King Cricket

September 10, 2018 England

Let’s strap on Alastair Cook’s pads for a minute so that we can appreciate his streamlined thinking

2 minute readAfter precisely one Test match, we’d seen all the shots (and non-shots) we were ever going to see from Alastair Cook. You know them all, but let’s list them anyway. Maybe in 20 years time you’ll revisit this article having forgotten one of them. The leave The forward defensive The

September 9, 2018 India

Ravindra Jadeja is pretty annoying which almost certainly means he’s good at cricket

2 minute readThere are two main reasons why cricketers are annoying. (1) They play for your team and they aren’t very good. (2) They play for the opposition and they are very good. The first is self-evident. The second is rather more nuanced and deserves a little bit of elaboration. So let’s

September 5, 2018 Match report

A near-streak match report from Lord’s from when England played India

2 minute readEdwardian writes: I had stayed in London the night before, so got to Lord’s early. I was frisked by a security chap who was pouring with sweat. “Blimey, mate,” I said. “You’ve been on it.” He replied: “It’s the menopause” – a line I suspect he was using liberally. After

September 4, 2018 Uncategorized

England have been freed from Alastair Cook’s mindless batting but sadly also from Alastair Cook

2 minute readAlastair Cook has looked jaded. The modern way is to throw things away when they’re past their best. They left it too late, but we’d have had a go at recycling. A routine can be a great way to continue doing things well. Once things start to deteriorate, it can

September 3, 2018 England / India

Could India actually be better tourists?

< 1 minute readDepends on your perspective really. They’re a competitive and exciting side who could quite easily be 3-1 up. Their batsmen are better than England’s, their four main bowlers have been brilliant – but they’ve lost the series. From our perspective this is pretty much tourist perfection. We absolutely do not

August 31, 2018 England

Has anyone ever looked more serious than Sam Curran?

< 1 minute readThis was Sam Curran’s face midway through yesterday’s innings at the Rose Bowl. Has anyone in the history of the world ever looked more serious than this? We’re aware that sometimes people’s facial expressions don’t accurately reflect their state of mind, but this is no fleeting thing. This is what

August 30, 2018 England / India

How to leave an in-swinger by Keaton Jennings

< 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

August 29, 2018 England

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

August 24, 2018 England / India

At 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

August 22, 2018 England

Do 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