King Cricket

February 5, 2024 England / India

What does Mukesh Kumar tell us about time travel team selection?

3 minute readIf you were to fire up your flux capacitor and hop into your DeLorean, would you go back and pick a different England or India team for the recently-completed second Test? More quick bowlers perhaps? Yes? No? Maybe? We’re assuming that given access to time travel, the first thing you’d

February 3, 2024 England / India

Was Jasprit Bumrah’s yorker to Ollie Pope the best since Waqar Younis?

3 minute readWe’re not saying that the delivery with which Jasprit Bumrah bowled Ollie Pope was the best post-Waqar yorker. All we’re saying is that a decent case can be made and that’ll do for today. First things first, the greatest yorker of all time was bowled by Waqar Younis at some

January 31, 2024 England / India

Vizag Test pitch preview with Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez

3 minute readAfter rather improbably sweeping and spinning a win in Hyderabad, England head to Visakhapatnam hoping to do something similar in the second Test. But can we expect similar conditions? All of the world’s great grounds have big, bold, powerful names that hit you hard and fast: Lord’s, Newlands, Eden Gardens,

January 29, 2024 England / India

Tom Hartley: first look in Test cricket

3 minute readWe don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from players’ debuts – but we report on them anyway. If there was a key moment for Tom Hartley on his debut, it was when Ben Stokes didn’t whip him out of the attack to ‘protect’ him after an over or two in

January 28, 2024 Australia / West Indies

Shamar Joseph’s match-winning wicket: an almost perfect cricket moment

5 minute readThe West Indies beat Australia and the final wicket, when Shamar Joseph bowled Josh Hazlewood, was near as damn it perfect. Perfect dismissal, perfect celebration, perfect story, perfect subtext. The ointment wasn’t entirely free of insect life, but you’ve got to expect a couple of flies when you’re Down Under,

January 24, 2024 England / India

“I hear you’re an opening bowler now, Jack. How did you get interested in that type of thing?”

2 minute readDoing your cricket things slightly earlier in the match is all the rage this month. Steve Smith’s become an opening batter. Jack Leach (or Rehan Ahmed or Tom Hartley or Joe Root) has become an opening bowler. England have picked just one quick bowler, Mark Wood, for the first Test

January 22, 2024 England / India

Forget Virat Kohli and Harry Brook’s absences for personal reasons – the truly sensational news at the start of this India tour is about Ben Stokes

3 minute readSome pretty big news has broken since England (finally) touched down in India for their five-Test series. It’s not Virat Kohli missing the first two games for personal reasons. It’s not Harry Brook missing (probably, maybe) the whole series, also for personal reasons. It’s to do with Ben Stokes. We

January 18, 2024 Extras

What is The Wonky Bail Award?

< 1 minute readSimple question. Regular King Cricket contributor, Sam, spotted this in a pub in Ilsington, Devon. He does not know what it is. We do not know what it is. Is The Wonky Bail purely the name of the award? Do you receive The Wonky Bail for exceptional achievement in some

January 17, 2024 Australia

“I hear you’re an opening batter now, Steven. How did you get interested in that type of thing?”

6 minute readShould we all be opening batters now? What’s the official line? Some changes of position are just too noteworthy to serve as suitable subject matter for small talk. An example from another sitcom: in Friends, when multimillionaire software genius Pete Becker outlines to Monica his plan to change direction. “Well

January 15, 2024 England / India

Hyderabad Test pitch preview with Mulder

4 minute readA Test tour of India feels like a bit of a free hit these days. England are supposed to lose… heavily. Captain and coach talk a good game and their ambitions and belief are genuine, but if the tourists emerge with anything less than a 5-0 defeat, those oh-so-familiar clichéd