< 1 minute readIf you’re going to get out LBW, get out LBW in style. Here’s Keaton Jennings’ four-step guide to doing so. Step one: fail to leap into action Step two: leap into action Step three: start falling over Step four: run away and hope no-one notices
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Should Jonny Bairstow be freed from the wicketkeeping gloves?
2 minute readJonny Bairstow’s been one of England’s few semi-competent batsmen in recent times. This has given rise to the very obvious conclusion that England’s batting woes are pretty much entirely down to him because if he wasn’t keeping wicket he’d be making even more runs. Would Bairstow make more runs if
Continue readingAt least James Vince gives you a focus
2 minute readSocial media has been alive with pleasure this week at the news that James Vince has returned to the England squad. It’s gratifying to see that fans’ views of him have in no way cemented and that there is universal near-desperation to see him given a third chance at Test
Continue readingDo England need a bit more oomph from their opening batsmen?
2 minute readLast week, writing about Alastair Cook, George Dobell briefly made the case that he maybe isn’t the easiest guy to open the batting with. The gist of the argument is that Cook’s quite a passive batsman and “novice openers see the scoreboard going nowhere and bowlers allowed to settle into
Continue readingWhen Virat Kohli edged to Keaton Jennings – a breakdown of the finest missed catch you’ll ever see
4 minute readThere’s basically nothing left as an England fan other than to become a connoisseur of missed catches. Keaton Jennings failing to make meaningful use of his own hands when Virat Kohli edged the ball to him on 93 was one of the greatest misses we’ve ever seen. There are three
Continue readingFour reasons why you should never challenge England to a collapse-off
2 minute readIndia were foolish to challenge England to a collapse-off. No matter who you are, you aren’t going to out-collapse England. Don’t get us wrong, India do have some real collapsing pedigree. Their performance at Lord’s was borderline exceptional, but the spectacular nature of that particular showing shouldn’t distract from the
Continue readingThe India batsmen who aren’t making any runs are pretty much the same India batsmen who didn’t make any runs last time around
< 1 minute readIndia have had very much the worse of conditions in this match and they have also been facing some masterful swing bowling. All the same, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that they haven’t really made any runs. Out of interest, we checked which batsmen had played in the Test
Continue readingIs Ollie Pope poised to go papal on India? Does anyone know what that would involve?
2 minute readWe found ourself talking about Ollie Pope quite a bit early this season, way back when they played County Championship cricket semi-regularly. The ability to counter green pitch dobblery in April may not be wholly relevant to the challenge of facing India at the back end of an arid British
Continue readingWas that really a good Test match?
3 minute readThere’s this odd belief in cricket that people want to see fours and sixes. They don’t. They want to see jeopardy. What is jeopardy? It’s when wickets matter. It’s when everything you see has an impact on the outcome of the game. When one team makes 400 and the other
Continue readingVirat Kohli’s elite levels of obliviousness and delusion
3 minute readThere were three phases to Virat Kohli’s hundred. There was the bit where he kept being beaten by the bowlers; there was the bit where the ball wasn’t doing quite so much but he was still shaken up; and there was the bit where everything went back to normal and
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