5 minute readR Ashwin says he “had to literally rewire” himself to bowl in Ranchi. As far as we’re aware, R Ashwin did not have to literally rewire himself. We haven’t watched HBO’s version of Westworld in a while, but the way we remember it, the series went pretty heavy on the
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3 minute readRenouncing orthodoxy and precedent, England took an unlikely win in the first Test of this series. However, some feel that defeat in the third Test last week was the flipside of that attitude. Our own view is that they’d most likely have lost whatever they did – this is playing
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6 minute readConviction. It’s what Ben Stokes’ England Test team is all about. This is great to watch but cringe-inducing to listen to. Is there any chance they could play the same way without… saying all of those things? The most obviously groansome comment arising from England’s 434-run defeat to India in
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2 minute readRun-outs are always dramatic, but doubly so when the batter’s on 99. That unignorable need for a single just brings a whole new dimension to the drama. The burning desire to get another run to get you to 100 can even result in collateral damage, like the loss of your
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2 minute readBen Stokes’ cap has been looking pretty tatty, but he is due a new one for his 100th Test match in Rajkot this week. The series currently sits at 1-1 with – glory be! – three Tests still to play. Ravindra Jadeja will most likely return for India, while England
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8 minute readIndia is a place where the impossible becomes improbable and the improbable honestly just may well actually happen. As Tom Hartley showed in Hyderabad, even England cricketers aren’t immune. Below we’ve picked out a few other improbable feats delivered by England cricketers while touring India. You can pick your own
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3 minute readIf you were to fire up your flux capacitor and hop into your DeLorean, would you go back and pick a different England or India team for the recently-completed second Test? More quick bowlers perhaps? Yes? No? Maybe? We’re assuming that given access to time travel, the first thing you’d
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3 minute readWe’re not saying that the delivery with which Jasprit Bumrah bowled Ollie Pope was the best post-Waqar yorker. All we’re saying is that a decent case can be made and that’ll do for today. First things first, the greatest yorker of all time was bowled by Waqar Younis at some
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3 minute readAfter rather improbably sweeping and spinning a win in Hyderabad, England head to Visakhapatnam hoping to do something similar in the second Test. But can we expect similar conditions? All of the world’s great grounds have big, bold, powerful names that hit you hard and fast: Lord’s, Newlands, Eden Gardens,
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3 minute readWe don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from players’ debuts – but we report on them anyway. If there was a key moment for Tom Hartley on his debut, it was when Ben Stokes didn’t whip him out of the attack to ‘protect’ him after an over or two in
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