King Cricket

December 13, 2016 South Africa

Vehement letter-C denier AB de Villiers also renounces (c)

< 1 minute readAB de Villiers has stood down as South Africa Test captain. Faf du Plessis has filled the void, much as he has been doing for quite a while now. This decision makes sense to us for two reasons. Firstly, de Villiers hardly ever plays cricket for South Africa at the

Cook and Kohli – captains with and without influence

2 minute readOh for a captain who knows what it’s like to win a Test series in India. England have had just one such leader since David Gower triumphed way back in 1984-85. It was, er, Alastair Cook. This probably goes to show that ‘knowing how to win in India’ is just

December 11, 2016 England / India

Virat Kohli was a massive disappointment today

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

December 10, 2016 England / India

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

December 9, 2016 England / India

England 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

December 8, 2016 England / India

Keaton 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

December 7, 2016 England

Why 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

December 6, 2016 England

Trevor 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.

December 2, 2016 England / India

Why 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

November 30, 2016 England / India

Do 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.