In the aftermath of their 217-run defeat to Bangladesh, Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie was still proud of the fight put up by Curtis Campher, Gavin Hoey and Jordan Neill on the fifth day in Dhaka.The visitors batted 59.3 overs on Sunday, holding Bangladesh up till almost the tea break, when Hasan Murad removed Hoey and Matthew Humphreys with successive deliveries. Nobody could remove Campher though. He made an unbeaten 71 having faced the greatest number of balls by an Ireland batter in the fourth innings of a Test match (259). Hoey was second on the list with 104.”[Curtis Campher] is someone that is hard to get out when he is in his bubble,” Balbirnie said. “He is very determined not to get out even when he is in the nets. He has such a strong defense, he showed that today.”Bangladesh were pushed to a little bit of an extreme, bowling 100 overs for the first time in the fourth innings at Shere Bangla National stadium. Campher played a big part in that.Related

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“If he puts his mind to it, he can do it,” Balbirnie said. “It is a shame that no one from the top and middle order could hang around for long enough. I think the batters showed fight today, to bat till just before tea on the fifth day. We were behind the game a lot. Bangladesh deserved to win the series 2-0.”Balbirnie also talked about Hoey and his recently-developed skillset as an allrounder: “I play with Gavin in club cricket in Dublin. I have known him since he was a kid. His dad was an Irish international in the 1990s. He was a legspinner as well. I think [Hoey] has only been bowling legspin since [Covid] lockdown, so it’s been five years. He was a seam bowler [earlier].Andy Balbirnie was candid about Ireland’s inability to bat for long periods•ECB/Getty Images

“So to have that skillset in this short time is really impressive. He will get better and better from experiences like this. We have to make sure that he gets enough overs under his belt. We need to have our spinners develop consistency so that we do well in these conditions.”Ireland had some hope of batting the day out and coming away with a draw. “[There were expectations] probably just before Murad took the two wickets,” Balbirnie said. “There was a small bit of excitement in the dressing room at that drinks break. Credit to the Bangladesh spinners. They don’t miss their line and length too often. They test batters a lot. The two wickets in two balls put an end to that [hope] pretty quickly. It was an enthralling day’s play. I think Curtis can be proud of his work today.”The fact that the Test match stretched to the fifth day was also a tribute to the type of pitch prepared for the encounter. “A lot of us had seen the West Indies ODI series. We were a bit nervous coming here,” Balbirnie said, referring to pitches that had, on one occasion, witnessed fifty overs of spin in the first innings. “When we arrived, we thought [the pitch] would break up quickly, but it held together. There was turn, but it wasn’t every ball. It was a good cricket wicket. I thought it was a pretty fair wicket. We had two good wickets over the two Tests.”Balbirnie was also candid about what Ireland hoped for from the series. “We had won three Tests in a row before coming here, so there was confidence in the group,” he said. “We had to manage our expectations. You are coming to places that have experienced cricketers.”We are trying to get that consistency. Our top-order didn’t fire for the last two games. Bangladesh’s top-order showed us how to do it – to bat for a long time and get big hundreds. [Their batting] was the big difference. We weren’t competitive against Bangladesh for longer periods. They showed their class over the nine days,” he said.

India’s Test captain has been advised more rest to avoid recurrence of neck spasms

Karthik Krishnaswamy20-Nov-20256:22

‘Gambhir took the blame because he felt curators should not be blamed’

Shubman Gill is set to miss India’s second Test against South Africa starting on Saturday after failing to recover sufficiently from the neck injury he suffered last week. Vice captain Rishabh Pant will stand in as captain in Guwahati.It is understood that, according to medical advice, Gill is at risk of further neck spasms if he plays so soon. He has been advised more rest. The development could also impact his selection in the ODI squad for the three matches against South Africa starting on November 30. The squad for that series is expected to be picked on November 23.With Gill set to miss out, India may have to choose one of B Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal and Nitish Kumar Reddy as his replacement.Related

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Gill was admitted to hospital after the second day of the Kolkata Test, following the decision to retire hurt after facing only three balls in India’s first innings. On the morning of the third day, the BCCI said he would take no further part in the Test. India went on to lose the match by 30 runs, after getting dismissed for 93 in a chase of 124 on a pitch with uneven bounce. Gill had missed a Test against New Zealand in October 2024 due to a neck spasm too.On Thursday, before ESPNcricinfo learned that Gill is set to miss the match, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had said in a press conference that the team would not risk playing him if there was any chance of the spasm recurring.”He is definitely recovering really well,” Kotak said. “Now, the decision [whether to play him or not] will be taken tomorrow evening. The physios, doctors, they will have to take a call that, [even] if he is fully recovered, [during the] game, he should not get that spasm again.”[…] If we have a, guarantee that, very likely, he won’t have this issue again, then he will play. If there is a doubt, then I am sure, he will take rest [for] one more game, because it won’t be helpful to the team [if he plays].”Nitish Kumar Reddy put in the hard yards at the nets in Guwahati•AFP/Getty Images

One of the concerns for India as they figure out Gill’s replacement is the surfeit of left-hand batters in their squad. They had six in their XI in Kolkata – five in their top eight – and Sai Sudharsan and Padikkal, the two specialist batters vying to come into the line-up, also bat left-handed. The left-hander-heavy nature of India’s line-up had advantaged offspinner Simon Harmer, the Player of the Match in Kolkata, significantly.Kotak suggested there had been undue focus on the offspinner-vs-left-hander match-up, and pointed out that South Africa also played Keshav Maharaj, a left-arm spinner, at Eden Gardens, which should have advantaged India’s line-up.”You tell me one thing, they had a left-arm spinner also. If we had seven right-handed batsmen, then? They had a left-arm spinner also, and an offspinner also. I believe that you have to play well. Offspinner bowling to left-hander does not mean left-hander has to get out. We had two left-arm spinners [in the first Test], they had nine right-handers; did they get out? So maybe that thing is a little overrated.”Overrated or not, India will still likely mull over the match-ups even as they prepare for a Guwahati track that is set to be more forgiving to the batters than Kolkata was.India’s mandatory practice session two days out from the match gave some indication of who might come in for Gill. The first four batters who came out to bat in the nets were Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar and Dhruv Jurel. The first three had been India’s top three in Kolkata, and Jurel had batted at No. 4 in the second innings, in Gill’s absence. Sai Sudharsan was next into the nets.Padikkal, meanwhile, did not bat in the early part of the practice session, but was seen bowling part-time offspin in the spinners’ net.Seam-bowling allrounder Reddy, who was released from the squad in Kolkata so he could play in India A’s limited-overs series against South Africa A, was back in training, and bowled alongside Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep in the fast bowlers’ net.Axar did not bowl initially, and only joined his team-mates some 45 minutes or so into the session.None of this necessarily points to India’s possible selection. Players have their own individual preferences for what kind of training they do, and how much, leading into games.But with a more balanced pitch than Kolkata expected on Saturday, India may not feel the need for a fourth spin bowler and a second left-arm orthodox spinner. If Sai Sudharsan replaces Gill, Reddy coming in for Axar would help India maintain the same balance of left- and right-hand batters they had in Kolkata. With a decent amount of grass on the pitch two days out from the Test, there is a chance Reddy could be a useful option with the ball too.

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