King Cricket

June 5, 2018 England

How Jos Buttler has brought a bit of culture to England’s Test team

3 minute readWe’ve always said that Jos Buttler seems much, much safer at the crease – and a far more reassuring presence for England fans – when he’s just standing there spanking sixes, all bionic eyes and adamantium wrists. We wrote about this in 2015 and Buttler himself seems to have been

May 31, 2018 England

Sam Curran is almost the right choice

< 1 minute readIf Sam Curran could bat a bit better or bowl a bit better, he would definitely be a good addition to the England team. If that sounds dismissive, it’s only because it made for a better opening sentence. Scurran is close. He’s just not quite there. Strengths Left-armer Swings it

May 30, 2018 England

England’s batsmen are insecure and complacent

3 minute readEngland’s batting is bad. England are bad at batting. Bad batting is a thing that England’s batsmen generally do. Before we get into the ins and outs of the badness, let’s contextualise it with the players’ career Test averages because that way we can really get a sense of the

May 26, 2018 England

Who was your favourite ineffective opening partner for Alastair Cook?

< 1 minute readIf we were to ask, ‘who has been your favourite England Test opener since Andrew Strauss retired?’ the answer is obvious. If you say anyone other than Alastair Cook, you are either (a) a contrarian hipster (b) not an England supporter or (c) mental. That’s an easy one. A far

May 25, 2018 England / Pakistan

What the hell is up with Hasan Ali’s hand?

< 1 minute readWe honestly haven’t got much left to say about England’s batting, so let’s instead turn our attention to Hasan Ali’s hand and whatever the hell is up with it. Here’s Hasan Ali’s hand midway through delivering the (apparently) fiendishly tempting wide one that did for Joe Root. Strapping is a

May 23, 2018 South Africa

AB de Villiers finally picks a cake

< 1 minute readAB de Villiers spent rather a long time desperately trying to engineer a cake monopoly. He wanted to retain and eat The Cake of International Cricket; he wanted to retain and eat The Lucrative Cake of T20 Franchise Cricket; and he also wanted to retain and eat The Cake of

May 22, 2018 England / Pakistan

What proportion of Mohammad Amir will play the Tests against England?

3 minute readWe were a tremendously big fan of Mohammad Amir even back when he was called Mohammad Aamer. Things have not always been smooth since then. There have been blips. They say that prison changes a man. We ourself have never been incarcerated. One time we accidentally ran a red light

May 18, 2018 County cricket / England

The Hundred is not going to be a big deal, people aren’t going to talk about it and it won’t attract a new audience

2 minute readAsk a stupid question, get a stupid answer. After that, build a whole stupid thing around the stupid answer and then pin all of your hopes for the survival of your sport on how well the stupid thing fares. The ECB are going to launch this 100-ball competition and they

May 16, 2018 England

Is it right that Jos Buttler won a Test spot without playing first-class cricket?

2 minute readLet’s take a look at how Test teams are picked and whether runs in other formats are relevant. We’ll begin with a quick bit of background. A quick bit of background Doing well at one-day cricket for England used to be a common way of getting into the Test team.

May 15, 2018 Match report

What’s it been like watching Ireland’s first Test, against Pakistan at Malahide?

3 minute readChuck writes: With my Aged Parent heading towards 83 not out this summer (a superb innings), I decided it was time to introduce him to the pleasures of Test cricket by bringing him to his, and Ireland’s, and indeed my first men’s Test match, against Pakistan in Malahide. Well, day