2 minute readDavid Willey had two balls to face today and he tried to make full use of both of them. It was typically selfless stuff from a committed player who rarely seems to have got much love or respect from England, even when he’s been one of their top performers. Willey
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7 minute readSometimes it’s not about the logic of dropping one player in favour of another; it’s about the message you send to everyone else who hasn’t (yet) been dropped. England talk about playing with conviction, yet coach Matthew Mott and captain Jos Buttler have demonstrated little but uncertainty with this 2023
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4 minute readEngland haven’t played this format much recently, so you can forgive them for looking at bit rusty against a guy who hasn’t bowled in an ODI for almost four years. “It’s raining cats and dogs in Sri Lanka so I’ve not been able to play much,” said Angelo Mathews after
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4 minute readEngland’s 2019 World Cup team was just about good enough to win. The hypothesis for 2023 seems to have been, “Maybe if we don’t expose the team to any air or light, it’ll keep.” If you’re almost exactly our age, you may remember the children’s TV series Eerie Indiana and
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3 minute readSometimes it feels like every time you switch on Sky Sports, India are playing a game at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. We’ve no idea where this feeling comes from because since 2017 the ground’s only hosted one Test match and two one-day internationals. There’s a big match on the
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2 minute read2023 World Cup, Game 13, Afghanistan v England England are still 2-1 up on Afghanistan in 50-over World Cup matches. Expand the head to head to include all one-day internationals and England are… 2-1 up. You wonder what sort of damage Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mujeeb Ur Rahman would have done
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2 minute readWhen will Dawid Malan (six hundreds in 23 innings, average of 63.15, strike-rate of 98.44) finally prove himself? “I’m desperate to do well in this format and prove a point that I deserve to be in there,” said Malan today, after his latest ton. Two games ago, Malan hit another
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2 minute readNot to get all Meatloaf about this, but England would do anything to save a run. But they won’t do that. No, they won’t do that. If you haven’t already seen, England are due to play in Dharamasala tomorrow. It’s possibly the most beautiful ground in the world if you
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2 minute read2023 Cricket World Cup, Game 1, England v New Zealand There’s not much sign that New Zealand have many batters in form, while two of the three we’ve seen are clearly peaking too soon. England, in contrast, are pacing their ascent to top form beautifully. Starting here at ‘dogshit’, they
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5 minute readAin’t no bad news like the retraction of previously issued good news. Jason Roy had already given his relieved response to being included in England’s World Cup squad when he was later excluded from it. How are you feeling since the change of heart, Jase? Not great, we’d wager. Squad
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