King Cricket

August 8, 2025 England

So who’s in England’s first choice Ashes bowling attack then?

4 minute readIn April 2024, Rob Key, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum told James Anderson they were looking to regenerate the England Test bowling attack ahead of the next Ashes and could he maybe provide them with another regeneration slot to help them in their efforts. Since then, they’ve given themselves plenty

From Chris ‘Napoleon’ Woakes to unbreakable Mohammed Siraj: 9 moments of pure cricket madness from the final day of a blinding and brutal Test series

7 minute readNo other sport does all-the-fun-of-the-fair climaxes like cricket. In large part that’s due to the complexity of the game and the way specific goals shift from ball to ball (or even within the span of a single delivery). It’s also the fact that these most crucial moments invariably involve the

August 1, 2025 England / India

Chris Woakes shouldered his workload better than he shouldered the soggy Oval turf

4 minute readWe lost a few things to the London weather yesterday: most obviously 20-odd overs, which is no big deal because they can make up the time on days two, three, four and five; far more significantly, Chris Woakes fell victim to the wet, soft, slippy outfield. Woakes had already expressed

July 30, 2025 England / India

Ben Stokes and Jasprit Bumrah lead two strong bowling attacks sitting out the fifth Test

2 minute readCan Ben Stokes really carry on doing all of the things? No, apparently not. Is Jasprit Bumrah at risk of injury if he plays again? Yes, apparently he is. Is anyone on either side fit enough to bowl in the fifth Test? Um. Maybe. Sort of. Although the way it’s

July 28, 2025 England / India

Can Ben Stokes really carry on doing all of the things? And what’s Shubman Gill’s lifespan as a captain?

4 minute read“Pain is just an emotion,” Ben Stokes told his men at Old Trafford – a nonsense claim just a few small steps below Dalton’s standard-setting “pain don’t hurt” in Road House. For those that don’t know, Dalton is a world famous bouncer in a world where bouncers can be world

July 21, 2025 Match report

Real ale and Schrodinger’s membership | a Lancashire v Derbyshire match report

4 minute readSend your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) A P Webster writes… Am I a Lancashire member? Well,

July 18, 2025 Match report

Burgers, noise and handshakes | another World Test Championship final match report

2 minute readSend your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) Who says you can’t report on the same day’s play

July 17, 2025 England / India

Jasprit Bumrah Workload Watch… 86.4 overs

2 minute readAfter the first Test, we reported how England’s batting success in that match had compelled India to ask Jasprit Bumrah to bowl 43.4 overs – quite a significant workload for a man whose appearances are being limited to three of the five matches due to fitness concerns. Fortunately, England’s batting

July 14, 2025 England / India

The bowel-churning thrill of the runs Ravindra Jadeja chose not to score and the wickets England failed to take

4 minute readHold us here, Test cricket. Hold us here in uncertainty; at the sour spot of maybe or maybe not. Leave us here a while to grow overfamiliar with the sight of Ravindra Jadeja turning down another single because it’s still quite early in the over. We all know that a

July 14, 2025 England / India

Why is the Lord’s pitch so woefully inconsistent?

2 minute readLike many Lord’s Test pitches in recent years, the one for this England v India match started off an absolute pudding. Perhaps keen to shrug off the ground’s nickname as The Home of Absolute Puddings, it’s since deteriorated into something rather more treacherous. For the first few days, Lord’s puddingly

England just need to get through the new ball and then they'll be able to dominate the Australians with the…

And, along similar lines to what Ged said, applying that attitude to playing conditions more generally would have its benefits.…

Feeling obliged to do something "for your mates" that you work with day to day, even when it's inherently unsafe…

Well, hence the 'use sparingly'. Archer's shown he still has the capacity to bowl quickly, but not necessarily 20-odd overs…

That is assuming that Archer will be bowling 90mph+, and not the 82-85mph he was bowling in his 2nd and…

From Chris ‘Napoleon’ Woakes to unbreakable Mohammed Siraj: 9 moments of pure cricket madness from the final day of a blinding and brutal Test series

Zimbabwe in England: six lessons from history for those not old enough to remember this kind of thing

In praise of the matter-of-fact dynamism of Travis Head

Mark’s wood: Talking joinery and timber with England’s fastest bowler

23 of the best, worst and weirdest cricket moments of 2024

So who’s in England’s first choice Ashes bowling attack then?

From Chris ‘Napoleon’ Woakes to unbreakable Mohammed Siraj: 9 moments of pure cricket madness from the final day of a blinding and brutal Test series

Chris Woakes shouldered his workload better than he shouldered the soggy Oval turf

Ben Stokes and Jasprit Bumrah lead two strong bowling attacks sitting out the fifth Test

Can Ben Stokes really carry on doing all of the things? And what’s Shubman Gill’s lifespan as a captain?

Real ale and Schrodinger’s membership | a Lancashire v Derbyshire match report

Burgers, noise and handshakes | another World Test Championship final match report

Jasprit Bumrah Workload Watch… 86.4 overs

The bowel-churning thrill of the runs Ravindra Jadeja chose not to score and the wickets England failed to take

Why is the Lord’s pitch so woefully inconsistent?

SIGN UP FOR THE KING CRICKET EMAIL!

Or WG Grace and Billy Murdoch will be forced to come round your house and...

... do things...