King Cricket

January 18, 2022 Australia / England

It’s worth reminding yourself that Mitchell Starc really does have an awful lot going for him

2 minute readEngland’s batting average in this series was the lowest in an Ashes series since 1890. Mitchell Starc opened the bowling against them in all five Tests, yet it doesn’t feel like he’ll get his fair share of the credit. We often think this about Starc. Is that fair? A certain

January 17, 2022 Australia / England

Here are the only four cricket things we can immediately think of that are worse than England’s 2021/22 Ashes campaign

2 minute readWell that was bad, wasn’t it? Unless you’re Australian, in which case that was great, wasn’t it? For a bit. And then maybe not so much. Maybe just a bit hollow by the end. But still slightly great because, you know, residual sense of the Ashes’ importance still. Just about.

January 14, 2022 Australia / England

Chris Woakes with the old ball, Mark Wood for his third Test in three weeks – dissecting England’s latest omission of a spinner for a day/night Test match

3 minute readThere is no right answer when it comes to England’s Test team selection right now. But there are different types of odd decision. The omission of a spinner for a day/night Test is the most predictable one. England picked five right-arm fast-medium bowlers and no spinner for the day/night Test

January 13, 2022 India / South Africa

Marco Jansen can both bat and bowl but looks like he can do neither

3 minute readSouth Africa v India has been an excellent series that has thrown up some really significant talking points. King Cricket being King Cricket we’d instead like to focus on one of the insignificant ones: Marco Jansen and how awkward he looks. If you’ve not been paying attention, Jansen is South

January 10, 2022 County cricket / England / Features

Fast bowling: County cricket’s diesels and the unprepared Test batters they create

3 minute readIn the wake of England’s Ashes failings, there’s been a lot of talk about how the County Championship is played on pitches that encourage medium-pacers. Pitches are not the big problem. There was a good recent piece about county pitches by CricBuzz’s Rob Johnston. The overly-reduced version of that article

January 9, 2022 Australia / England / Extras

In praise of the tense final hour of a drawn Test match

2 minute readWe’ve said it many times before. Test cricket can offer something that no other sport can. You can’t have a tense hour in a football match because it’s two thirds of the game. In a Test match, 60 minutes can be a tight finish. In a five-day match, everyone’s got

January 7, 2022 Australia / England

It’s been so long since Jonny Bairstow made a Test hundred he almost forgot to roar

2 minute readOne of our favourite things about Jonny Bairstow Test hundreds – second only to their existence really – is how he celebrates them. Jonny Bairstow is a pretty fiery hundred-celebrator. Before today, the last time Bairstow made a Test ton was in November 2018 in Sri Lanka. On that occasion

January 5, 2022 Features / New Zealand

Kane Williamson: Lord Megachief of Gold 2020/2021

3 minute readOur annual Lord Megachief of Gold award is the highest honour in cricket. The title is recognition of performance over the previous calendar year. Here are all the winners. Two things to note before we get into this. (1) We’re looking at a two-year timespan here after Lord Megachief Postponed

January 4, 2022 Australia / County cricket / England / Features / India / New Zealand / West Indies

17 of the best, worst and weirdest cricket moments of 2021

7 minute readHere is a bunch of stuff that happened in 2021. It is not an exhaustive list, because an exhaustive list chronicling the activities of multiple people across an entire year would take far longer than a year to read. It is just a selection of striking cricket moments from the

December 28, 2021 Australia / England

More cricket: A story of mediocre batters pushed too hard and the collective burnout of a not-great England side

5 minute readIf you’re really going to turn the heat up and cook a sauce for quite some time, you need plenty of good stuff in the pan to begin with. If you haven’t, you’ll end up with a bitter-tasting charred sticky goo that’s no good to anyone. England are different gravy.