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Sakariya and Gaikwad talk about their maiden India call-up and what they’re most looking forward to in Sri Lanka

Shashank Kishore11-Jun-2021The year 2021 has given Chetan Sakariya some of his most cherished memories. But it has also taken away the pillars of his life. In February, his younger brother died by suicide days before the IPL auction. In May, soon after Sakariya impressed in his maiden stint with the Rajasthan Royals, he saw his father succumb to Covid-19.At 23, Sakariya is no stranger to hardships and struggle, having been the sole breadwinner of his family for the last three years, but he now wants to live with the happy memories life has thrown at him, like the news of his India call-up for the limited-overs series in Sri Lanka in July.Related

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“I would’ve been happy just going to Sri Lanka as a net bowler, so this is a massive surprise,” Sakariya told ESPNcricinfo. “At the IPL, I thought I exceeded my own expectations. Initially, I thought I may have to wait for my turn [at the Royals], but once I got into the camp, the kind of confidence and faith everyone showed in me, I got the vibes that I’ll start. So while it is a surprise [to be picked for India], I’m very much ready and confident with the way I’ve prepared.”After the IPL was suspended, Sakariya, a left-arm medium pacer, resumed training in the third week of May. Much of his routine has been focused on improved fitness and developing a strong core. He has been working under the mentorship of AT Rajamani Prabhu, a renowned strength and conditioning coach, in Chennai. The pair first worked together during a pre-IPL camp.”I enjoyed training under him at Royals, so when I was ready to resume, I expressed keen interest in training again under Rajamani sir. The franchise was very supportive of that and arranged everything – like my accommodation and travel – in Chennai, so that I could become a better version of myself. For the last 15 days, I’ve had two intense training sessions every day, with a short break for lunch and rest.”Sakariya has specifically been working on “energy system development”, a training method he explains as something where you “sustain energy over a long period of time through a dedicated training routines”. Ask him about the benefits, and he spontaneously says it has helped improve his agility.”I feel my movements are swifter, my core is stronger, and I believe I’m bowling a tad quicker as well. This side of training isn’t something I knew a lot of growing up, but I’ve felt a lot of change in the way I feel about myself. It’s been a busy routine in Chennai, but one I’m happy and satisfied with. I’m looking forward to learning a lot more with the Indian team.”Ruturaj Gaikwad is focused on getting “the process right”•BCCI/IPL

Sakariya isn’t the only one to have utilised this break to make changes to the way he approaches his training. Opening batter Ruturaj Gaikwad, also part of the 20-man tour party led by Shikhar Dhawan, focused on “sleeping early and become a morning person” so that the 7-11am window during lockdown at home in Pune was utilised in the best way possible.”In Pune, there’s been a lockdown since May, and things have been open only from 7-11am. So I wanted to ensure I didn’t spend that time sleeping,” Gaikwad said. “I wanted to utilise more of that time for my fitness work and gym work. I didn’t want myself to be caught off guard and be in a situation where I was picked but wasn’t conditioned enough.”Because he has tuned himself to going to bed early, he almost didn’t come to know of his India call-up on Thursday night when it was announced – he happened to check his phone only because he mistook the repeated ringing for distress calls from his friends.”When I go to sleep, I generally switch off mobile data. I know if it’s an emergency, someone will generally call twice. When my phones started ringing continuously, I wasn’t first sure what it was,” Gaikwad said, laughing. “Then two journalists informed me of my selection.”I had to wake my parents up to tell them. They were quite deep in sleep, and weren’t fully able to process what I was telling them at first. But this morning they woke up really happy and made some (sweets) at home, and I was happy to make an exception and have them to celebrate the happy news.”Like Sakariya, this is Gaikwad’s maiden call-up. Unlike Sakariya, Gaikwad, has been in and around the India A set-up. While he says the ultimate dream is to earn a debut, he wants to keep his mind blank and soak in the experience of being on tour with the national team.”I had a few good scores for India A two years ago, but I wasn’t thinking much about my selection,” he said. “Even now, I’m not thinking on the lines of ‘will I play’. My main focus is on doing my processes right. I’m looking forward to learning the knack of adaptability, something that will be very important going forward.”Once you play international cricket, teams and players watch you, they make plans against you. Dhawan and a few of the other seniors have played a lot of international cricket, so I’d like to learn from them by chatting to them about how they assess conditions, how they’ve adapted, how they’ve used their experience and learnt from their failures.”I am also really excited to train and spend a month under Rahul Dravid, who was our India A coach when I was part of the team two years ago. He was with us on three tours, and we started to get familiar with each other. So when he was appointed the National Cricket Academy chief, I was personally disappointed at not being able to pick his brains anymore. But now, getting a chance to do that will be very useful for me.”

Former England opener offers latest reminder of what the Test team is currently missing

Andrew Miller07-Apr-2022There’s a cutting on the press box wall at Chelmsford with a certain timeless quality. “Cook for England” states the back page of the Essex Chronicle from November 10, 2005, after the most promising opener in the country received the first of his international call-ups – as injury cover for Michael Vaughan on that winter’s tour of Pakistan.Seventeen years, 64 first-class centuries, and one knighthood later, those words could now be framed as a question (“Cook for England?”), a demand (“Cook for England!”), or a plea (“Cook for England, pretty please? With sugar on top?”). For here, at the start of his 20th season of first-class cricket, was 266 balls-worth of further evidence – stretched over six hours of unflappable application – that the man who stepped down from Test duty as a national record-breaker remains as dryly addicted to run-making as ever.Nick Browne also made a century, it should be noted – at a quicker lick, and with the more eye-catching flourishes too, particularly when leaning through a series of compact straight drives. But while he and Alastair Cook were in harness, ticking along at 2.7 an over in a 220-run opening stand, there was little for Kent’s fielders to do but chase leather in exchange for warmth on a bitingly blustery day, and rue the early optimism that had persuaded their skipper, Ollie Robinson, to bowl first after winning the toss.For this was April … the alternative narrative. The one in which county cricket’s livid green seamers are lifeless with permafrost, and where icy cross-winds buffet the bowlers to such an extent that an extra five overs could have been factored in through aborted run-ups. In fact, those watching on the ECB’s (somewhat bouncy) live stream might have thought they had tuned back into Big Jet TV by mistake, and when Matt Quinn bailed out three times in an over, some might have figured that watching Jumbo Jets cock up their approach would be rather more fun in this weather.Related

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“Me and Cooky batting isn’t going to bring the crowds to county cricket,” Browne joked afterwards. “It was a good day for concentration.”And yet, the first part of that statement wasn’t strictly true. Despite the disconcerting rattle of the floodlights on their wobbly gantries, and the prospect of the sponsor’s tarpaulin breaking its moorings on the roof of the midwicket pavilion, a very healthy crowd – upwards of 1200 of county cricket’s hardiest – braved the chill and embraced the intermittent shafts of spring sunshine to welcome home a long-lost format.For Essex haven’t had much of a chance to cement their red-ball mastery in recent seasons. The Bob Willis Trophy was more than just a consolation prize when Covid struck in 2020, but last year’s Division Two “title” was greeted with the disdain of a Champions League runner-up flinging their medal into the crowd. This, however, is more like it. Essex are back to the top flight that has been in suspended animation since their 2019 title was won, and notwithstanding Kent’s four-wicket rally with the new ball, they’ve opened their account with a statement of intent.And yet, the pandemic did have one significant side effect. It is almost certainly the reason why Cook is still here at all, rather than tending to his new-born lambs or further sharpening those incisors as a media pundit, as he begins to discover that his wisdom is more likely to be heard when it is delivered with conviction.”It’s been a bit of a stop-start three years, hasn’t it?” Cook said earlier in the week at Essex’s media day. “I never planned to do three years. But then Covid came along and it didn’t feel right, and then last year was a conference system and again it didn’t feel right. It’s a big commitment to do it with what goes on in the other parts of my life, but I genuinely enjoy turning up, and when you feel you can be competitive you might as well carry on.”And so here he was, to the fore once more – that familiar angular stance, like a sculpture made of coathangers, pressing forward, rocking back, chopping hard and nudging off his hip like … well, like a county opener nudging the England selectors, ideally, but, beyond any equivocation, that ship has sailed.Nick Browne brings up his half-century for Essex•Andrew Miller

And alongside him for 82 overs, his friend and acolyte Browne – and who’s to say that he can’t do some nudging of his own, given the Test team’s open-book status, and the clear run of opportunities between now and the New Zealand series in June.Browne’s approach – tall, left-handed, risk-averse – is not dissimilar to Cook’s, albeit rather more smoothed at the corners, and between them they gave Kent’s toiling attack not a sniff until two loose drives at the Aussie import Jackson Bird – a bowler who must be sick of the sight of Cook in particular. The last time they met, on a Melbourne featherbed in December 2017, Cook walked away with 244, and Bird never played Test cricket again.Up until that point, both men had produced chanceless knocks – although the look on Darren Stevens’ face after a lively lbw shout against Cook maybe begged to differ. County cricket’s elder statesman toiled to no avail for 14 typically economical overs, albeit eight of his 28 runs were served up in the space of his first four balls, as he twice offered Browne too much width for his favoured cut. Thereafter he knuckled down like the old pro that he literally is, confirming – much like Cook, in fact – that hunger remains the defining factor when gearing up for the season-long grind.Cook found fewer freebies to help kickstart his innings – he made just seven runs in the first hour, but then more than doubled his output in two balls as Quinn strayed onto the leg side, and that rapacious ability to pounce on mistakes surged back into view. By lunch, he had made 34, with Browne already past a 109-ball fifty, but Cook picked up his tempo as Kent’s optimism waned in the mid-afternoon, and as he fairly sprinted into the 80s it seemed for a moment he would win the race to the century. But another of Browne’s compact punches down the ground soon settled that score.A penny for Dan Lawrence’s thoughts as he watched this attritional masterclass playing out for the bulk of the day’s three sessions. His own England endeavours haven’t warranted any press-box cuttings just yet, but he’s the man in possession as the Test season approaches, and on the season’s eve, he had made it clear he planned to pick Cook’s brain in particular, to a bid to unlock the mental side of his burgeoning career.Alas for Lawrence, Cook denied him the chance for some on-field tutelage, by settling instead for a “do as I say not as I do” moment of practical demonstration, as he lost his shape and his concentration, four balls after knocking his landmark single off his hip, and snicked an edge through to Robinson. Lawrence had time in his 21-ball stay to flick Matt Milnes through fine leg for four, but had reached just 7 when he shouldered arms to an inducker from Quinn, and was sent on his way lbw. It was a very similar demise to his final-day duck in Grenada, in fact – and quite conceivably betrayed a surfeit of risk-aversion, as he over-thinks the transition required to make his starts count in red-ball cricket. But then again, blaming the white-ball game for such matters is a “big cop-out that a lot of journalists use”, so what would I know?Essex’s day was not without blemish, off the field either. The day began with a well-meaning but amorphous “moment of reflection”, with both teams lined up on the boundary’s edge to contemplate everything from Shane Warne’s death, to the war in Ukraine … to the contents of an Essex racism report that is rumoured to be close to seeing the light of day, but also seems to be at the centre of a row every bit as divisive as the one that has beset Yorkshire all winter long. Among the first-day attendees was Essex’s ex-chairman, John Faragher, who declined the club’s request that he lie low following his resignation for allegedly using racial language in a board meeting. However this one ends, it’s unlikely to end quietly.Ultimately, all such matters belong on a spectrum of incidents that inform English cricket’s ongoing cultural revolution. The ground announcer’s amusingly self-conscious attempts to say “batter” instead of “batsman” was another reminder that habits, once ingrained, are hard to amend overnight. For better and very much for worse, the County Championship remains a bastion for doing things the old-fashioned way.

Auckland fast bowler Ben Lister has been picked in a New Zealand squad for the first time

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jan-2023Mitchell Santner has been named captain of New Zealand’s T20I squad for the series in India that begins later this month. Kane Williamson and Tim Southee will both be absent, having chosen not to travel after the ongoing series in Pakistan.Ben Lister, the 27-year-old Auckland fast bowler, is a first time inclusion in the New Zealand squad. He had toured India as part of the New Zealand A squad late last year and was named Auckland Cricket’s Men’s Bowler of the Year last season.”Ben has made an exciting impact for Auckland early in his career in red and white-ball cricket,” New Zealand’s chief selector Gavin Larsen said. “Since his debut in late 2017, he is the Aces’ leading wicket-taker in T20 and List A cricket. His ability to swing the ball considerably as a left-armer is particularly exciting.Related

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“We all felt for Ben after his tour ended the way it did last year, and it’s a testament to his work ethic that he’s been able to return to domestic cricket so strongly this season.”Lister’s A-team tour of India had ended abruptly when he came down with pneumonia and had to be hospitalised in Bengaluru before returning home. He’s taken five wickets in three Super Smash matches for Auckland so far this season, and six wickets in six Ford Trophy innings.With Williamson and Southee not travelling to India after the tour of Pakistan, New Zealand will be led by Tom Latham in the ODIs and Santner in the T20Is. Santner has led New Zealand in 11 T20Is – eight of which were in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands last year.”Mitch is a leader in our white-ball teams and has captained the T20 side in India [in Kolkata in 2021] before,” Larsen said. “His experience in Indian conditions will be invaluable leading this group.”NZC said that fast bowlers Kyle Jamieson (back), Matt Henry (abdominal), Adam Milne (side) and Ben Sears (back) were unavailable for selection because they are recovering from injuries.The New Zealand team is presently in Pakistan where they have one match to go in the three-ODI series that is level at 1-1, after having drawn the two-Test series 0-0. They will then travel to India for three ODIs in Hyderabad (January 18), Raipur (January 21) and Indore (January 24), before the three T20Is in Ranchi (January 27), Lucknow (January 29) and Ahmedabad (February 1).New Zealand’s T20I squad for India: Mitchell Santner (capt), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Dane Cleaver, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Ben Lister, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rippon, Henry Shipley, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner

After a string of low scores, Jones’ new mindset saw her score match-winning 92 not out against New Zealand

Valkerie Baynes01-Apr-2024Amy Jones really wanted to be there at the end and, fortunately for England, she was.After a string of single-figure scores, Jones re-evaluated her mental approach to batting and the result was an unbeaten 92 which led England to victory over New Zealand in the opening match of their ODI series in Wellington. This was when the tourists had collapsed to 79 for 6.”A tricky situation talk out into, and over the last week, to be honest, I’ve had some good reflections on areas that I want to improve in terms of being there at the end,” Jones said. “It’s something that I feel like I’ve fallen short at over a period of time. So I just put a bit of thought into it, really, a bit of work around my mental game. For that to pay off today, it ranked quite highly, I’d say.”Related

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England were 58 for 5 when Jones walked to the middle and, when Amelia Kerr bowled Danni Wyatt for just 16 it looked like New Zealand could well defend a modest total of 207 after Kate Cross, Lauren Bell and Charlie Dean had combined to bowl the hosts out inside 49 overs.But Jones and Dean shared a record 130-run partnership – the highest for the seventh wicket in women’s ODIs – to see their side to victory with Dean not out on 42. Without run-rate pressure, the fact that the pair was able to accumulate without taking risks was key to their success and, incidentally, formed the crux of Jones’ new mindset after scores of 2, 9, 6 and 6 not out in her previous four innings as England beat New Zealand 4-1 on the T20I leg of the tour.”Firstly, it was just recognising where my mind was going in those past situations and there’s definitely an element of feeling like I needed to force a boundary and get ahead of the rate,” Jones said. “So with those reflections, realising that I don’t need to do that, I play at my best when I’m reacting to the ball, so that doesn’t change depending on the situation. Today me and Deano especially, we were just constantly saying, ‘One ball at a time,’ and just reacting, just kept in the moment, which was good. I thought we played with freedom and did what we set out to.”Amy Jones and Charlie Dean stitched an unbroken 130-run stand to lift England•Getty Images

Amelia Kerr – standing in as New Zealand captain for Sophie Devine, who is recovering from a quad strain she suffered during the fourth T20I – praised the England duo.”We knew we had to take wickets to win and we did that and then Amy Jones and Charlie Dean had a great partnership and we couldn’t find a way to break it,” Amelia Kerr said. “We’ve got to look at ways how we can break that moving forward, but also you have to say ‘well played’ to them. I thought they were outstanding. Charlie Dean did her role and supported Amy Jones and Amy Jones showed her class and got a big score and it just shows when someone bats through and bats deep, that often wins teams games. Unfortunately, we didn’t have anyone today do that for us.”The fight was outstanding. To have them four down and six down for not many I thought gave us a real sniff and we were probably one wicket away from winning that game. Good international teams bat deep and they know how to build partnerships and they absorb pressure and they formed that partnership and unfortunately, we couldn’t find the breakthrough. I thought they played really well. But definitely up top, the character of the fight and the energy was outstanding to get quality players out early and give us a real chance.”Now 1-0 down in the three-match series ahead of Thursday’s second game in Hamilton and having seen how it worked for England, Amelia Kerr indicated her side would discuss building partnerships as a way of turning their fortunes around. Suzie Bates and Bernadine Bezuidenhout shared an opening stand worth 90 but a middle-order collapse of 4 for 20 proved costly for the White Ferns.”We didn’t get a big enough partnership with the bat, so that’s a big one for us,” Amelia Kerr said. “We’ve got to be pretty happy with our effort with the ball, especially up top, maybe in the middle, obviously that one wicket, but yeah, I think it’s just partnerships with the bat is key. They showed what you can do when you get yourself in.”Cross was hugely impressive for England, bowling a tight six-over spell to begin with and claiming 2 for 24, including the wickets of Georgia Plimmer and, crucially, Amelia Kerr. That was after playing only a Test in India in December and one match for England A against New Zealand A last week since September.Jones said: “It’s one of Crossy’s strengths, she knows what she’s good at and she can repeat it over and over and she’s been very consistent for us for a number of years now. So to see her come in and I’m sure she would’ve been feeling some nerves, having not played in a while, but we couldn’t tell and the way that she was bowling was right up there with her best.”

Teenage seamer Raphy Weatherall also out for season with back stress fracture

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2024A finger injury sustained playing in a T10 league in the Cayman Islands has ruled Ravi Bopara out of the T20 Blast’s knockout stages.Bopara is the fifth-highest run-scorer in Blast history and won the competition with Essex, his boyhood club, in 2019. He joined Sussex the following season and signed for Northamptonshire earlier this year on a T20-only contract.He made a significant impact with bat and ball in the group stages. He was Northants’ second-highest run-scorer and third-highest wicket-taker as they finished second in the North Group, reaching the knockout stages for only the second time since their 2016 title and securing a home quarter-final.They will face Somerset at Wantage Road on September 5, but Bopara has been ruled out. He has undergone surgery after sustaining a finger injury while playing for Miami Lions in the inaugural Max60 tournament in the Cayman Islands, a privately-owned T10 league which is not affiliated to Cricket West Indies and took place last week.”Bopara ruptured the tendon in a finger on his right hand while attempting a caught-and-bowled,” Northants said in a club statement. “[He] has had surgery but will need three weeks of recovery time.”Raphy Weatherall has been ruled out with a stress fracture•Getty Images

Raphy Weatherall, the 19-year-old seamer who took 11 group-stage wickets in the Blast, has also been ruled out for the rest of the season due to a lower-back stress fracture, a common injury among young fast bowlers.Northants will also be without Sikandar Raza for the quarter-finals and are waiting to hear from Cricket South Africa whether Matthew Breetzke will be made available to play. Ashton Agar, the Australian allrounder, has been cleared to return.

Home attack thwarted in battle between Division Two’s form sides

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay 22-Jun-2025A maiden first-class century from young opener Asa Tribe saw Glamorgan lay the foundations for a substantial first-innings score in the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match between Leicestershire and Glamorgan at the UptonSteel County Ground, Grace Road.The 21-year-old Channel Islander, making only his ninth first-class appearance, demonstrated a maturity beyond his years as having got off to a flying start against a much-changed and initially slightly out-of-sorts Foxes attack, he settled down to reach his century off 158 balls, including 14 fours and one maximum.The Leicestershire bowlers improved as the day went on, regaining some control over the scoreboard, but solid contributions from fellow opener Zain-ul-Hassan, Kiran Carlson and latterly Colin Ingram, who ended the day with an unbeaten half-century, ensured the visitors enjoyed much the best of the first day.Given both sides came into the match on the back of a run of victories – four for Leicestershire, three for Glamorgan – the number of changes made to their previous Championship line-ups came as something of a surprise, though injuries played a part. With Ian Holland and Josh Hull unavailable, and Rehan Ahmed nursing a niggle that meant he could not bowl, Leicestershire chose to leave left out regular wicketkeeper Ben Cox – one of their more prolific run-scorers this season – and with Handscomb taking his place behind the stumps, bring in left-arm spinner Liam Trevaskis and right-arm seamer Sam Wood for their first first-class outings of the season. Veteran seamer Chris Wright also came back into the side.Glamorgan too gave a spinner, Mason Crane, his first Championship appearance of the season, with Ingram, Ben Kellaway and Ned Leonard also returning. All will have been pleased to see skipper Sam Northeast win the toss and opt to bat first on one of the relaid pitches at the UptonSteel Ground, and certainly there was not too much to encourage the Leicestershire seamers during a first hour in which they gave Tribe in particular too many loose deliveries, meaning that even with his partner playing in a rather more restrained manner, the pair were still able to score at five an over before Zain somewhat unluckily became the only wicket to fall in the morning session, glancing a delivery from Wright down the leg side only for Handscomb to take a diving catch.Leicestershire’s attack improved in both accuracy and length after the break, and Tribe was fortunate when on 72 he edged Ben Green behind the wicket only for Handscomb, diving to his right, to drop the catch. He also lost Northeast, the captain looking less than impressed to be given out caught behind when hooking at a bouncer from Wood, but a cleanly hit straight six off Trevaskis took him into the 90s and he showed few nerves in going on to three figures before edging a tired drive at Logan van Beek, giving Handscomb a third victim behind the stumps.Carlson and Ingram put on 60 for the fourth wicket before Carlson used his feet once too often at Trevaskis and yorked himself, the ball squeezing on to his leg stump. Ingram, in company with Kellaway, worked his way towards his fifty, and although he lost Kellaway, trapped in front by van Beek delivery which came back, reached the landmark off 101 deliveries shortly before the close.

Queensland saw through the opening session without loss before the rest of the day was washed out

AAP28-Nov-2023Matt Renshaw’s search for a pivotal innings in his quest for a Test opening berth was undermined by persistent rain at the Gabba against Western Australia.Renshaw was unbeaten at lunch on 37 with opening partner Joe Burns 19 not out, but that was as far as they got on day one of the Sheffield Shield clash.The visitors won the toss and bowled. Renshaw was confronted with overcast skies, a pitch with a green tinge and a quality pace attack.It was just the test the Australian selectors would have wanted for Renshaw and he started his innings with aplomb. It was tough early with pace bowler Jhye Richardson finding his groove on return from a dislocated shoulder.Cameron Green, who is looking to push for a return to the Test side, sent down four overs for five runs.Renshaw left the ball well, rotated the strike nicely with Burns and played one sumptuous pull shot through midwicket to the boundary off Liam Haskett. He had the demeanour of a man prepared to settle in for a long innings.The 27-year-old is vying with Western Australia’s Cameron Bancroft and Victoria’s Marcus Harris to replace David Warner at the top of Australia’s order for the opening Test against the West Indies in January. Warner will retire after the third and final Test against Pakistan in Sydney.Renshaw will not be hanging his hat on a gritty 30-odd and with the forecast improved for the final three days of the Shield match he has the opportunity to post a big century.The three Shield games in progress that stated on Tuesday are the last of the calendar year but Renshaw, Harris and Bancroft will all get another key opportunity to impress Australian selectors next week when they represent the Prime Minister’s XI against Pakistan in Canberra.

Defending champions have direct entry into the semi-final where they will play the winner of Central Zone vs East Zone

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jun-2023Cheteshwar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav have been drafted into the West Zone squad for the 2023 Duleep Trophy beginning June 28 in Bengaluru.They have been brought in for Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who have been named in India’s Test squad due to visit the Caribbean. Priyank Panchal, the Gujarat opener, will remain captain of West Zone, which also features Sarfaraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw among others.Pujara has been left out of India’s Test squad after the World Test Championship final earlier this month, where he made 14 and 27. While his omission has elicited debate and criticism, Pujara himself appears to be looking forward and has begun training for the new season in Rajkot, his hometown.