ndesliga." Bayern wrapped up the title with six weeks to spare and

Alastair Cook has faced 8273 balls of spin in his Test career. He has been bowled out by three of those deliveries. The first was bowled by Pragyan Ojha, at the end of Cooks series-shifting 176 in Ahmedabad four years ago. It was the 4944th ball of spin the England opener had faced in Tests, meaning he had faced the equivalent of more than nine complete Test days of spin before a tweaker hit his stumps, at which point his career tally against spin was 2252 runs for 33 dismissals, at an average of 68.Since then, he has been bowled out by Nathan Lyon, at The Oval in 2015 (the only one of the 5516 balls of right-arm spin to have shifted Cooks spinnimpregnabails); and by Shakib al Hasan in Chittagong last month.Ben Duckett, by the most alarm-clanging of comparisons, has faced 172 balls of spin in his Test career. He has also had his timbers rattled by three of them (and been caught off four of the others). Duckett has been bowled once every 9.3 overs off Test tweak; Cook once every 459.4 overs. It appears that only one of them will be playing in the third Test, in Mohali.Clearly, not being bowled out is only one facet of batsmanship, and I am comparing a flamboyant attacker with statistically one of the toughest players to bowl out in Test history (although Cooks stumps have been far more regularly clonked in the past three years - 15 times in 39 Tests since Adelaide 2013-14, when Mitchell Johnson bowled him with a masterpiece of high-speed unplayability that would have bowled out a brick wall; 12 times in 98 Tests prior to that).Nevertheless, Ducketts spin-stump-vulnerability numbers are striking. And to a large extent, unsurprising. Few England debutants can have had such a difficult introduction to Test cricket since fresh batting meat was fed to the rampant West Indian pace lions in the 1980s and early 1990s.Duckett, on debut, faced 12 balls of Mehedi Hasans offspin before he first faced a seamer. He then faced two overs of Shafiul, and one of Kamrul Islam Rabbi. Since when, he has faced nothing but spin - 160 consecutive balls of tweak, twirl and torture.By comparison, Ducketts three predecessors as Test debutants in the opening batting slot - Sam Robson, Adam Lyth and Alex Hales, who played an entire English summer each (plus a series in South Africa in Hales case) - between them have faced 2065 balls of pace and 526 balls of spin.The 20% of spin deliveries faced by Robson, Lyth and Hales reflects almost exactly the proportion of spin bowling in the last summers County Championship Division Two, where Duckett played with such success and panache. Spinners bowled 19.5% of the overs, taking 14.3% of the bowlers wickets. The figures for all first-class cricket in England over the past two years are similar (23.9% of the overs and 20.1% of the wickets). Duckett found himself stepping up from the lower tier of county cricket into Test cricket in Asia - where, this decade, 58.5% of the overs and 60.3% of the wickets have belonged to spinners. Robson, Lyth and Hales struggled in an examination for which they had spent their careers preparing. Duckett has almost been trying to learn a new sport.Hardened Test veterans have struggled in India recently - Hashim Amla managed just 118 runs in seven innings a year ago in India, having averaged 93, with seven centuries, in his previous 11 Tests in Asia. Faf du Plessis began the same series averaging over 50 after 22 Tests. He scored 1 for 3 in the first 13 balls he faced in the series, and finished with 60 runs in four Tests. Nor does an initial failure necessarily presage lifelong struggles. Mike Gatting scored 109 runs in his first seven Tests in Asia but went on to score 575 runs at 95 on Englands 1984-85 tour.Haseeb Hameed, with a tighter, defensive-oriented technique, and without having his game pre-scrambled by the difficult wickets in Bangladesh, has prospered in India, and looks set for a long career as a delightfully stylish old-school Dravidian grinder for England. But at least he had the advantage, in three of his four innings, of facing a few overs of pace before the tweakers came on (he has faced, in his four innings, 25, 5, 29 and 18 balls of pace before facing a spinner). The same applied to Cook in his famous debut in 2005-06, when he made 60 and 104 not out against Kumble and peak Harbhajan.Roland Butcher, Andy Lloyd, Paul Terry, David Smith, Wilf Slack, Tim Curtis, Rob Bailey and Matthew Maynard, who all made their debuts against the 1980s West Indians and were swiftly consigned to the Test match scrapheap, might have dreamed of facing an attack that gave them 90% spin. Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash, who began against Ambrose, Marshall, Walsh and Patterson in 1991, would no doubt have bitten their own arms off for the prospect of that quiver-inducing quartet bowling only 10% of the overs in their debut series.In terms of the chasm that these newcomers of different generations have been asked to straddle, Ducketts was just as wide. Nothing in county cricket could have prepared him, and it is to be hoped that the experience will not adversely affect his game or his prospects.He has failed, and, with the exception of what should have been a match-turning half-century in Dhaka, failed badly. What has been learned about him in his four Tests? Not much of long-term relevance, I think. He has shown talent, strokeplay, cojones, exploitable frailties that could be rectified (a tough assignment in the zero days of cricket between the Tests on this tour). And an absolute impregnability against pace.Or, at least, an absolute impregnability against the 18 balls of pace that he has faced. How many top-order batsman have remained undismissed by pace bowlers in their first four Tests? Very few, I would guess. Perhaps none. As starts to a top-order Test batting career go, Ducketts winter has been roughly equivalent to passing your driving Test, then being plonked into Apollo 11 and told to pilot it to the moon and back. If I may exaggerate slightly. Englands selectors owe him the chance to test his talents in the alternative cricketing universe of non-Asian Test cricket; English cricket owes the Ducketts of the future the chance to learn more of the skills they will need in the unforgiving, judgemental Test arena, before they are shunted into that arena with a cursory Dont worry, itll all be over by Christmas.● England, of course, are not the only Test team making changes. Australia introduced three debutants in the third Test, in Adelaide, after jettisoning the two debutants who had been baggy-greened for the first time in Hobart, making this the first series since the 1981 Ashes in which Australia have given Test debuts to five players. England, by selectorial contrast, did so seven times from 1984 and 1997, before central contracts came in and ended everyones fun, bringing a sad close to the days when county batsmens hearts would flutter in anticipation after edging a cut for four, hoping that those runs might be enough to catapult them into the international arena.Adelaide is only the third Test in the past 30 years in which Australia have given debuts to three players in the same match - England have done so eight times in that period, India and Pakistan six each - and only the fourth time since Bodyline in 1932-33 that they have done so during a series (rather than in the first Test).The most recent of these four was when they brought in four brand-new players as part of six changes for the decisive fifth and final Packer-era Test against India in 1977-78, following two thumping defeats. Rick Darling, Graeme Wood, Bruce Yardley and Ian Callen were the ninth, tenth, 11th and 12th debutants for Australia in that series, and helped their nation win a high-scoring classic.This is only the fifth time since the 1880s that Australia have selected two or more players for their first caps in consecutive Tests in the same series - they did so in that 1977-78 series against India, in the 1972 and 1928-29 Ashes, and against South Africa in 1931-32.And, to conclude the Australupheaval stats, this is the first time a team has deliberately picked three debutant specialist batsmen in the same Test since Pakistan did so against New Zealand, fifteen-and-a-half years ago, in March 2001. Those men were Faisal Iqbal, Imran Farhat, and a seasoned player approaching 27, who, in those days of youthful Pakistan batsmanship, might have thought his international prospects had already disappeared, by the name of Misbah-ul-Haq. (I exclude West Indies v Bangladesh in 2009 and Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka in 2004, when disputes with governing bodies led to selectorial mayhem.)(In fact, excluding those matches, nations maiden Tests, South Africas first two games after readmission in 1992, and a couple of instances in the Packer era, Adelaide provides only the third instance of three debutant batsmen being picked in a Test since 1970; other than the Misbah debut, the other occasion was when Sri Lanka, in only their sixth Test, overhauled their team with seven new caps for the first Test in New Zealand in March 1983.)Custom Mavericks T-shirts . Bjorn, who had a 36-hole total of 8-under 134, made a testing six-foot putt to save par on the 16th and a birdie on the 17th before bogeying the final hole after a misjudged approach shot. American Kevin Streelman was in second place after shooting a 69. Wholesale Custom Mavericks Shirts . Instead of dwelling on the negative, Oates focused on what was good about the clubs recent play. It worked. http://www.custommavericksjersey.com/ .C. -- After a listless first half, the Washington Wizards used a big third quarter run to beat the Charlotte Bobcats Bradley Beal scored 21 points and the Wizards used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to take control of what had been a close game and beat the Bobcats 97-83 on Tuesday night. Custom Jason Kidd Jersey . The phone hearing is scheduled for 4:30pm et/1:30pm pt. Winchester, who was not penalized for the hit, appeared to make contact with Kellys head early in the first period of Thursdays game in Boston. Mavericks Jerseys China . Sulaiman, 44, was chosen unanimously Tuesday in a vote by the leadership, the World Boxing Council said. Sulaiman becomes the sixth president of the organization.LONDON -- Bayern Munich is trying to downplay being the favourite. While Borussia Dortmund is eager to play up its chances to pull off the upset. Even before the start of Saturdays Champions League final, the German rivals are at odds in their approach to the biggest game in club soccer. Bayern is approaching its third final in four years with the self-assured calm of a team in control after a season of dominance, while Dortmund is enjoying the role of underdog. Bayern winger Thomas Mueller summed up his sides mood on Friday, saying that the matchup is just "a normal Champion League game." "Of course you get goose bumps when youre on the pitch and we know whats at stake. We wont let it drive us crazy though," the 23-year-old said. Bayern captain Philipp Lahm felt the same way. "The players are the right age now, the right character. Theres nothing against us winning tomorrow," said Lahm, who added that he wouldnt be surprised if Bayern reached a fourth final in five years next season. Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp is happy with one. "If this is the only final in my life, this is the perfect place for it, and this is the perfect opponent," said Klopp, who spoke of the honour of playing at Wembley Stadium. Klopp said it was clear his team enters as the underdog, but he added that his players were determined to make the most of their opportunity. "We will approach the game with unbridled enthusiasm, with huge motivation for the task, and with the knowledge it can all go to pieces," Klopp said. "But people have climbed Mount Everest knowing that they could fall 3 metres from the top and yet they still tried it. And thats why were going to try too, and hope for good weather." Actually, London greeted both teams with traditional British weather, and the unrelenting drizzle helped contribute to traffic problems that delayed both sides arrival for their run outs on the pitch. Klopp said the team received a police escort from the airport and "if were to make it on time for the game tomorrrow well need another.dddddddddddd So if someone knows a policeman, please ask." The buildup to the 101st competitive meeting between the two rivals has been overshadowed by Mario Goetzes decision to leave Dortmund for Bayern and reports that Polish striker Robert Lewandowski is planning to follow. For Dortmund defender Mats Hummels, the prospect of the club winning a second Champions League title -- after its triumph in 1997 -- was motivation enough. "It would be great to show the players who may be going that our team can achieve great things too," he said. Goetze is out of what would have been his last Dortmund game with a hamstring injury, sustained after just 12 minutes of the second leg of his teams semifinal at Real Madrid. Otherwise, Klopp has no injury concerns. Hummels, who failed to establish himself at Bayern after coming through its youth teams, said he was fit after recovering from an ankle injury. Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes declared all his players were fit, too, after completing what he called "the best season in 50 years of the Bundesliga." Bayern wrapped up the title with six weeks to spare and finished 25 points ahead of Dortmund -- both records in a season of many. Heynckes said that the final would probably be his last chance to lift the trophy he won in 1998 as coach of Real Madrid. The 68-year-old is making way for former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola and has hinted strongly that hes retiring. "This is special for Bayern and for the team," Heynckes said. "You have players who are a little bit older and for them it would be the crowning achievement of their careers. For me too, but Im a little more relaxed about it. Theres a little more distance because I won it before." Bayern is driven by the memory of losing last years final to Chelsea on penalties -- in Munich. "We hope of course that Wembley is better and that the stadium brings us luck," Heynckes said. "Last year we were the better team. Perhaps tomorrow the football gods are with us." ' ' '