4 minute readFielding sides loathe few things more than a really, really good number seven batter. So why is it so rare that a player is specifically picked to do the job? “Initially, I used to complain,” Pakistan’s Salman Ali Agha told Sky Sports this week about coming in at number seven.
Continue reading
3 minute readLook, we’re not an entomologist and grainy, low quality social media footage isn’t helping us here. All we know is a flapping insect tried to run Zak Crawley out, only for Sajid Khan to get to the stumps first, where he made a right royal hash of things. You think
Continue reading
5 minute readThis Multan pitch is flatter than a pancake that’s gone under a Looney Tunes steamroller. That doesn’t mean you can score infinite runs on it though. Even Harry Brook had to settle for a mere 317 – and he’s so far made a hundred in every Test he’s played in
Continue reading
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
Continue reading
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
Continue reading
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
Continue reading
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
Continue reading
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
Continue reading
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,
Continue reading
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
Continue reading