King Cricket

August 1, 2025 England / India

Chris Woakes shouldered his workload better than he shouldered the soggy Oval turf

4 minute readWe lost a few things to the London weather yesterday: most obviously 20-odd overs, which is no big deal because they can make up the time on days two, three, four and five; far more significantly, Chris Woakes fell victim to the wet, soft, slippy outfield. Woakes had already expressed

July 30, 2025 England / India

Ben Stokes and Jasprit Bumrah lead two strong bowling attacks sitting out the fifth Test

2 minute readCan Ben Stokes really carry on doing all of the things? No, apparently not. Is Jasprit Bumrah at risk of injury if he plays again? Yes, apparently he is. Is anyone on either side fit enough to bowl in the fifth Test? Um. Maybe. Sort of. Although the way it’s

July 28, 2025 England / India

Can Ben Stokes really carry on doing all of the things? And what’s Shubman Gill’s lifespan as a captain?

4 minute read“Pain is just an emotion,” Ben Stokes told his men at Old Trafford – a nonsense claim just a few small steps below Dalton’s standard-setting “pain don’t hurt” in Road House. For those that don’t know, Dalton is a world famous bouncer in a world where bouncers can be world

July 21, 2025 Match report

Real ale and Schrodinger’s membership | a Lancashire v Derbyshire match report

4 minute readSend your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) A P Webster writes… Am I a Lancashire member? Well,

July 18, 2025 Match report

Burgers, noise and handshakes | another World Test Championship final match report

2 minute readSend your match reports to king@kingcricket.co.uk. We’re only really interested in your own experience, so if it’s a professional match, on no account mention the cricket itself. (But if it’s an amateur match, feel free to go into excruciating detail.) Who says you can’t report on the same day’s play

July 17, 2025 England / India

Jasprit Bumrah Workload Watch… 86.4 overs

2 minute readAfter the first Test, we reported how England’s batting success in that match had compelled India to ask Jasprit Bumrah to bowl 43.4 overs – quite a significant workload for a man whose appearances are being limited to three of the five matches due to fitness concerns. Fortunately, England’s batting

July 14, 2025 England / India

The bowel-churning thrill of the runs Ravindra Jadeja chose not to score and the wickets England failed to take

4 minute readHold us here, Test cricket. Hold us here in uncertainty; at the sour spot of maybe or maybe not. Leave us here a while to grow overfamiliar with the sight of Ravindra Jadeja turning down another single because it’s still quite early in the over. We all know that a

July 14, 2025 England / India

Why is the Lord’s pitch so woefully inconsistent?

2 minute readLike many Lord’s Test pitches in recent years, the one for this England v India match started off an absolute pudding. Perhaps keen to shrug off the ground’s nickname as The Home of Absolute Puddings, it’s since deteriorated into something rather more treacherous. For the first few days, Lord’s puddingly

July 10, 2025 England / India / Uncategorized

Why is Lord’s so slippy?

2 minute readZak Crawley has been doing his best to combat his longstanding but unflattering association with the word ‘slip’. On Day 1 of the Lord’s Test, he not only ensured his edge behind went to the wicketkeeper, he also essayed a rather different kind of slip in a somewhat forlorn bid

July 9, 2025 England / India

Jofra Archer’s back

2 minute readAs in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. But is he match fit? Going into the third Test, we would argue that his greatest attribute is that he hasn’t just bowled 80 overs. You may remember Jofra Archer from Test matches such as England against Australia at Lord’s

If there’s one area where I’d give Rob Key priority over Nasser it’s probably restaurant recommendations.

Was the choice of that restaurant the right decision for your end of cricket season bash? Surely that is the…

The Sheffield Sheepish Splitter Sods.

That would be great. Which county would be best candidate? I'd say Yorkshire would be in with a shout for…

Yes. Plus you'd think "ready to play with fire" would be a better slogan for Birmingham Phoenix, or indeed Welsh…

Did you see… Harry Brook’s first ball in Melbourne? Unquestionably the 2025/26 Ashes’ finest moment

Sky Sports has boiled its Ashes coverage down to its purest and greatest form: Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain standing there talking about what’s gone wrong

The 2019 Ridiculous Ashes (podcast)

The 50 Most Ridiculous Ashes Moments is definitely out now – you should buy it for someone! (Possibly yourself)

51. Michael Vaughan Declines A Crushing