark Woakes, a starring role made even sweeter by the adversity that had come before it. He had feared for his career when he returned from a disastrous tour of the Caribbean in early 2022 needing knee surgery, and he was consistently overlooked at Test level when he was fit enough to return.His comeback at Headingley brought six wickets and a priceless 32 not out to see England home; in Manchester, he took a first-innings five-for; at The Oval, he was named player of the match for his seven wickets, four of them on the final day. Even still, he was happy for Broad – who sealed the win in his final act as an England player – to take centre stage.It was telling that Woakes’ announcement provoked such a strong response, and Key summed up his contribution to England dressing rooms past and present by describing him as “a man who helped every team he played in, even before he walked onto the field”. It takes something special for a player to be so highly regarded by both team-mates and supporters – and Woakes was just that.

They might still be in the relegation zone, but things are starting to look up for West Ham United this season.

Following their draw away to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon, Nuno Espírito Santo’s side have lost just one of their last six games.

The Portuguese manager has made the East Londoners far harder to play against and is getting more out of players, such as Callum Wilson.

The Englishman is starting to look like his old self, but if reports are to be believed, West Ham could soon sign an upgrade.

West Ham target Wilson upgrade

While the Hammers have most certainly improved over the last couple of months, it’s clear that they still need reinforcements in the January window, and so it’s not been a surprise to see them linked with a host of talented players.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

For example, Chelsea’s Axel Disasi has once again been touted for a move to the London Stadium, as has Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Jose Sa.

Yet, as good a signing as those two would be, neither one could be described as an upgrade on Wilson, unlike Joaquín Panichelli.

Yes, according to a recent report from Spain, West Ham are one of a few Premier League clubs interested in the Argentine striker.

Alongside the East Londoners, the report has revealed that Chelsea and Aston Villa have set their sights on the RC Strasbourg star.

A potential price for the 23-year-old is not mentioned in the report, but given that his £28k-per-week contract runs until 2030, he’s unlikely to come cheap.

With that said, West Ham should still do what they can to sign Panichelli, even if his arrival would be bad news for Wilson.

How Panichelli compares to Wilson

Now, it should be said that, as things stand, Wilson is doing an excellent job for West Ham.

However, football is a brutal game, and if the Irons can find themselves a better striker in the winter window, they should sign them.

So, with that said, is Panichelli a better forward than the Englishman?

Well, when it comes down to their output, the most important metric of all for forward, the answer is resounding yes.

For example, so far this season, the Argentine, whom U23 scout Antonio Mango has dubbed “one of the most in-form Strikers in Europe,” has scored ten goals in 19 appearances.

Appearances

19

13

Goals

10

4

Assists

0

1

Goal Involvements per Match

0.52

0.38

That means that the former Deportivo Alavés star is averaging a goal involvement every 1.9 games.

In contrast, the former Newcastle United ace has scored four goals and provided one assist in 13 appearances this season, resulting in a goal involvement every 2.6 games.

Another area in which the Córdoba-born gem clearly has a significant advantage over the Irons ace is age.

The once-capped international only turned 23 in October, whereas the Coventry-born poacher is 33 and set to turn 34 in February.

Now, this may not be an issue at the moment, but it does mean Nuno cannot build a team around the Englishman, which isn’t the case for the “clinical” Strasbourg striker, as dubbed by Mango.

Ultimately, while Wilson shouldn’t be moved on, West Ham should sign Panichelli next month to rival him for game time and then eventually surpass him to become the club’s starting number nine.

West Ham already have a Paqueta replacement who's 'like Kevin De Bruyne'

Nuno already has his Paqueta replacement in a hugely exciting West Ham star.

ByJack Salveson Holmes 3 days ago

يستعد فريق برشلونة، بقيادة المدرب هانز فليك، لخوض مباراة مهمة مساء يوم الثلاثاء ضد نظيره فريق تشيلسي، في إطار منافسات بطولة دوري أبطال أوروبا.

ويستضيف ملعب “ستامفورد بريدج” مباراة فريقي تشيلسي الإنجليزي وبرشلونة الإسباني، في الجولة الخامسة من دوري أبطال أوروبا، 2025/26، مرحلة الدوري.

وذكرت صحيفة “موندو ديبورتيفو” الإسبانية، أن المدير الفني لفريق برشلونة، هانز فليك، يدرك أن أربعة لاعبين على وشك الإيقاف حال تلقيهم بطاقة صفراء في مباراة الغد ضد تشيلسي.

اقرأ أيضًا.. حكم مباراة برشلونة وتشيلسي في دوري أبطال أوروبا

وأوضحت أن هؤلاء اللاعبين هم لامين يامال، فرينكي دي يونج، فيرمين لوبيز ومارك كاسادو، حيث أنه في حال حصول أي منهم على بطاقة صفراء غدًا، سيتم إيقافه في مباراة آينتراخت فرانكفورت في الجولة السادسة، كونهم تحصلوا على بطاقتين صفراويتين في الجولات الماضية.

في حين تحصل كل من جول كوندي، أليخاندرو بالدي، جيرارد مارتين وداني أولمو على بطاقة صفراء، لكل منهم، في مباريات برشلونة في دوري أبطال أوروبا ذلك الموسم.