2 minute read We’ve half-followed some underwhelming international series that we don’t especially care about before now, so we like to think we know a thing or two about the genre. Sri Lanka’s current tour is shaping up to be a fine example. Exclusively white ball tours can often be shoulder-shruggers. It’s not
Continue readingCategory: England
Oh look, a Chris Woakes. Forgot we had one. What shall we do with it?
2 minute read After six years away, Chris Woakes is back in England’s T20 squad. It kind of feels like they’ve just happened upon him hanging about the place and concluded that they had to put him somewhere. We’ve been moving house for the last week or so. We were only supposed to
Continue readingCharles Bannerman, Enid Bakewell and the incredible rarity of Test match No.141
2 minute read Women’s Test matches are almost incomprehensibly rare – as evidenced by the fact that India are currently on a three-match winning streak which began in 2006. (The initial victory was followed by a bumper 2014 in which they played twice.) England’s long format fixture list hasn’t generally been too congested
Continue readingThat match when Mark Wood top scored in England’s second innings
< 1 minute read A lot of things happen over the course of a Test match – even one that barely scrapes into a fourth day. But you look at an innings where Mark Wood top scored and that feels like the main thing. That’s the thing that sums the match up, isn’t it?
Continue readingThe 2013/14 Ridiculous Ashes
2 minute read We’ve done series two of The Ridiculous Ashes Podcast with Dan Liebke. It’s about the 2013/14 Ashes and we’ll add the episodes below as they go out each week. If you don’t already know, the Ridiculous Ashes is an alternative trophy awarded to the side that produced the most hilarious
Continue readingThat match when Devon Conway and Ollie Robinson made their Test debuts
4 minute read We’re pretty sure we know how this Test will be remembered. The England team for the first Test averaged less than 273, so it didn’t seem unreasonable that they gave up trying to chase that on the final day against a really very good and balanced bowling attack. Others disagree,
Continue readingThe Home of Seam Bowlers
2 minute read People often say that having Ben Stokes in the team gives England a fourth seamer. That’s not right. Having Ben Stokes in the team gives England a spinner, because apparently they still pick four seamers even when he’s not playing. This was the first Test cricket at Lord’s for a
Continue readingOllie Robinson is the interesting one, isn’t he?
2 minute read Test cricket is back. Even if it’s a last minute two-Test series that even the boards who arranged it seem a bit nonplussed about, Test cricket is a wonderful and important thing – and never more so than to those who are making their debuts. The general astonishment that England
Continue readingHaseeb Hameed, relationships and the toughness of love
2 minute read Everything unravelled for Haseeb Hameed at Lancashire. You got the sense that the unravelling momentum was so great towards the end that the county were switching between management strategies every other day in a desperate bid to stumble on something that worked. In contrast, Hameed’s new county, Nottinghamshire, have settled
Continue readingOld Trafford Test survives as BCCI turns its attention to a recipe for burnout | Mop-up of the day
3 minute read England have reportedly declined India’s ‘informal’ invitation to cancel the fifth Test at Old Trafford. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will therefore do what cricket boards always do in these situations: it will schedule exactly the same number of matches within a shorter span of time.
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