King Cricket

October 25, 2024 India / New Zealand

Virat Kohli has been out of form for five years now – he’s basically John Crawley without the hundreds

3 minute readWe put it to you that India currently have access to batters who are better than 1990s England Test cricketer, John Crawley. That is a little uncomfortable given who such a player could replace. (Spoiler: it’s Virat Kohli.) If you haven’t seen Virat Kohli’s latest dismissal against New Zealand, let

October 24, 2024 England / Pakistan

Let Noman wheel away unchanged

2 minute readZahid Mahmood took a wicket today. That was quite a big moment. It’s been a while since anyone other than Noman Ali or Sajid Khan took one for Pakistan. Zahid was lucky to even get a bowl, quite frankly. In the second Test, Noman Ali bowled 44.3 overs and Sajid

October 23, 2024 England / Pakistan

Rawalpindi Test pitch preview with Richard O’Brien

2 minute readEngland are in Rawalpindi for the third and final Test of this series against Pakistan with the scoreline currently 1-1. Last time they were here, they made 500 on the first day. Will we see a repeat of that? To quickly recap, England’s last Test in Rawalpindi began with Zak

October 18, 2024 England / Pakistan

The Salman of doubt – are Pakistan making full use of Salman Ali Agha?

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.

October 17, 2024 India / New Zealand

Did you see… Mohammed Siraj make his way onto India’s top scorers podium with a single shot?

2 minute readRohit Sharma chose to bat first against New Zealand, even though he thought it might be a bit tricky early on. Rohit didn’t perhaps consider that India might not make it as far as ‘later on’. Sharma himself did well though. He made two runs, which – until number 11

October 16, 2024 England / Pakistan

Did you see… the butter/dragonfly that tried to run out Zak Crawley?

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

October 14, 2024 Australia

Failing failure Steve Smith to hide down the order after abject failure as Test opener

2 minute readSteve Smith’s cowardly plea to be protected from the new ball has been meekly granted by Australia’s spineless management team, less than a year after he persuaded them he really wanted to make a go of opening the batting. No official comment has yet been made on whether there is

October 10, 2024 England / Features / Pakistan

Hats off to Harry Brook’s very particular ‘steamrollered pancake pitch’ set of skills

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

October 9, 2024 England / Pakistan

As a batter, Joe Root honestly isn’t much fun to write about any more

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

October 7, 2024 England / Pakistan

Chris Woakes’s back, Jack Leach’s back, James Anderson isn’t – three obvious talking points from day one of Pakistan v England

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