2 minute readThere was an awful lot of fuss after the first half of Virat Kohli’s innings. People said he was unreal, a genius – an unreal genius. Sunil Gavaskar said he was from another planet and lest anyone ask which one, he specified that it was an undiscovered planet. They said
Continue readingCategory: England
England hope to set up a euphemistically ‘awkward’ chase
2 minute readGet a room, Virat Kohli and everyone who’s watching the Test match. None of us are comfortable with this level of public affection. As we’ve said before, it’s the hero worship of Kohli that’s so objectionable, not the man himself. Still, the one leads to the other, so it’s only
Continue readingEngland were supposed to be happy – but Vijay and Pujara may be happier
2 minute readMedia coverage has led us to believe that England will be happy with 400 in their first innings. Judging by how they’ve set about their own run-scoring, India will also be happy with England’s total. Everybody’s happy. Everybody wins. At least until after the second innings when only one of
Continue readingKeaton Jennings: first look in Test cricket
< 1 minute readWe don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from debut performances – but we report on them anyway. If there’s one thing that county cricket generally doesn’t involve, it’s playing in India. You can probably think of other things it doesn’t involve, but this particular aspect seems relevant to Keaton
Continue readingWhy Keaton Jennings’ Test debut is also great news for Jason Roy
< 1 minute readKeaton Jennings will make his Test debut against India and if there’s one aspect of this news that everyone’s talking about, it’s the fact that the Durham opener has two surnames and no first name. England are not unaware of this and they will no doubt harbour concerns about the
Continue readingTrevor Bayliss on batting positivity and batting clarity
2 minute readYou should have hit it harder. Or less hard. Or not at all. Whatever you did with the delivery that resulted in your dismissal, you should have done something else. The latest comments from Trevor Bayliss give a bit of an insight into how the England’s coach sees the game.
Continue readingWhy have the England players gone to Dubai?
2 minute readEngland are taking a break. A mid-tour holiday. There’s been a bit of discussion about the fact that they feel they need one and what that might say about international schedules, but there’s been precious little comment about why the holy hell they saw fit to go to Dubai. We’d
Continue readingDo England play too many all-rounders?
2 minute readThe answer is no. But let’s explore the question anyway. England have just added Liam Dawson to their squad. He joins Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid in one of the most all-rounderly squads England have ever assembled. He also replaces Zafar Ansari, another spin bowling all-rounder.
Continue readingEngland get a grip, but India keep a grip
< 1 minute readYet again, it’s one of those win the toss, win the match, if you’re India pitches. The sheer predictability of proceedings only being disrupted when the coin ended the other way up. There’s an illusion of inevitability when India bat first, but the play is coerced down a certain path
Continue readingToday’s Ben Stokes-induced happenings
< 1 minute readAt one point in the afternoon session, Ben Stokes accidentally spat on his own shirt. You’d think this would be a low point, but he plucked off the deposit with no obvious display of emotion. Perhaps he knew that things were about to get significantly worse. Shortly after spraying a
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