King Cricket

August 12, 2020 England

How well will Chris Woakes have to play before he’s in England’s overseas first XI?

Chris Woakes swings the ball less than Jimmy Anderson and seams it less than Stuart Broad. As an all-rounder, he isn’t as striking or dynamic as Ben Stokes. He’s still good though, isn’t he? For several years, England figured that even if there wasn’t an exact Chris-Woakes-shaped hole in their

August 9, 2020 England

Buttler, Bairstow and Foakes – England’s embarrassment of adequacy

“I’m putting a team together for a job.” “You son of a bitch. I’m in.” In heist movies, whenever they put a team together, everyone’s always the best of the best; the best there’s ever been. You never make do with members of your heist team. You never settle. You

August 7, 2020 England / Pakistan

Please tell us the secret of managing the very difficult emotions that arise when watching the Pakistan bowling attack against England

It’s probably Shoaib Akhtar’s fault. It started with Wasim Akram, obviously. He was the one who first presented us with this idea that the current score might not necessarily be the real score. The scorecard in an early Nineties Lancashire match required a coda. ‘This many runs for this many

August 4, 2020 England / Pakistan / Uncategorized

An England v Pakistan Test series “precap” (with preamble)

We were going to do a recap of the England v Ireland one-dayers, but they haven’t actually finished yet. So instead we thought we’d switch focus and do a ‘precap’ of the Pakistan series. We thought we were being wilfully annoying by using a made-up word like ‘precap’ when we

July 31, 2020 England / Ireland

David Willey is out of step with the world

Two examples which highlight how unutterably dreadful David Willey’s timing is. Example one. In March 2019, Sky Sports commentator Ian Ward delivered the definitive expression of incredulity when David Willey opened the bowling against the West Indies in an Alice band. (You may have seen it.) In July 2020, almost

July 28, 2020 England

Is Stuart Broad the most annoying cricketer there’s ever been?

There are two types of people in this world. There are annoying people and then there are people who pride themselves on being annoying. That’s it. Those are all the options. Everyone is annoying. Probably the most annoying person ever is Ben Kingsley’s insanely aggressive character in Sexy Beast, Don

July 25, 2020 England

In praise of the Stuart Broad hook shot

There are great batsmen and there are great shots. Then there is the greatest batsman of all (Stuart Broad) and his greatest shot of all (the hook). At this point in his career, Broad’s batting is all but flawless. Measured in conventional terms, it is of course massively flawed –

July 24, 2020 England / West Indies

Five ways Rahkeem Cornwall is like a cat

Six-foot-six and a hundred tons, Rahkeem Cornwall is a cricketer who’s hard to ignore. We do not plan on ignoring him. This is how he’s like a cat. (1) Conserves energy wherever possible Never run if you can walk. Never walk if you can stroll. Never stroll if you can

July 23, 2020 England

Which England pace bowler will throw the biggest strop if he isn’t picked for the Third Test?

The ‘nice problem to have’ cliché klaxon is ringing out deafeningly this week. England need to take two full seam attacks and turn them into one. Three of the six pace bowlers to have appeared in this series so far will be selected for the third Test and three of

July 22, 2020 Extras

How are you finding the fake crowd noise during the lockdown Tests? This sound engineer reckons they could be doing a lot more with it

With no fans allowed inside cricket grounds due to the coronavirus crisis, Sky Sports and Test Match Special have been broadcasting fake crowd noise for atmosphere. Could they be doing a better job with this? Crowd noise is very important in cricket. It’s important for atmosphere, obviously, but it can

King Cricket

Which Test nation’s top five wicket takers would form the most balanced attack?

The cult of digging in: The almost impossible psychological trick the batsman must pull off when you want him to play a rearguard

Can we pause for a moment and try and take stock of Mohammad Nabi’s ridiculous career?

England’s four weirdest Test picks of the last 20 years

Ten important questions after watching the trailer for that new England documentary ‘The Edge’