King Cricket

February 12, 2021 England / India

Squad rotation (and team turmoil) – looking ahead (and back)

2 minute readWe both utterly detest squad rotation and completely agree with it. We’d like to live in a world where it isn’t necessary. But it is. We predicted squad rotation years ago, but it’s still only really seeping into the sport even now. Most teams do little more than flirt with

Which of James Anderson’s near-identical reverse-swinging clean bowleds from the same over was the better?

5 minute read“I didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary,” said Jimmy Anderson about an over that featured one of the finest clean-bowleds you’re ever likely to see, then another one that may or may not have been better, plus an LBW shout that could legitimately have been given sandwiched in

February 8, 2021 England / India

People are getting really bloody lazy with their DRS hand signals and we’re not having it

2 minute readThis is maybe not people’s top concern at the minute, but cricketers are getting really half-arsed with their decision review system (DRS) hand signals these days. When a batsman or captain disagrees with an on-field umpire’s decision, they are now permitted to question their authoritah. To signal that they wish

February 8, 2021 Bangladesh / West Indies

Kyle Mayers and why sometimes a great entrance is enough

4 minute readIt may have passed you by, but they made a Jesus Quintana film a year or so ago. It isn’t very good. That’s a shame but it doesn’t really matter because sometimes an entrance is all you need. If you haven’t seen The Big Lebowski, the Jesus Quintana scene –

February 6, 2021 England / India

Did you see… Joe Root standing at the other end?

2 minute readWhere are we now with Joe Root hundreds? Last month we were asking at what point a Joe Root innings becomes noteworthy? Our point was that a mere hundred from Root doesn’t really feel like big news any more. It needs to be at least a ‘daddy’ hundred for people

February 5, 2021 England / India

Test Cricket on Channel 4 – a review of the free-to-air coverage of day one of India v England

2 minute readEarlier this week, Channel 4 weren’t due to broadcast the Test series between India and England. Then, suddenly, a couple of days ago, they were. This doesn’t represent a great deal of prep time. How did day one go? Let’s take look at the live coverage, the studio bits and

February 4, 2021 England / India

Six things to watch out for during the India v England Test series on Channel 4

4 minute readEngland are touring India and it’s on Channel 4. Here’s what you need to know ahead of the series (which starts on Friday). First, a quick recap of where we are right now and how things have gone in the past. India just beat Australia away from home despite suffering

February 3, 2021 England / India

Channel 4 showing the India v England Tests* and Mambo No.5 – Mop-up of the day

2 minute readWe’re very excited to discover what level of certainty we’ll hit today with regards to Channel 4 broadcasting the India v England series. At the time of writing, we’re still at “it is understood that” with no official word from the broadcaster and the unit of measurement for the countdown

February 1, 2021 Regulars

King Ghidorah being conspicuously indifferent to a pile of cricket books

< 1 minute readEmail readers: Sorry you’ll have to click through to the website to see the photo. Probably should have mentioned that about a year ago when we first realised that the ‘featured image’ doesn’t appear. Miriam writes: Here’s my cat King Ghidorah being conspicuously indifferent to a pile of cricket books.

January 29, 2021 England / India

The 2021 season is brutal. How many England players will actually make it through?

3 minute read10 Ashes Tests in a row was such a good idea and went so well that the ECB thought to themselves: “Say, why don’t we play nine Tests on the bounce against India? Let’s really focus on that. Then, while they were all patting themselves on the backs for having