< 1 minute readIf Sam Curran could bat a bit better or bowl a bit better, he would definitely be a good addition to the England team. If that sounds dismissive, it’s only because it made for a better opening sentence. Scurran is close. He’s just not quite there. Strengths Left-armer Swings it
Continue readingMonth: May 2018
England’s batsmen are insecure and complacent
3 minute readEngland’s batting is bad. England are bad at batting. Bad batting is a thing that England’s batsmen generally do. Before we get into the ins and outs of the badness, let’s contextualise it with the players’ career Test averages because that way we can really get a sense of the
Continue readingWho was your favourite ineffective opening partner for Alastair Cook?
< 1 minute readIf we were to ask, ‘who has been your favourite England Test opener since Andrew Strauss retired?’ the answer is obvious. If you say anyone other than Alastair Cook, you are either (a) a contrarian hipster (b) not an England supporter or (c) mental. That’s an easy one. A far
Continue readingWhat the hell is up with Hasan Ali’s hand?
< 1 minute readWe honestly haven’t got much left to say about England’s batting, so let’s instead turn our attention to Hasan Ali’s hand and whatever the hell is up with it. Here’s Hasan Ali’s hand midway through delivering the (apparently) fiendishly tempting wide one that did for Joe Root. Strapping is a
Continue readingAB de Villiers finally picks a cake
< 1 minute readAB de Villiers spent rather a long time desperately trying to engineer a cake monopoly. He wanted to retain and eat The Cake of International Cricket; he wanted to retain and eat The Lucrative Cake of T20 Franchise Cricket; and he also wanted to retain and eat The Cake of
Continue readingWhat proportion of Mohammad Amir will play the Tests against England?
3 minute readWe were a tremendously big fan of Mohammad Amir even back when he was called Mohammad Aamer. Things have not always been smooth since then. There have been blips. They say that prison changes a man. We ourself have never been incarcerated. One time we accidentally ran a red light
Continue readingThe Hundred is not going to be a big deal, people aren’t going to talk about it and it won’t attract a new audience
2 minute readAsk a stupid question, get a stupid answer. After that, build a whole stupid thing around the stupid answer and then pin all of your hopes for the survival of your sport on how well the stupid thing fares. The ECB are going to launch this 100-ball competition and they
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Is it right that Jos Buttler won a Test spot without playing first-class cricket?
2 minute readLet’s take a look at how Test teams are picked and whether runs in other formats are relevant. We’ll begin with a quick bit of background. A quick bit of background Doing well at one-day cricket for England used to be a common way of getting into the Test team.
Continue readingWhat’s it been like watching Ireland’s first Test, against Pakistan at Malahide?
3 minute readChuck writes: With my Aged Parent heading towards 83 not out this summer (a superb innings), I decided it was time to introduce him to the pleasures of Test cricket by bringing him to his, and Ireland’s, and indeed my first men’s Test match, against Pakistan in Malahide. Well, day
Continue readingWe’re mostly talking about Ollie Pope again this week, with maybe a dash of James Hildreth and a soupcon of Keaton Jennings
2 minute readA combination of (a) the current state of the England cricket team and (b) the nature of early season cricket means that we’ve almost exclusively been talking about batsmen so far this summer. This isn’t actually all that great for those of us who consider batsmen necessary impediments to the
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