The England national selector justified the legspinner’s selection, despite his unavailability for Yorkshire in red-ball cricket, explaining that he had full support from fellow selectors and Test captain Joe Root

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jul-2018Ed Smith, the England national selector, has defended the selection of Adil Rashid for next week’s first Test against India at Edgbaston, in spite of his unavailability for Yorkshire in red-ball cricket, saying that the decision was taken with the full approval of both his fellow selectors and England’s Test captain Joe Root, with Yorkshire kept informed at every step of the process.Smith took over from James Whitaker as the head of England’s selection panel in May, and was not therefore privy to the decisions that led to Rashid’s withdrawal from red-ball cricket, in the wake of his omission from last year’s Ashes. His first Test selection, for the Pakistan series in May, had also featured a notable recall on the strength of a player’s white-ball form, when Jos Buttler was successfully reintroduced to the side after starring in the IPL.”I believe strongly in the county game’s value,” Smith told reporters at The Oval. “In no way is there any sense that I would do anything to damage county cricket. However, in these circumstances where the context pre-dated my involvement as England selector, the panel unanimously felt that the right selection was Adil Rashid in the squad.”Broad backing for Rashid

Stuart Broad has said Adil Rashid’s recall was testament to the spinner’s increased confidence from a successful spell in England’s limited-overs sides, and backed him to produce “wicket-taking balls” in the Test series with India.
“He’s bowled beautifully in the one-day series,” he said. “I know it’s easy to say it’s a very different format with different strategies and all that sort of thing but you can see he has got wicket-taking balls in him and he’s come through a couple of years of wonderful white-ball bowling which will give him a lot of confidence at the top level.
“I know Moeen [Ali] has said it’s different bowling with a Dukes and a Kookaburra red ball but I’m sure he’s building up for a big week’s prep in Birmingham. We training three days before Wednesday, so that’s quite a lot of prep time to get used to it.”

Smith revealed that he had sounded Rashid out about a Test recall prior to the ODI series against India. It was, he added, “a general chat about whether it was in his heart to play Test cricket for England again, what his aspirations were. At no stage did I give him any assurances about selection, even if he was available.”One thing that did not change, however, was that Rashid opted not to make himself available for Yorkshire’s Roses match at Old Trafford last week. Yorkshire chose to play on-loan legspinner Josh Poysden instead, and club officials were outspoken in their annoyance in the wake of a call-up that will now limit Rashid’s involvement in their Vitality Blast campaign.”We are pretty disappointed with both the ECB’s and Adil’s decision,” Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s Director of Cricket, said, while Mark Arthur, the chief executive, added: “I hope that England know what they’re doing to Adil, and the county game.”Smith, however, was unrepentant for picking a player whom he believes will help England to win a high-profile Test series. “I’m not party to the relationship between Adil and Yorkshire,” he said. “I am very sympathetic to Yorkshire’s position in terms of their planning. I’ve spoken with Martyn Moxon all the way through so it’s been no surprise to Yorkshire, they have been kept informed every step of the way.”I’m aware it will prompt discussion, but moving forward it’s been made clear to Adil that if he wishes to be eligible for selection in the 2019 summer, he must have a contract to play red-ball cricket.”I am tasked to put the best available squad together to give to the captain and the coach to pick the XI on the day. That’s the extent of my job. Given the circumstances, I feel very comfortable that, after a unanimous decision, we have picked Adil Rashid in the squad.”That unanimity, Smith reiterated, included the blessing of Root, whom he said he “did more than consult”.”The decision was a unanimous one, the decision makers being myself, James Taylor and coach Trevor Bayliss, and also round that table was Joe Root,” Smith said.”The number one question was ‘Joe, what do you need?’. I know Joe wishes to give Adil and Moeen [Ali] the best environment to thrive in the Test team, as they thrive in the one-day side. When it came to the final decision, I asked all four if it was the right thing to do and the answer was ‘yes’ from all four.””The decision involved quite a lot of context,” he added. “We are fully aware of the summer we are having and the likelihood or possibility that the pitches are going to turn. Secondly, in the event of needing two spinners, how would we get people into the side who turn the ball in different directions?”It would be quite eccentric to play two offspinners and Joe Root. In that context as part of that decision, obviously Adil’s form in white-ball cricket, his confidence, his touch, the fact that he has evolved so much as a bowler and is in the form of his life, and never felt more at home in an England one-day or T20 jersey.”

Surrey opener heard of call-up after interrupted phonecall to selector Ed Smith at windy Taunton

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Sep-20182:09

Burns’ consistency across seasons merited Test elevation – Ed Smith

Rory Burns believes he has enough “clarity in his method” to translate his prolific form for Surrey in the County Championship into a potential Test debut on the spinning wickets of Sri Lanka, after being named in his first England Test squad at the age of 28.Burns, who is back in action for Surrey at The Oval, has led the county to their first Championship title since 2002 with a formidable haul of 1319 runs at 69.42 in 13 matches, which is almost 400 runs more than his nearest challenger, Somerset’s James Hildreth.It has been the fifth season in succession that Burns has passed 1000 runs in Championship cricket, and speaking on Friday after confirming his call-up, England’s national selector Ed Smith said that he had impressed everyone with his consistency.”For me personally, it’s been a lot of hard work,” Burns told Sky Sports ahead of Surrey’s match against Essex. “I’ve tried to let my bat do the talking and churn out runs, and it’s satisfying to get the nod in the end and get the opportunity.”I’ve obviously got five seasons of backing in my own head. I’ve got some self-belief, so you’ve got to trust your method and trust the processes that you go through.”Burns heard the news while down at Taunton on Friday, where Surrey’s quest for a tenth consecutive Championship victory was curtailed by high winds. And that adverse weather may have been a factor in his slightly disjointed phonecall.”Ed Smith rung me last week after the Somerset game, but it actually cut out halfway through,” Burns said. “He started to tell me I’d got the nod, but it cut out so I had to run outside quickly and find some phone signal, and give him a call back.”The message got through in the end, however, and if selected for the first Test in Galle on November 6, Burns will be stepping into the shoes of none other than Alastair Cook, England’s all-time leading run-scorer who retired at The Oval earlier this month following a record run of 159 consecutive appearances.”I don’t think it’s [extra pressure], I think it’s exciting,” Burns said. “You probably can’t say enough about Alastair’s career – well I can’t, because I don’t think I’m as good as him at the minute. But it’ll be an exciting time and I hope I get an opportunity to do it.”Despite his success on home soil, Burns is under no illusions about what will await him in Sri Lanka, especially after speaking to his Surrey team-mate Dean Elgar, who toured the country with Sri Lanka back in July and August.Rory Burns and Dean Elgar plot a good day for Surrey•Getty Images

“I’m a decent player of spin, I’ve got a few options that I try to work my way through, but [Elgar’s] just got back from Sri Lanka, and said he didn’t face a ball of seam,” said Burns. “So it’ll be trial by spin and it’ll be interesting to see how I’ll go.”I think it’s about clarity in your method,” he added. “You need to understand what you do well, what your options are at certain times. It’s no different from going from seam to spin, there are different methods to both and you’ve got to cycle through them.”Burns’ batting technique, much like the man he is replacing, is best described as functional rather than beautiful. His backside sticks out to square leg, and he has a habit of looking towards mid-on before each delivery. But there’s no arguing with his body of work in recent seasons.”My method is slightly unorthodox,” Burns admitted. “There’s some nuances to it, let’s put it that way. I got told I was left-eye dominant, so [looking to mid-on] is about me trying to get my left eye on the ball as much as I can. Then it almost became a rhythm thing in terms of little routines at the crease. That’s how that came about.”Burns’ England call-up caps a remarkable year for a player who has only just taken up the reins at Surrey, the County Champions-elect.”You set out at the start of the season to try to win some trophies, we managed to get the biggest one, and then to get the call-up has been pretty special,” he said. “I am fortunate to come off the back of Gareth Batty and the way he stabilised the club in his tenure, so to win it is a special feeling.”We’ve done it with a group of young Surrey lads, a lot of guys in the system that we’ve played with a lot of the way up, through age groups and the academy.”From a playing side of things, we are backing youth, backing guys coming through the system and complementing that with some very good experienced cricketers around them, and off the pitch we seem to be getting people through the gate and making some money.”When we won [the title] at Worcester, most of the boys started celebrating but I was already thinking about next year and trying to do better. Hopefully this will be the first year of many years of success, but a lot of hard work has gone into winning it this year. We’ve got to recognise that, and try to reproduce it next year.”

The India coach feels in all the time he has been doing the job, this was the best performance from India “as a batting unit, as a catching unit and as a bowling unit”

Nagraj Gollapudi at Trent Bridge22-Aug-20180:41

‘India are nearly the best travelling team in the world’ – Shastri

How big a victory is this?
In the four years I have been doing this job, if you look at a clinical performance overseas, this has to be the best. South Africa [the Wanderers Test victory] was gutsy, that was a nasty track. But this was clinical. When you look at all three departments, they stood up. As a batting unit, as a catching unit and as a bowling unit.After all the backlash at home following the Lord’s Test, how happy are you with the batsmen coming into form and sort of making a statement?
Was there a backlash at home? Because we don’t read what’s written back home. Yes, disappointed because we ran England close in the first Test match. We are blown away at Lord’s, so we needed to prove a point. And all I asked the boys was to give me some accountability and they were simply magnificent in all three departments of the game.What was said in the change room between the Tests, because for a team 2-nil down to come back is not easy. To mentally keep standing is difficult, so what was said?
Very little practice, mental rest.What was your message to the players?
Clear your heads and show me some accountability.Can you expand on how you wanted the batsmen to apply themselves?
Mental discipline. Get tough mentally. You are going to look ugly. You will have to leave a lot of balls. There is no shortcut. You will have to grind the opposition down when the opposition has Broad and Anderson, who have got close to a 1000 wickets between them playing in their conditions. There is no shortcuts. I don’t care who you are. You have got to tell yourself, if I need a hundred I have to bat five hours. Five-six hours to get a hundred. So you challenge yourself to bat those five-six hours, not one-two hours.Don Bradman’s team is the only team to have won from 2-0 down, Australia’s 3-2 win in 1936-37 Ashes. Is that something you’re going to tell the boys, because it is huge, the relevance of this victory…
1936-37, I wasn’t even born man! Why are you reminding me of ’36-37? One match at a time, we live in the present, okay? One game at a time. Nottingham is over. There’s a break and we move to Southampton and start afresh. Take a fresh guard. 2018.England put India in to bat. Do you think that decision was because they thought they could blow the Indian batsmen away?
I can see where England came from because India had been dismissed so cheaply at Lord’s. They must have thought why not get a crack at India early. And if we [England] can rattle them early and bowl them out on day one, you might have the advantage. But then again, our boys showed a lot of character, withstood that test and came out with flying colours.You would have batted first?
We would’ve batted, yeah.Is this the best pace attack India has ever had?
By a mile. By a mile. No team comes even close.Do you reckon India will have the upper hand going into the last two Tests?
They [India] will be thinking positively, but this is over. Like I said, you start afresh. Take one day at a time and execute your plans to the best of your ability. If you can do that, you will always compete.The message before this Test was mental discipline. What message do you give them now?
Same thing. We have had three back-to-back Test matches. It has been hard. Take a break. Remember all the good things you did in this Test match and take it forward. But remember you have got to start afresh.Can you give us an update on R Ashwin’s fitness?
Ashwin will be okay. The fact that he bowled 20-25 overs clearly suggests it [the hip injury] is not that bad. This break will be ideal for him. If there was a Test match starting in three days’ time, then it would have been a problem.Is Bhuvneshwar Kumar fit and available for selection for the last two Tests?
I have not had a word with the selectors, but they will be picking the side either today or tomorrow.

He wants to emulate his father Abdul Qadir by playing international cricket. Not for Pakistan, the land of his birth, but for Australia

Daniel Brettig26-Sep-2018

Though legspinners are famously furtive about revealing their intentions, there is no such secrecy about Usman Qadir’s desire to emulate his father Abdul Qadir by playing international cricket. Not for Pakistan, the land of his birth, but for Australia, the country he has found increasingly receptive to his maturing repertoire of legbreaks, googlies and topspinners.On Wednesday, Usman made his state debut for Western Australia, and made an instant impression by fooling Cameron White in his very first over before going on to returning the notable figures of 3 for 50 in Warriors’ thumping of Victoria at the Junction Oval. It was fitting that Qadir perform so well in Melbourne, given that two decades ago it was for the city’s Carlton Cricket Club that Abdul Qadir claimed a record-equalling 76 wickets in club cricket, beginning a relationship with Australia that has led to his son’s WA sojourn.Having seen the pathway opened up by another legspinner of Pakistani origin – Fawad Ahmed in 2013 – Usman has identified his qualification for a distinguished talent visa and its attendant fast-tracking of Australian citizenship as means by which to be able to play for his adopted country in time for the 2020 World Twenty20 tournament, hosted by Australia. His application would need to be sponsored by Cricket Australia, and his performances would need to have demonstrated exceptional skill that will be of material benefit to Australian cricket.”When I saw Fawad, the government changed the law for him, I am going to apply for a distinguished talent visa and before that I’ve got permanent residency and hopefully I will get citizenship as well in two years’ time,” he said. “My goal is to play for Australia in the 2020 World Twenty20. Hopefully, definitely [I will be eligible].”It’s been six years since Usman, 25, first loomed as a possible Australian representative. Having played for Pakistan at the 2012 Under-19s World Cup in northern Australia, he was encouraged by then South Australia coach Darren Berry to play club cricket for Adelaide, where he performed well and seemed on course to graduate to higher honours.”All the credit goes to him because he’s a great guy, he supported me as well, but at that time they said you can get the nationality next year and you can get the contract as well, and that’s when I said to my dad,” Usman said after the game. “But that time I was very small, I couldn’t have a mature mind, so my dad said ‘you have to come back and play for Pakistan’, so that’s why I flew back to Pakistan.Usman Qadir is congratulated on his Western Australia debut•Getty Images

“I got named in the Pakistan team and my father was the chief selector at that time and he took my name off because he said ‘everybody is going to say to me that your son is not performing well’, but at that time I got the hat-trick and got seven wickets, and the chairman put my name in the team and he said, ‘no, everybody is going to say that you take your son in the team’.”After that I quit cricket for one-and-a-half-years, and I keep telling him I don’t want to play for Pakistan, I want to go to play in Australia and make my future. He kept telling me, ‘no, you have to play for Pakistan’ but last year he said to me ‘if you want to go you are grown up, you can do whatever you want to do, I’m with you and I’ll support you’.”So it was that two years ago, Usman returned to Australia with the intent to build a new cricket career. At the time, his father suggested that it was fair enough to make the move, having exhausted his options in Pakistan. “I, as a father and a former cricketer, have lost trust in our system to give a fair chance to our players to prove themselves,” Abdul Qadir said in 2016. “I don’t want to see my other son to go down and suffer due to this system which doesn’t respect their legends.”I never went to any selector on behalf of my son and never will. My other sons were also capable enough to represent Pakistan but they didn’t grow, but Usman is very much capable and I know he has potential for top-level cricket. I have allowed Usman to decide about his future. I did hold him back from migrating to Australia in 2013, and asked him to stay in Pakistan. But now after him being ignored for more than three years, I don’t think it’s fair for me to stop him anymore.”Last summer he played for Hawkesbury in Sydney club cricket, scooping 36 wickets in a mere six matches and catching the attention of WA’s then coach Justin Langer in a net session. Langer, of course, is now Australia coach, so it is the commission of his successor Adam Voges to manage Usman’s path. For now, that includes 50-over matches and a Big Bash League contract with the Perth Scorchers; a Sheffield Shield call-up looms next.”There is politics, they’re making their own decisions, they have likes and dislikes and that’s why I don’t like that,” Usman said of his experience in Pakistan. “If I’m performing well you can see, and I did not get any chances to play good cricket. I said to myself that I didn’t want to play in Pakistan anymore, so I moved here.”If I’m performing well, hopefully they give me an opportunity to play four days (Sheffield Shield) as well. I’m living at the moment in Sydney, hopefully I’m going to move to Perth to play in club cricket and performing well there hopefully they give me a chance to perform in four days as well.”

The fast bowler is flying home to Barbados following the death of his grandmother and will rejoin the team in India after her funeral

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Sep-2018Kemar Roach will return to Barbados following the death of his grandmother and will rejoin West Indies’ squad in India after her funeral. This means the fast bowler is likely to miss West Indies’ two-day tour match against the Board President’s XI in Vadodara. The match begins on September 29, and is West Indies’ only warm-up match before their two-Test series against India, which begins in Rajkot on October 4.Roach, as a result, could go into the first Test without any recent long-format match practice; his last red-ball match was the first Test against Bangladesh in Antigua in the first week of July. He took five wickets in the first innings of that Test match, but also picked up a hamstring injury and was rested for the second Test in Jamaica.Since then, Roach’s only top-level cricket has been a pair of T20 games for Jamaica Tallawahs in the Caribbean Premier League in August.The 30-year-old Roach is the most experienced of the five fast bowlers in West Indies’ squad, having played 48 Tests since his debut in 2009. Shannon Gabriel (37 Tests) and Jason Holder (34) are the two other senior quicks, with Keemo Paul having played just the one Test so far and Sherman Lewis – who replaced the injured Alzarri Joseph – yet to make his debut.

Weston McKennie led celebrations as he and his USMNT team-mates raced to down cans of sparkling water after their CONCACAF Nations League triumph.

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• McKennie leads messy dressing room celebrations
• Squad shotgun fizzy water cans
• "We'll be back for more" vows star after three-peat

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  WHAT HAPPENED?

  The Stars and Stripes changing room was bedlam after a convincing win over their bitter rivals Mexico delivered a third straight win in the competition. Juventus star McKennie was at the heart of it all, challenging beer-goggled colleagues to a 'shotgun' challenge to gulp down fizzy water.

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  "3 peat and we will be back for more," vowed McKennie, posting post-match scenes on Instagram, the third of which showing the drinks race.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  The United States have now won all three editions of the Nations League since its inception in 2019. Mexico will point to the fact that they have won two Gold Cups to the USMNT's one over the same period. But the balance of power between the two great rivals is as tight as ever, with the Americans holding the finest of leads in the FIFA Rankings as the pair build up to the 2026 World Cup.

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• WHAT NEXT FOR THE USMNT?

  Players and staff have a bit of time to bask in their latest triumph before returning to acton in July to prepare for the Copa America, staged in the United States this summer and open to several CONCACAF teams.

England’s win over India will mean nothing if they don’t beat an out-of-sorts Sri Lanka, says former spin bowler

Melinda Farrell25-Sep-2018Graeme Swann has called on Moeen Ali to cast aside any self-doubt and take charge of England’s campaign against an “out-of-sorts” Sri Lanka next month.While Moeen has been a consistent presence in England’s ODI side this year, he was dropped from the Test side during the New Zealand tour in March but returned for the fourth Test against India in Southampton, where he produced a Player-of-the-Match performance with both bat and ball.Swann questioned the mindset of both Moeen and Adil Rashid, the players whom he believes will be the key if England are to succeed in Sri Lanka.”I think it is a big series because after being 4-1 [in the Test series against India] I think it’s very easy to rest on your laurels,” said Swann. “That will mean nothing if they don’t go well against – let’s face it – a massively out-of-sorts Sri Lanka team.”They’ve had a stinker of a time at the Asia Cup and this is a very good time to play them. I don’t think we’ve got the resources to go out there and really challenge them if we don’t believe we have, because I don’t believe the spinners are in the right mindset.”Moeen was brought back into the England Test side ostensibly as the second spinner to Rashid and, in the second innings at the Ageas Bowl, was promoted up the batting order to No.3 ahead of Joe Root. He has expressed a wish to continue batting higher up the order and playing the supporting spinner’s role but Swann is not convinced Moeen is best suited to either role.”Mo is still in that [mindset of] ‘I’m No.2 spinner I want to bat No.3’. That is not the way to go. If Mo turns up at the airport and says, ‘I’m going to go to Sri Lanka and be Man of the Series, I’m going to take loads of wickets and I’ll bat No.6 where the team needs me, not at No.3 where I’m not suited’ then I think England will win. But I think it’s all about getting the best out of the spin bowlers who, let’s face it, when you go to the subcontinent are the major players.”Yes, the Test series is a different form and it’s in a different country but it seems with Mo that he’s so fragile that he needs confidence-boosting all the time. And I implore him to just come on, grab it with both hands. You’re a really, really good bowler and stop worrying about being known as the No.2 spinner. It doesn’t make any difference, the ball doesn’t change shape because you’re the No.1 or 2 spinner, the pitch doesn’t change length, the same batsmen are batting. Nonsense.”Swann was speaking at the launch of the Cricket World Cup Participation Plan, in which ECB and ICC hope to use the tournament to inspire 1 million children to play the game, and he feels that, whatever the results may be in Sri Lanka, England are right on track in their preparations seven months out from a home World Cup.”I think from a one-day point of view, with the World Cup coming here next year, we couldn’t be in a better place at the minute because the one-day series against India proved to us that we could beat India in England and come back from a pretty slow start to the series as well”, said Swann. “And Eoin Morgan is undoubtedly the best man for the job as skipper.”He has that team really believing they can do anything from any situation and England are favourites.”

Sri Lanka’s big hitter admits he’s falling short of his potential at the top of the order

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Pallekele17-Oct-2018With the top order contributing runs for the first time in four matches, it’s the middle order that failed Sri Lanka in the shortened third ODI against England. So said Niroshan Dickwella, the batsman who had given Sri Lanka their fast start, hitting 36 off 25 balls to set the team on course to a score of 58 for 1 by the end of the Powerplay.Just after the 12-over mark, however, Sri Lanka’s innings started to wobble. They lost Sadeera Samarawickrama to an Adil Rashid full toss, the batsman top-edging what should have been a straightforward sweep to the short fine leg fielder. Next ball, Thisara Perera attempted to launch the first delivery he faced into the next galaxy, and managed only to top-edge it into the deep. When Dhananjaya de Silva fell at the start of the 16th over, Sri Lanka had lost three wickets for 18 runs.Eventually, due in part to a laboured 34 off 42 balls from Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka mustered only 150 for 9 from their 21 overs – a total that always seemed light on a night when the bowlers struggled to grip the ball.”We got a good start but we were 20-25 runs short,” Dickwella said. “After being 92 for 2, it was 92 for 4 suddenly. That was the main turning point. If Thisara could have batted five overs at that time, we would have ended up with a score closer to 190. You can’t win a 21-over match with only 150 on the board. The ball was also wet because of the rain. If we had made 175, it could have been a winning score.”Sri Lanka’s batting has been consistently modest since the start of 2017, in which they’ve now lost 32 games out of the 42 they have played. They had lost four top-order wickets inside the Powerplay in the second ODI, essentially surrendering the game in that period. Now, in this match, batsmen further down the order have failed to make an impact, with Thisara and de Silva producing three runs off 11 balls between them.”In the last couple of matches we didn’t get a big partnership from the top order,” Dickwella said. “This time we got that, but the middle order failed. That’s been happening for a while. When the top order scores, the middle order fails and vice versa. To get the optimal score, we need to click together.”Though on this occasion, Dickwella was perhaps justified in attacking relentlessly as the match had turned into a virtual T20, he has been guilty of being wasteful with his wicket after he has made a promising start. He had reached double figures in five of his seven previous innings, but had only once made a half-century. It’s a shortcoming he admits to.”I can’t be satisfied with my performance. A lot of times I get 30 or 40, but only about one in five games do I go on to get 70 or 80. Today was a shortened game so it’s different. Once I got 30 I tried to keep going at the same tempo, because we had wickets in hand. But overall when you look at my one-day cricket, even though I’ve got starts, I haven’t capitalised and turned them into big innings.”

Harry Kane missed two huge chances as Bayern Munich fell to a 2-0 defeat to Dortmund, all but confirming Bayer Leverkusen as Bundesliga champions.

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  Bayern Munich all but surrendered the Bundesliga title to Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, as they lost 2-0 to Borussia Dortmund at home to leave them 13 points off the pace with just seven games to play. Dortmund took the lead after just 10 minutes, as Karim Adeyemi sprang the offside trap, ran through on goal and shot, with his effort squirming through Sven Ulreich's grasp.

  Harry Kane should have equalised in the 22nd minute as he was found unmarked in the box by a superb cross, but he could only direct his header harmlessly wide. Bayern subsequently went into half-time on their heels and they could have fallen 2-0 behind after the restart, but Ulreich somehow managed to deny Felix Nmecha from close-range after a slick passing move.

  Head coach Thomas Tuchel made a major change to try to force a comeback, as Jamal Musiala, Thomas Muller and Leroy Sane were replaced by Serge Gnabry, Kingsley Coman and Mathys Tel just after the hour. It was to no avail, though, as Dortmund added a second late on. Julian Ryerson slammed an effort into the bottom corner after a lovely lay-off from Sebastien Haller.

  Kane thought he had pulled a goal back with a back-post header that did hit the back of the net, but VAR ruled that he was offside, to rub salt into his and Bayern's wounds.

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• THE MVP

  Mats Hummels was nothing short of a colossus at the back for Dortmund. Not only did he continually put his body on the line, making tackles and blocks to frustrate Bayern in the final third, he also continually stepped into midfield, confusing the home side's press. Hummels is now 35, so it's fair to say he is ageing like a fine wine.

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  THE BIG LOSER

  Kane was absolutely anonymous beyond a terrible miss. He was six yards out, unmarked, and with the goal at his mercy, but his header was embarrassing, as it floated wide and out for a goal kick. In the second half, from a corner, he did similar, again heading wide. This was a game in which Bayern needed the England captain to make an impact; he did nothing of the sort, with his misery compelled when his late goal was ruled out by VAR.

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• WHAT COMES NEXT?

  Bayern are next in action against Heidenheim on April 6 before returning to the Champions League against Arsenal in north London. Dortmund, meanwhile, face Stuttgart as they look to make sure they finish in the top four in Germany's top flight.

“We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations.” This message, one of many famous lines delivered by Sir Winston Churchill in his speech to the House of Commons following the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, was not a million miles from the sentiment of Australia’s captain Tim Paine in the moments after his side salvaged the unlikeliest of draws against Pakistan in Dubai.Having marked the stalemate with his own fist pump and congratulations for the other not-out batsman Nathan Lyon, Paine saw the Australian viewing area beginning to erupt in celebrations. Recalling the words of the former England captain Michael Vaughan after another narrow escape by Australia, at Old Trafford during the 2005 Ashes, he immediately gestured to his men to settle down. This draw, miraculous as it was, needed to be viewed in perspective.”Just when I saw a little bit of it [the celebrations] spilling out the door, I think it was the Forged In Fire documentary we watched last year during the Ashes and Michael Vaughan said after one of the Tests that he felt as an opposition captain that they had them when he saw them celebrating a draw,” Paine said. “I’ve seen that myself before.”I think we were clearly pretty excited by what we’ve been able to achieve because it doesn’t happen too much, but you’ve got to keep a bit of perspective on it and realise that we had been outplayed particularly over the first few days. While it was great we did fight back, a draw is a draw and we’re here to win.”Vaughan’s words had been in reference to watching a great Australian team overwhelmed with relief at having escaped defeat, as he recounted to the in 2013: “At the end we were down because we had missed a chance. But I remember Brett Lee and [Glenn] McGrath hugging each other in the middle as if they won the World Cup. I looked behind me and saw them jumping up and down on the balcony. I told the lads to look at them celebrating. I never thought I would see an Australia team celebrate a draw. I said: ‘If we play like this, and I know we will be better at Trent Bridge, then the Ashes will be ours, no question. We have got them mentally’.”Nowhere is the mental battle intrinsic to Test cricket more vital than in the unrelenting heat and dry, dusty conditions of the UAE. Paine has made it clear to his men that while there is a great deal of succour to be taken from the Dubai rearguard, more must be done in Abu Dhabi if the touring team are to gain Australia’s first win in a Test series in Asia since the 2011 Sri Lanka tour.”It’d be a massive thing for any Australian side, and for this one in particular,” Paine said. “Touched on it last week that not many people gave us a chance over here, which is a great opportunity for us to prove people wrong and a great thing to keep driving us. We’re trying to get better every day, and if we manage to play our best next week maybe that is possible. But we’ve got to turn up for a really tough match, it’s going to last five days and we’ve got to be on for all of those five days and every session.”Last week when we dropped the ball a little bit for a session, the game can be taken away from you really quickly here. We’ve got to take it, as boring as it is, a day at a time, a session at a time, and if we do that, we know we’ll be right in it at the end. I think the fact that guys in the second innings saw that their plans would work over here [helps]. You never know. You can have the greatest plans in the world but until you get out in the middle in a Test match under that sort of pressure you never know.”For guys to actually go out and do it, they’ll take a lot of confidence out of that, we’ll clearly as a team take a fair bit of momentum out of it. But we spoke again this morning about the need to turn up here in the next couple of days and start getting our mind around the fact it’s going to be a real battle again for five days and that’s how cricket is played over here.”By way of adjustment, Paine said he was considering a shuffle of the batting order after the struggles of Shaun and Mitchell Marsh in the first Test at Nos. 3 and 4. But he confirmed the top six would be the same in personnel if not order of appearance, with the only question of selection around whether to include one of Michael Neser or Brendan Doggett at the expense of Jon Holland, given the well-grassed appearance of the Abu Dhabi surface relative to Dubai.Paine’s captaincy has evolved quickly in a short space of time, since he was thrust into the role by the extraordinary circumstances of the South Africa tour and the Newlands ball tampering scandal. He reflected upon trying to be mentally fresher than he was at his first attempt in the England ODI series mid-year, where he trained so much as to find himself fried when match day came around – something underlined by a wide margin of defeat. In Dubai his immaculate wicketkeeping and second-innings defiance illustrated far more reserves of mental and physical energy, the better to outlast Pakistan’s bowlers.”I think in England one thing I learned was I probably trained too hard and tried too hard,” Paine said. “I was getting into games quite mentally worn out I guess. I was using quite a lot of energy even when I wasn’t at the cricket. So it’s just being able to relax a little bit more and not train as hard.”In the last 12 or 18 months I’ve probably been as fit as I’ve ever been. My wicketkeeping to be honest hasn’t changed too much. I keep that pretty simple. I do a lot of work at home by myself with a golf ball and I just find that that’s been the best way for me to prepare. It’s a good way to just make sure that I’m getting myself in good positions. I’ve wicketkept a lot over the years so I know if my body and head are in a good position, I’ll catch more than I drop. That’s just been the focus for me.”I saw Ian Healy years ago doing it so I do that. I can do it up standing up, I can do it standing back. The beauty of it is I can catch 10 times as many balls as if I had someone hitting me balls. A lot of the time at Bellerive I just go up the back of the grandstand by myself for an hour or two just banging the golf ball up against the wall. It’s pretty boring but in some weird way I really enjoy it. I find it relaxes me as well and allows me to go into a Test knowing I’m in a good place.”As for Pakistan, with their captain and fellow wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed criticised for trying too many things on the final day, rather than sticking rigorously to one or two plans, Paine struck a note of sympathy. Given the year he’s had, Paine knows as well as anyone that captaincy is far from a simple task.”Over here you’ve got to think of different things [to get people out], there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “I hadn’t read any of it to be honest, but I find it interesting when you do too much, you’re doing too much, and when you don’t do enough you haven’t done enough. What I do know is that captaining a Test team out in the middle is a lot harder than it looks sitting in the commentary box.”It’s one of those things, you can get nailed for it either way, so it can be a hard job, but I’m sure they know what they’re trying to do, we certainly know what we’re trying to do, and what matters to us is what’s inside our four walls and I’m sure Sarfraz and Pakistan are the same.”