3 minute readJoe Root reached his latest hundred with one of those reverse sweeps of his. We’ve seen them plenty of times before, of course. We’ve seen all of it plenty of times before. It doesn’t stop being impressive, but it’s become a nagging, cumulative impressiveness that never really leaves you, rather
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3 minute readEngland did really well last time they toured Pakistan. Now they’re back without their captain or any of the quick bowlers who did well in that series. Chris Woakes’s back As in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. When England toured and won in 2022, they used four
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2 minute readThe first Test between Pakistan and England starts on Monday – a somewhat jarring fact, given that most of the recent England news has centred on one-day internationals (both results and squads). It will be in Multan (again). To quickly recap: In 2022 England made their first Test tour to
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3 minute readEngland have named their Test squad for the upcoming trip to Pakistan. It’s one of those tours where appetite for spin bowling all-rounders is sufficiently great that even difficult choices between specialist batters will often result in the guy who bowls a bit of finger spin getting the nod. Dan
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4 minute readBefore this third Test, Sri Lanka had already lost the series. They hadn’t had much of a warm-up; hadn’t played first-class cricket on these shores since 2016; and England were increasingly hell-bent on imposing themselves. It had been a tough shift, in short, and they could be forgiven for imploding
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2 minute readJosh Hull is only the second left-arm seamer to play a Test for England since Ryan Sidebottom in 2010. At 6ft 7in, he’s tall too. These are very attractive qualities which Hull has had to make zero effort to develop. Confidence is a funny thing. A lot of intelligent, pragmatic,
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3 minute readBrendon McCullum has been given a new hat – the England white ball coach hat. What we want to know is whether this new role comes with a literal, physical new hat, because we’re kind of sick of that Cinch one. This is the Cinch hat. This is what Brendon
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3 minute readYou may have guessed that we didn’t see much of this one. But that’s okay – we can read a scorecard with the best of them. England won. It is 2-0. Here are some things that apparently happened… Joe Root one-ups himself Has Joe Root finally hit upon a way
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2 minute readThere is a void in our life. Ever since The Great Neil Wagner retired, we haven’t had an unsuppressible affection for an ostensibly innocuous Test cricketer who is somehow successful in spite of apparent physical limitations. Asitha Fernando? Could it be you? The main problem with Sri Lanka’s Test Fernandos
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3 minute readBeing as it comprises three whole Tests, it’s probably inaccurate to describe this England v Sri Lanka series as ‘short’. After all, this is an era when two Tests inside a fortnight supposedly qualifies as a ‘series’. But while there’s technically a first, second and third Test between these two
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