2 minute read Everyone has a favourite batter. Everyone has a favourite fast bowler. Everyone also has a favourite fast-medium short ball workhorse bowler… and it’s always Neil Wagner, because no-one else in the history of cricket has ever made that work. Unique cricketers usually stand out for very obviously freakish physical reasons.
Continue readingMonth: February 2024
R Ashwin isn’t a robot – he just treats himself like one
5 minute read R Ashwin says he “had to literally rewire” himself to bowl in Ranchi. As far as we’re aware, R Ashwin did not have to literally rewire himself. We haven’t watched HBO’s version of Westworld in a while, but the way we remember it, the series went pretty heavy on the
Continue readingRanchi Test pitch preview with the printer from Office Space
3 minute read Renouncing orthodoxy and precedent, England took an unlikely win in the first Test of this series. However, some feel that defeat in the third Test last week was the flipside of that attitude. Our own view is that they’d most likely have lost whatever they did – this is playing
Continue readingIs it possible to bat with the conviction of Ben Duckett yet talk with the bleak defeatism of the average England fan?
6 minute read Conviction. It’s what Ben Stokes’ England Test team is all about. This is great to watch but cringe-inducing to listen to. Is there any chance they could play the same way without… saying all of those things? The most obviously groansome comment arising from England’s 434-run defeat to India in
Continue readingRohit Sharma’s hat was the real victim when Sarfaraz Khan was run out because Ravindra Jadeja was so keen to get off 99
2 minute read Run-outs are always dramatic, but doubly so when the batter’s on 99. That unignorable need for a single just brings a whole new dimension to the drama. The burning desire to get another run to get you to 100 can even result in collateral damage, like the loss of your
Continue readingRajkot Test pitch preview with Captain Ahab
2 minute read Ben Stokes’ cap has been looking pretty tatty, but he is due a new one for his 100th Test match in Rajkot this week. The series currently sits at 1-1 with – glory be! – three Tests still to play. Ravindra Jadeja will most likely return for India, while England
Continue readingHow popular are all these Not-Quite-The-IPL franchise leagues actually likely to be?
5 minute read The birth of a whole new wave of T20 franchise competitions will bring about the death of international cricket according to a great many articles we’ve read in the last six months. We don’t really know about that. We’re pretty certain that they’ll bring about the death of several T20
Continue readingWhat has been the most improbable feat by an England cricketer in India?
8 minute read India is a place where the impossible becomes improbable and the improbable honestly just may well actually happen. As Tom Hartley showed in Hyderabad, even England cricketers aren’t immune. Below we’ve picked out a few other improbable feats delivered by England cricketers while touring India. You can pick your own
Continue readingWhat does Mukesh Kumar tell us about time travel team selection?
3 minute read If you were to fire up your flux capacitor and hop into your DeLorean, would you go back and pick a different England or India team for the recently-completed second Test? More quick bowlers perhaps? Yes? No? Maybe? We’re assuming that given access to time travel, the first thing you’d
Continue readingWas Jasprit Bumrah’s yorker to Ollie Pope the best since Waqar Younis?
3 minute read We’re not saying that the delivery with which Jasprit Bumrah bowled Ollie Pope was the best post-Waqar yorker. All we’re saying is that a decent case can be made and that’ll do for today. First things first, the greatest yorker of all time was bowled by Waqar Younis at some
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