< 1 minute readYet again, it’s one of those win the toss, win the match, if you’re India pitches. The sheer predictability of proceedings only being disrupted when the coin ended the other way up. There’s an illusion of inevitability when India bat first, but the play is coerced down a certain path
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Today’s Ben Stokes-induced happenings
< 1 minute readAt one point in the afternoon session, Ben Stokes accidentally spat on his own shirt. You’d think this would be a low point, but he plucked off the deposit with no obvious display of emotion. Perhaps he knew that things were about to get significantly worse. Shortly after spraying a
Continue readingGood evening, Mr Kohli?
< 1 minute readBefore tea, Che Pujara and Virat Kohli, neither of whom had looked too troubled, started to hit a few more fours. It felt predictable and seemed to foreshadow a long evening session for England. After tea, Pujara – perhaps concerned that he might partially obscure Kohli’s halo – needlessly looped
Continue readingWhere would India be given another half-revolution of the coin?
2 minute readWhen trying to assess the state of play after the first day’s play, it’s often tempting to imagine a parallel world where the toss-winning captain has opted for heads instead of tails, tails instead of heads, or just totally gone off on one and gone for arms or thoraxes or
Continue readingRishabh Pant is not India’s wicketkeeper – what possible reason is there for this?
< 1 minute readWriddhiman Saha is injured. India’s selectors said it was too early to hand a debut to Rishabh Pant who is still only 19 years old. They instead picked Parthiv Patel, a 31-year-old who made his Test debut against England in 2002. In seven innings this season, Pant has made four
Continue readingMop-up of the day – guilt, great promise and grey trivialities
2 minute read‘Du Plessis found guilty’ reads the Cricinfo headline. We don’t really feel it necessary to add much to your likely response to reading that. The effect of imposing black and white morality on the sport’s grey trivialities could barely be clearer. Here’s something we wrote last time Du Plessis buggered
Continue readingEngland fans: redouble your pessimism – your country needs you
< 1 minute readWhen they’re not favourites, sides will often talk about proving people wrong. This is all well and good, but it can leave them susceptible to the viewing public’s fickle mood swings. At the start of this India tour, plenty of us thought England could lose every match. In the first
Continue readingJayant Yadav seems a nice bloke
< 1 minute readThe second Test is progressing pretty much as you’d imagine, so this is what we’re passing off as insight today: India’s new off-spinner Jayant Yadav seems a decent sort. We’re basing this exclusively on one interview with Sky Sports’ Ian Ward. This may be misleading because Ward’s genial curiosity does
Continue readingSnapped stumps and pitch predictions – day two at Visakhapatnam
< 1 minute read“Cook in particular had lived dangerously in his 11-ball stay,” reports Cricinfo. You wonder how he found the time. At least he went out in style, his off stump halved by Mohammad Shami. Ben Duckett was also bowled. “Here are my stumps,” he seemed to say. “Snap one if you
Continue readingWhy England could match India in this Test and still lose
2 minute readWe were going to start this piece: “Not to be defeatist, but…” We then realised that this would be entirely misleading. Defeatism is precisely what we are about to deliver. This doesn’t mean being a naysayer. It’s just our honest ‘on the balance of probabilities’ assessment of India and England
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