King Cricket

December 30, 2017 Extras

In praise of part-time bowlers

2 minute readWe’ve always loved part-time bowlers. Just as many of our favourite batsmen are tail-enders, so many of our favourite bowlers are occasional fill-ins, such as Gary Ballance, Alastair Cook and James Vince. Sadly for us, it always feels like England are far more part-timer-averse than the other Test-playing nations. Michael

December 27, 2017 Australia / England

Alastair Cook’s back

< 1 minute readAs in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. Technically, he hasn’t been away. It just rather feels like he has. Like stumps and grass, you take for granted that Alastair Cook will at least be present for England Tests – that’s a given – however, you also expect

December 26, 2017 Australia / England

Short of knives, England deploy yet another spoon

2 minute readEngland have heard that definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results – but they apparently believe they can counter it with another saying: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. England’s bowling strategy hasn’t exactly been tearing the home

December 21, 2017 Australia / England

Was Joe Root responsible for Adil Rashid being dumped from England’s Test squad?

< 1 minute readEveryone was weirdly fine with Adil Rashid’s omission from England’s Ashes squad, even though he was England’s only consistent wicket-taker on flat pitches last winter. Considering England have spent much of this tour looking decidedly fast-medium, it seems a fair time to revisit the decision. We took a look at

December 20, 2017 Australia / England / Extras

The Ashes on the BT Sport app – a review

2 minute readWe’re not generally enamoured with apps, as they often seem to make the absolute least of storage space and processing power to deliver much the same content that can be found on the equivalent website. However, as a result of the televisual shenanigans that have seen BT broadcasting this Ashes

December 18, 2017 Australia / England

Joe Root’s losing-the-Ashes face

2 minute readNow is not the time to analyse. Now is the time to look at Joe Root’s losing-the-Ashes face. Oh, England have lost the Ashes, by the way. Don’t know if you’ve heard. Before we look at Joe Root’s losing-the-Ashes face, it’s worth pointing out that you have to be a

December 17, 2017 Australia / England

The day James Vince didn’t edge one

< 1 minute readIt had to happen eventually. Today was the day James Vince finally managed to avoid edging one to slip. And it was so easy to avoid. All he had to do was persuade an opposition bowler to aim a 90mph delivery about a foot wide of leg stump only for

December 16, 2017 Australia / England

Where is Stuart Broad, the tall, experienced bowler who should, on paper, be getting a wicket or two Down Under?

2 minute readThe pitch is flat, say tetchy England fans. This is the short version of the recurring Test match question: the pitch is flat, so what are you going to do about it? England went with a bit of fast-medium. After that, they tried a bit more fast-medium, then a bit

December 16, 2017 Australia / England

England end up looking a bit fast-medium

< 1 minute readThings getting a bit fast-medium is pretty much our worst nightmare when it comes to watching England. We might start using the phrase in other contexts. “How was dinner?” “It was… fine…” “Fine? What does ‘fine’ mean?” “Well, you know. It was just…” “What? It was just what?” “It was

December 15, 2017 Australia / England

The four stages of Steve Smith’s recurring metamorphosis into a batsman

2 minute readSteve Smith is not a good batsman. Not always. Very rarely, in fact. As far as we can tell, he’s generally only half-decent at the moment bat strikes ball and only very rarely before or afterwards. Here are the four stages Smith passes through for every single delivery he faces.