< 1 minute readNot least because he isn’t currently a Test cricketer. But that’s not really our point. Imagine you have three important things to do today, but you’re kind of pressed for time. If you’re anything like us, you’ll favour the ingenious solution of doing a really half-arsed job on all three.
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Why is Adil Rashid giving up first-class cricket and becoming a white ball specialist?
3 minute readBecause he’s pressed for time. Adil Rashid has signed a white-ball only contract with Yorkshire for the 2018 season. Some will say he’s looking to become a short format specialist because it’ll allow him to buy a bigger car or house or whatever, but that’s missing the point. The point
Continue readingTest cricket is what Mark Wood wants to play – but even if he’s keen enough and fit enough, modern cricket won’t allow him to do so
< 1 minute readIf you haven’t already seen it, our latest piece for Wisden is about Mark Wood and the weighted, weighty decisions faced by current England cricketers. The crux of it is this: if Mark Wood doesn’t (a) fluke his way into the Test side for the two Tests against New Zealand
Continue readingSteve Smith the ball-eater and other stories: England’s ODI series win over Australia in old-school stats
2 minute readRemember averages and strike-rates? We do. Let’s take a look at some of the meat and potatoes stats for England’s 4-1 one-day series win over Australia. Steve Smith ate balls The Australian captain ate up 148 deliveries over the course of the series and yet paid his team back with
Continue readingJoe Root goes big, Australia fall short
< 1 minute readBefore the fourth one-dayer between Australia and England, the at times nauseatingly partisan BT Sport Twitter account asked which of three England batsmen would “go big” – Jason Roy, Joe Root or Jos Buttler. ✅ Roy ✅ Root ✅ Buttler Who will be the man to go big tonight? ????
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What does Lloyd Pope’s hair say about his leg-spin?
2 minute readLloyd Pope took 8-35 to knock England out of the Under-19 World Cup and he’s done a bunch more eye-catching stuff since. This is Lloyd Pope’s hair. You may also notice something hanging off the bottom of it. That thing is Lloyd Pope. You may feel that a man’s hair
Continue readingEngland’s one-day bowling strategy shows up everything that’s wrong with their Test approach
< 1 minute readSpeaking about England’s Test bowling attack this week, Steve Harmison managed the rare feat of deploying the word ‘unit’ in a halfway meaningful way. He told Sky Sports that England have to, “make sure that at any one given time they’ve got skill factor with the new ball, an X-factor
Continue readingBen Stokes has been charged with a crime which apparently means he should become available for England again
< 1 minute readBen Stokes was suspended from international cricket while the Crown Prosecution Service decided whether or not to press charges relating to the Bristol scuffle. Now that they have decided to charge him, he’s once again become eligible for selection. We have no real opinion on whether or not Stokes should
Continue readingWe’re not going to write about Jason Roy
< 1 minute readJust read last week’s Wisden piece again with this innings in mind. Jason Roy played five first-class matches last season.
Continue readingEngland’s worst-ever run of Test debutants?
< 1 minute read“Not so much a lack of good players, as a lack of opportunity for many good players to gain the experience needed to become very good.” Slippery and awkward as it is, we can see this becoming a new catchphrase of ours. It’s about recent efforts to select viable England
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