2 minute readEngland are a limited batting side. Most of the players have plenty of shots and they’re seemingly limited to a style of play where they use them all. This article isn’t going to be a paean to the blocker. It’s about a lack of flexibility; a lack of range. England
Continue readingMonth: July 2017
Liam Dawson is getting carted
2 minute readWe’ve been wondering whether Liam Dawson will become a player we hate for being kind of dull or a player we love for being kind of dull. We haven’t yet reached a conclusion, but what we are a little more certain of is that he’s utterly failing to do the
Continue readingIs Joe Root brave enough to bowl Gary Ballance?
< 1 minute readThe great tragedy of England’s six-man bowling attack is that Gary Ballance never gets to bowl. We reckon that Joe Root and Keaton Jennings are likely to get on before him as well, so realistically he’s ninth choice. England will need to have an extraordinarily bad day before we see
Continue readingCricket Captain 2017 – PC review
4 minute readCricket Captain – formerly International Cricket Captain – has been updated pretty much annually ever since it first came out in 1998. It’s always been a must for fans and also for administrators. However, we haven’t actually reviewed it in ages, so we thought we’d better address that. Let’s deal
Continue readingThe hundreds and five-fors rating – why Moeen Ali is England’s best player
< 1 minute readFurther to yesterday’s debate about the identity of England’s best player, here’s one possible way of rating them We made the point yesterday that people shouldn’t blindly accept that Joe Root is England’s best player because he only regularly contributes in one facet of the game. We then a touch
Continue readingHow long until someone suggests Moeen Ali is battling to keep his Test spot?
2 minute readIt feels like one of those rare moments when very few people are talking about whether or not Moeen Ali will be able to keep his place in the England side. While many all-rounders benefit from being able to contribute in two separate disciplines, the beardster always seems to be
Continue readingMoeen Ali and Stuart Broad follow by example
< 1 minute readWith their feisty batting in the morning and a pair of wickets each, Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad truly delivered non-captains’ performances. This is what good team members do. They set an example for the captain to follow. It’s like they always say: he who leads the leader slightly reduces
Continue readingJoe Root sinks a few and then wanders off on his own
< 1 minute readIf Joe Root’s going to try and lead by example, he might want to check whether anyone’s actually following him. If no-one does, then we’re afraid it’s just plain old ‘batting well’ – which is what he always used to do anyway. What kind of captaincy is that? If you’re
Continue readingDog’s eye view of baseball-bat-wielding thug David Gower
2 minute readOkay, not strictly speaking a dog’s eye view unless (a) the dog has its eyes behind its ears or (b) there’s a tiny dog piloting the larger dog. However, that genuinely is a blurry David Gower up ahead and he really is wielding a baseball bat, the thug. Like almost
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
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