2 minute readHaris Rauf looks tired. Not sleepy tired. The kind of tired where you have no patience for anything. The kind of tired where if you say the wrong thing he will very quickly go from quiet and reserved to absolutely going off his head at you in a highly terrifying
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12 England things that happened in the summer of 2022 – maybe they tell a story of some kind (or maybe they don’t)
6 minute readWe did this last year, reasoning that a collage of moments from England’s home season might somehow paint a broader picture of where they stand right now. It feels like it does a little bit – but then who knows what’ll come next. New dawns are widely regarded as immaculately
Continue readingOllie Robinson’s wicket celebration is becoming very familiar
2 minute readOllie Robinson doesn’t do his pointing upper-cut celebration every time he takes a wicket, but he does it often enough that it certainly feels like he does. Plenty of bowlers have had signature celebrations over the years – little sequences of actions they reflexively do in response to each dismissal.
Continue readingRain and reign and the annual carry-over Test
< 1 minute readIs this a thing now? Is the scheduled last Test of each summer forever destined to be played the following year? We’re jumping the gun here, but there’s at least some sort of a chance we’re going to have to run a Sim Series here, isn’t there? After first rain
Continue readingIt’s Harry Brook’s turn at the bar
2 minute readAfter one innings victory apiece, the third and final Test between England and South Africa will surely end up either a high-scoring draw or a low-scoring tie. England’s new number five, Harry Brook, would presumably prefer the former as all things being equal that increases the chances he’ll make a
Continue readingDropping Jason Roy means England have finally achieved their 2007 goals
2 minute readIt was coming. It’s happened. England have named their T20 World Cup squad and they’ve dropped Jason Roy. In keeping with this website’s policy of actively spurning all the audience-attracting potential of writing about a topic when it’s “hot,” we said pretty much all we want to say about this
Continue readingOllie Robinson has been given a golden opportunity to develop a new ailment
< 1 minute readThat feels the most likely outcome here. You pick Ollie Robinson and generally something goes wrong with him. This time around our money’s on – ooh, let’s see – auto-brewery syndrome. To whisk through Robinson’s last few months once again, it’s gone back spasm, back spasm, tooth infection, food poisoning,
Continue readingBen Stokes should probably try and nail a second draft of England’s game before promising to rewrite Test cricket
2 minute readIt’s good to be ambitious and open minded and not hidebound by the past. It’s maybe not quite so smart to talk about how you’re going to rewrite how Test cricket is played – particularly if you’re England. Ben Stokes has mostly spoken well since he took on the captaincy,
Continue readingDid you see… Dean Elgar elbowing himself out?
2 minute readThe scorecard says Dean Elgar was bowled by James Anderson. The scorecard is keeping a lot of important detail to itself there. To recap what happened, Anderson hit Elgar on the thigh, the ball bounced back towards the bowler, only for Elgar to inadvertently elbow it backwards again. The ball
Continue readingIs England v South Africa a series we should care about?
2 minute readIt’s the fun question that now launches all series and tournaments: “Why should I care about this?” When there’s wall-to-wall cricket, nothing can be taken for granted – these days you have to take the time to work out which matches actually matter. No matter how seriously a team says
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