FIFA World Cup 2026: How Thomas Tuchel's England are relying on a 60 pound pill and heat chambers in their World Cup campaign
A 60 pound pill to track heat resistance in a player's body along with training in heat chambers is what the Thomas Tuchel coached England football team is undergoing in their FIFA World Cup 2026 qualification training programme. While England have won its opening two matches of the Group K in their FIFA World Cup 2026 qualification route, the team has spent a week in Girona, Spain this month to simulate extremely hot and humid conditions they could face in the 2026 World cup to be played in USA, Canada and Mexico.
'Using them (the tracking pill) in a training environment is lower risk than that. The players would be doing minimal contact either side of the heat acclimation sessions. It is very simple tech that has been around for quite a while. They are very accurate. They allow us to store more data than we actually need so you can sample body temperature between five and 30 seconds, and the download time is really quick. We can get a measure of core body temperature during activity,' Dr Lee Taylor, of the sports science school at Loughborough University, told The Guardian.
While England team had practised heat acclimatisation prior to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where they reached the quarter-finals, it's the first time that the players are undergoing the fitness Tests including the tracking of heat resistance data. According to the BBC, there have been warnings that temperatures at 14 to 16 stadiums being used for the FIFA World Cup 2026 could exceed 'Potentially dangerous levels' during the tournament to be played from June 11 to July 19 next year. According to the Guardian, the pills send information on a radio frequency to be read in real time by sports scientists. The pills beam the data to a 'gateway'-a wristband in case of athletes-which uploads the data to -the cloud- from where data is accessible to analyse including a player's core and surface temperature, heart-rate and other crucial metrics. England players Eberechi Eze and Cole Palmer have talked about the training in heat chambers while their body reaction was measured via the pills. 'It was tough. It was 35C, 36C inside the tents and we had to get to a certain watts [level] on the bike and maintain it. For 45 minutes.' Palmer told The Guardian.
According to the newspaper, the pulls have been used by athletes in athletics, rugby and motor racing. Taylor also talked about telling the players that 'they are not to retrieve them'.
'The players would be doing minimal contact either side of the heat acclimation sessions. It is very simple tech that has been around for quite a while. They are very accurate. They allow us to store more data than we actually need so you can sample body temperature between five and 30 seconds, and the download time is really quick. We can get a measure of core body temperature during activity. We do make it very clear to them that they are not to retrieve them', said Dr Taylor.
Last week, Tuchel had spoken about the expected conditions at the 2026 World Cup venues. 'It is important to see matches now in America, and in Miami at three in the afternoon. I will see that. How it looks, and we need to understand how to cool the players down, to drink. What our options are. Let's see because it is after the season, so it will be very similar. The actual experience is for the players, but I have done pre-season there in Orlando and I will be very surprised if we do not suffer. Suffering is one of the headlines for this World Cup,' Tuchel told BBC.
England now play Andorra at RCDE Stadium in Spain in their third Group K match in 2026 World Cup qualification. The team has won its last two matches sitting at the top of the group. Dr Taylor also talked about the training regime of the England team in the training camps. 'They (Tuchel and staff) will do technical and tactical work in a temperate environment. So they are not stressing the players too much and then they will give them passive or semi-active heat exposures. I imagine they are getting the players to a specific core temperature, they stop exercising and then when their core temperature drops they exercise a little bit more,' concluded Dr Taylor.
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The Hindu
36 minutes ago
- The Hindu
50 years later: how the World Cup launched cricket into mainstream consciousness
Just mention World Cup and instantaneously football chimes into memory. It is an organic mental reflex, as this quadrennial championship is perhaps the biggest draw in sport and on a par with the Olympics. But, equally, in those countries that were a part of the British Empire of the past, World Cup also means the one linked with cricket. And today (June 21) marks a special moment in the cricket World Cup's journey, as exactly 50 years ago, the West Indies won the inaugural trophy after defeating Australia by 17 runs at Lord's. Much water has flowed down the Thames since then while the willow game's premier tournament continues to evolve. Diverse notes Cricket as a whole has found its diverse notes in the permanence of Tests, fluidity of ODIs and hyper-kinetic blitz of T20Is. Still, the conventional World Cup consisting of ODIs has maintained its unique appeal over five decades. Back in 1975, Clive Lloyd's men, all muscle and mayhem, were the rockstars. It almost seemed pre-ordained that the stars from the Caribbean would seize the title. The same tournament, in the initial stages, also revealed a tentative approach from some teams. The first World Cup fixture, which pitted host England against India, witnessed Sunil Gavaskar remaining unbeaten on 36 from 174 balls. It was just that the classical Test opener got trapped in his shell. Years later, in a 1987 World Cup match at Nagpur, Gavaskar hammered an unbeaten 103 off a mere 88 deliveries against a stunned New Zealand. It was the Little Master's life coming full circle in ODIs. In the 1975 edition, cricket witnessed one of its greatest superstars make his presence felt. More than his batting, it was Vivian Richards the fielder who soared with his panache. He effected three run-outs in the final as the Aussies lost their breath. As the years rolled by, Richards, powerful shots and steely gaze, proved why he would always be seen as one of the greatest ever batters. The all-rounder element was also reiterated by him, as his off-spin was a handy option within a team that often relied on its speed merchants. The West Indies made it two-in-a-row by claiming the title in 1979, Richards pulverising the England attack with his unbeaten 138. Test matches, as a consequence of their five-day structure, often expose flaws and widen the gap between teams. ODIs, in contrast, shrink those spaces and allow even a David to dream about tripping a Goliath. Bowlers having a fixed number of overs often means batters are never subjected to the scrutiny that happens in a Test. Tipping point The tipping point was 1983, when Kapil's Devils turned the world upside down with their ecstatic victory over Lloyd's men in the summit clash at Lord's. A paltry 183 was defended, Kapil plucked an incredible catch to dismiss Richards, and for many, Balwinder Singh Sandhu castling Gordon Greenidge, while the opener shouldered arms, remains a nostalgic highlight. It was also a championship which featured one of the greatest ODI knocks, an innings that has acquired a mythical allure. Kapil's 175 not out against Zimbabwe, and this after his team was reduced to 17 for five, has been resigned to being embalmed in a few newspaper pictures because the BBC crew inexplicably never covered this game! When Kapil held aloft the World Cup at Lord's, it also launched a change in the power structure of cricket. It galvanised a new audience, expanded the market and soon commercial heft was vested in India, and to this day it remains that way. But beyond the financial pulls and pressures, Kapil's team stressed the value of quality all-rounders, and it is these players who gave him multiple winning options through the tournament. Historically, the World Cup has added layers to cricket and the way we interpret it. In the 1987 edition in India and Pakistan, Allan Border used the championship as a crucible to forge a strong Aussie unit. He held the cup at Eden Gardens, and it marked a decisive shift in Australia's fortunes which remain in the ascendant even today. Dean Jones propagated this adrenaline-thumping mix of frenetic batting, sharp fielding and some acerbic words at the opposition. It was a template that many players, including Virat Kohli, have adopted. Cut to the 1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and cricket found another dimension. New Zealand captain Martin Crowe promoted the concept of the pinch-hitter atop the order, through Mark Greatbatch, and was equally adept at slowing down things by employing spinner Dipak Patel when the opposition stepped out to bat. It was a championship which Imran Khan wrested for Pakistan even as he talked up young Inzamam-ul-Haq as the next great batter. The 1992 edition also had an aesthetic twist. The players donned coloured clothing. By this time, the World Cup was also seen as this springboard for teams, perceived as the lesser ones, to stun the critics. And 1996 was Sri Lanka's turn, as Arjuna Ranatunga's men upset the Aussies in the final at Lahore. In Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan, Ranatunga had three aces who could outwit any rival. The Big Three forms The next three championships (1999, 2003 and 2007) belonged to Australia, as Steve Waugh first and Ricky Ponting twice held the cup. Mathew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath proved their mettle, and the Aussie conveyor belt brooked no opposition. The tide turned when India won the 2011 edition at home, with Captain Cool M.S. Dhoni lending his finishing touch even if it was Yuvraj Singh who set the entire base for India's bull run in that event. That Sachin Tendulkar, who first turned out for India in 1989, rates this triumph as the finest in his career is an indicator of how relevant the World Cup still is, both for emotional recall and as a behemoth among sporting brands. As the years went past, with the exception of England in 2019, it was normal service all over again, as Australia prevailed in 2015 and 2023, with the last being a heart-break for Rohit Sharma and Company at Ahmedabad. Through its continuing journey, the World Cup holds infinite value among players and followers. It is a truism that cannot be denied even in this age of the Indian Premier League and other T20 indulgences. It also throws up fresh heroes like Ben Stokes and Travis Head, to name a few. That a Kohli and a Rohit are perhaps stretching their ODI careers towards a hopeful swansong in the 2027 edition is further validation of the magnetic appeal of the World Cup. Even Javed Miandad dragged his career on until a tragic run-out in the 1996 World Cup quarterfinal against India in Bengaluru ended it. While bilateral ODIs and T20Is shrink and cricket veers towards franchise T20 leagues, the World Cup will remain this vital destination that determines a player's halo. And gratitude is owed to Lloyd's champions — those buccaneering men, elastic on the field and forever enduring in their appeal. That a Kohli and a Rohit are perhaps stretching their ODI careers towards a hopeful swansong in the 2027 edition is further validation of the magnetic appeal of the World Cup.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Why Temba Bavuma was chosen as captain by Cricket South Africa all those seasons ago
When the World Test Championship came into the FTP in 2019, Enoch Nkwe was at the helm of South Africa team as its team director. He was then demoted as an assistant coach unceremoniously before he quit the post for good. In 2022, he returned as director of cricket overseeing a significant transition in white-ball and red-ball cricket with split coaches. The 42-year-old, gleeful after the Proteas won the WTC beating the mighty Australia, speaks to The Indian Express about the road that South Africa took to become new WTC champions and why Temba Bavuma was chosen as captain. 'It's not the colour, it's the character,' he explains. Excerpts Definitely this is very powerful. This is impactful. We have seen what CSA has done and the impact that he has had as a leader. In the cricketing space, he is now taking the belief to a new level among the kids in the township, who never believed that they can actually play cricket, become batsmen and also captain the country and lead them to becoming world champions. Now all the young kids and especially the ones in disadvantaged areas will get that belief. Even generally the young kids of today, they are going to start looking at this whole thing with a different lens because they can believe that it doesn't matter which background you come from, you have the opportunity and you can do it. It is what Temba has done. He has restored so much faith and belief in the individuals and it just goes to show it is not about colour. It is about the character. You put the right person with the right character in a position to lead the people and inspire the nation, and that is the result you get. He has been great at that. He's been fantastic at that. He did it and continues to do it for Proteas cricket. Q. What made you go with him as a captain? What pulled you towards him? The one thing about Temba is, he has always been a team man. He goes about his business very quietly and always puts the team first. And having worked with him before when I was a coach and also how he has blended well with Shukri I just knew it's gonna work. It's one of those you know… The strong chemistry and the dynamics were good between the two. Shukri has been very supportive of him as well. He has been fantastic through thick and thin. As a team we went through lot of challenges in 2020, 2021 and 2022. He was always the man who came forward and protected the team. He would rather take the punches for the team than letting the team take the punches. He got a lot of criticism and but for me, he stood firm and that's a sign of a great leader. It was just a matter of time he got rewarded in terms of the work that he's put behind all those years and show them the way through the struggles and all the challenges. Q: Winning the WTC has been your target since 2019. After different roles, you have achieved the target. How did you get here? We had a vision then and our thing was always looking at the WTC and the 2023 World Cup and how we need to put a strategy in place to try and win those two majors. Unfortunately, things obviously changed a little bit in between. My roles changed, but the blueprint remained the same. When I came back, it was all about how to take it forward by bringing in some new ideas. We had the WTC 2025 and the 2027 World Cup which we are hosting. When I took the role in 2022, we re-strategized by splitting the coaching role with an eye on 2023 World Cup and the 2025 WTC. We needed different strategy and the ones who we brought ended up producing the best performance by any South African team in the 2023 World Cup and the WTC. In successive white-ball World Cups we saw the team heading in the right direction and in red ball cricket, we had quite a nice generation of players coming through and Shukri Conrad (head coach) did great work. Obviously after the New Zealand tour there was a lot of criticism because we sent a C team for the tour. After that tour, Shukri and myself did re-strategize to find a way to reach the final. And here we are winning 8 of the remaining Tests. From my conversation with Shukri, I felt quite confident we could go all the way, because he had the plans in place. Q: It was also the time you were playing mostly two-match Test series and were losing some of the talents. How concerning was that? Test cricket has remained our one priority and we wanted to make sure that the best players were available for selection for each of those matches. Playing two-match series was a concern, but we knew it the moment the FTP came out. We wanted to maximise it and at the same time the SA20 was also important for us and outside of Test cricket, we played India A and West Indies A which helped us bridge the gap and make sure it keeps going forward. Shukri also ensured that he kept driving the belief in the Test team and within the individuals. I believe that was extraordinary because we had batsmen making huge scores in the journey. The character of the team was the biggest thing for me. It was powerful… even with the ball, we had a complete team performance where everyone bought into the plan and found ways to win games. It was evident right through. By the time we played Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home, the confidence was high. Q: Also does playing just two-match series in the new cycle help you retain the best talents? You don't have much Test cricket, so they can play the T20 leagues around as well? We signed off the FTP in 2022 so we knew the next four years this is what it looks like. For us, it was like how do we make this work. We know that from one cycle of the WTC to the next cycle there's an amount of games we are having and we're going to make do with it and see how we best manage our players. In this situation I guess it might help, we don't know. It might help because there's so much cricket being played, but we want to try and obviously better the Test cricket content in the next cycle after 2027 so that we play more Tests. Hence we're negotiating to improve the tally in the next cycle. But we have got 14 Tests and we are going to do our best to try and win as many as possible and be in the finals again and retain the championship. Q: Will the planned Test match fund help Cricket South Africa? From our point of view, there are always talks of how do we improve our Test cricket and bring in more three or four-match Test series. That should be great for global cricket as well because more the Test cricket, the better the sport is. It is a spin off because the best T20 cricketers in the last 15 years have all been great at Test cricket as well. If it is stronger, cricket is stronger across formats. We saw it at Lord's, how much people love it. It was exciting and that's what we want. Yes, the WTC format can be improved, and I don't know what structure it can be, but there are definite encouraging signs to build on. I'm hoping that you know there will be even a much more improved structure, come the next cycle and we can even play more Test cricket. Q: Making Temba Bavuma the captain wasn't a popular choice when CSA made the appointment. With the WTC win, he has left an undeniable footprint in South Africa's history. How much does it mean to the Black community? Definitely this is very powerful. This is impactful. We have seen what CSA has done and the impact that he has had as a leader. In the cricketing space, he is now taking the belief to a new level among the kids in the township, who never believed that they can actually play cricket, become batsmen and also captain the country and lead them to becoming world champions. Now all the young kids and especially the ones in disadvantaged areas will get that belief. Even generally the young kids of today, they are going to start looking at this whole thing with a different lens because they can believe that it doesn't matter which background you come from, you have the opportunity and you can do it. It is what Temba has done. He has restored so much faith and belief in the individuals and it just goes to show it is not about colour. It is about the character. You put the right person with the right character in a position to lead the people and inspire the nation, and that is the result you get. He has been great at that. He's been fantastic at that. He did it and continues to do it for Proteas cricket. Q What made you go with him as a captain? What pulled you towards him? The one thing about Temba is, he has always been a team man. He goes about his business very quietly and always puts the team first. And having worked with him before when I was a coach and also how he has blended well with Shukri I just knew it's gonna work. It's one of those you know… The strong chemistry and the dynamics were good between the two. Shukri has been very supportive of him as well. He has been fantastic through thick and thin. As a team we went through lot of challenges in 2020, 2021 and 2022. He was always the man who came forward and protected the team. He would rather take the punches for the team than letting the team take the punches. He got a lot of criticism and but for me, he stood firm and that's a sign of a great leader. It was just a matter of time he got rewarded in terms of the work that he's put behind all those years and show them the way through the struggles and all the challenges. Q: We saw Heinrich Klaasen announce his retirement recently with a home World Cup just two years away. At their high point, we see good talents suddenly exiting the scene by ignoring central contracts. How concerning is this? It's always going to be disappointing when players of such caliber leave the national team or not sign the national contract. We are always open to try and accommodate. Some of them are happy to just be freelancers but be available for the national team. Some of them retire completely from the game. But one thing we're doing now is the next best talent that we keep finding from our school system and inter-provincial system — which we are quite blessed with — we need to prepare them to transition up. So we are building a stronger feeder system, where even if an international player moves on, there is another player who is ready to step up. That's been our focus in the last three years because we did expect certain players at certain times to be leaving the national team or becoming freelancers. That's the reality of the new world. Since we are blessed with good talents which are coming through, we need to nurture them and empower them to make sure they are ready for Proteas.
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First Post
an hour ago
- First Post
IND vs ENG 1st Test: England's toss gamble backfires as inexperienced India dominate in Headingley
England's decision to bowl first backfired on a sunny Day 1 at Headingley as India piled on 359/3. Despite India's inexperienced lineup, England's bowling failed to execute their plans, leaving them on the back foot in first Test. read more When you win the toss and bowl it's never ideal to concede 359 runs at 4.22 an over and only take three wickets – unfortunately for England that is the position they find themselves in after Day 1 at Headingley . If the hosts were given the option to change their decision at the toss, would they now choose to bat? Given this side's belief in fully backing your own convictions, almost regardless of the results, it seems unlikely. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Toss decision raises eyebrows The choice to bowl it appears was heavily influenced by the fact that the last six Test here have all been won by the team bowling first. But here is where statistics can sometimes mislead – how many of those started in blazing sunshine? Meteorological data was sadly not available to be checked, but given the ground's location, you'd imagine not many. Should England have given more weight to the weather on the day than the historical precedent? Having warmed up on the pitch prior to the toss they certainly can't claim they weren't aware of the conditions – but then altering plans based on the day's weather has not been a recent strong point. See also: choosing to bowl first against South Africa in the 2023 World Cup despite the oppressive afternoon heat and humidity of Mumbai. Whatever the merits of the toss decision, the truth is England didn't bowl all that well. There was a lack of consistent control of line and length, too many times to count leg side fields were set, only for the bowler to stray wide of off stump – whatever plan the home side had, it required far better execution. Even the normally parsimonious Chris Woakes finished the day with an economy rate of 4.68 per over. Last summer – one farewell Test aside – was England's first since the retirements of bowling titans James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Predicted by some to be a cataclysmic event for England's bowling attack, they actually fared pretty well – the emergence of Gus Atkinson the undoubted highlight, the relative quality of both Sri Lanka and the West Indies certainly a factor too. In fact Atkinson was so successful, taking 34 wickets in six Tests, that England didn't quite experiment with new faces as much as they might have. When they did, the results weren't exactly monumental, Matthew Potts and Josh Hull took just eight wickets between them in the combined three Tests they played. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD England's inexperienced bowling lineup exposed Ultimately, perhaps England's biggest problem here at Headingley was the bowling lineup's huge lack of experience. No Broad, no Anderson, no Mark Wood, no Jofra Archer – even last summer's hero Atkinson was out with an injury. Instead, England had Brydon Carse playing his sixth Test (and first at home) and Josh Tongue playing his fourth – Shoaib Bashir seemed practically an old hand despite this being just his 17th Test and eighth at home. Woakes and Stokes did of course, bring a combined 168 Test caps to proceedings, but this must still have been England's least experienced bowling attack for quite some time. Against the sparkling talents of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and latterly Rishabh Pant, Carse and particularly Tongue struggled to find the consistency required to really put the visitors under any pressure. Carse went at 4.37 an over, Tongue 4.68. Remarkably or perhaps crucially, this was the first First Class game either man had played at Headingley – inexperience piled on inexperience. Were it not for the seemingly inexhaustible determination of Stokes and his two wickets, things might have been even uglier – England are understandably delighted to have him back bowling. It should be said that these were conditions in which even a more experienced bowling attack might have struggled to make inroads, the galling thing for England was that they never really put themselves in the best position to ever do so. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD England hope to have all of Archer, Atkinson and Wood back at some point this summer, but their return is not guaranteed. Meanwhile, England's newborn foal of a bowling attack has been thrust into the middle of the relentless pressure of a five-Test series, needing to find its feet fast or risk being torn apart by the tigerish ferocity of India's batting lineup.
