2 minute readNick Hoult wrote the case study we couldn’t be bothered writing in The Telegraph yesterday. The short version is that between now and England picking their first Test squad to face India in August, Jason Roy will have at most one first-class match in which to make his case for
Continue readingCategory: India
Ajinkya Rahane must be shit-hot at making drinks
2 minute readWe’ve always liked Ajinkya Rahane. He’s always struck us as a batsman who can adapt to different situations and different conditions. India like him too. They like him to be 12th man. Rahane’s case for inclusion in the second Test against South Africa wasn’t undeniable, we’ll admit. He had a
Continue readingIs Hardik Pandya the best all-rounder in the world?
< 1 minute readOne of the problems with asking questions such as this is what time-frame do you use to make your assessment? Performances over the last year, over the last five years, over the last ten years? We’re going make our assessment based on performances over the last 24 hours. This leads
Continue readingWhen did Kolkata become dibbly-dobbly military-medium paradise?
< 1 minute readIf you were India and had access to a time-and-place machine capable of replacing a nearby patch of land with one from elsewhere and elsewhen, then when and where would you choose to play Sri Lanka at Test cricket? It’s unlikely that you answered ‘Derby last April’ but that is
Continue readingWith the Ashes decided, England and Australia will look to determine which has the better ODI second XI
< 1 minute readEngland and Australia fans who enjoy answering the question “so why isn’t this the Ashes then?” will be delighted to hear that the two sides are going to do that thing where they follow the Test series with five don’t-give-a-toss one-day matches six months later in the other country. The
Continue readingJason Holder starts to play how you always imagined he would
< 1 minute readIndia failed to chase down 190 against the West Indies and there were a couple of prominent reasons for this. Firstly, MS Dhoni hit India’s slowest half-century in 16 years – although ‘hit’ seems an entirely inappropriate word to use for an innings of 54 off 114 balls. MS Dhoni
Continue readingPeak Pakistan
2 minute readScrape into a tournament through being ranked eighth in the world, throw in a few debutants, win the thing. Quite often you get to play Pakistan. Occasionally you have to play Pakistan. India suffered the latter. How in blazes? If we were to imagine that winning a cricket tournament involved
Continue readingVideo: Virat Kohli dropped off Mohammad Amir… Virat Kohli caught off Mohammad Amir
< 1 minute readPakistan often lunge enthusiastically towards the ridiculous in the firm knowledge that this is their best hope of rebounding to sublime cricket – but even for them this moment was something else. There is a strong argument that Virat Kohli is the finest one-day batsman there’s ever been. He is
Continue readingNine things to watch out for when India play Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final
2 minute readThere are all sorts of India v Pakistan previews out there, but this is currently the only one on this website that goes up to nine. 1. Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling action Evidence, if it were needed, that the “hey, what’s that over there?” bowling ploy can work just as well
Continue readingIndia v Bangladesh goes pretty much exactly how everyone expected
< 1 minute readWho would have thought this match would turn out exactly as everyone expected it to? What were the odds on that? Extremely slim, you’d have thought, what with the extraordinary wealth of alternative outcomes. Tamim Iqbal played a good innings and there was reasonable support from one of Bangladesh’s middle-order
Continue reading