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
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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
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2 minute readThere you are, point proven. How could you ever have doubted him? Zak Crawley is averaging 124 across his last one innings in Test cricket. We think the way it works is that Zak Crawley’s hundred is only worth something if it can first be hung off something else. Basically,
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3 minute readWe appear to be back to what we call the Gaylian definition of ‘momentum’ where there’s a hard reset every Test match and recent history is more or less bunk. (Unless you’re Zak Crawley, of course, in which case momentum is very real and you’re almost certainly going to get
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7 minute readPlayers and commentators talk a lot about playing each ball on its merits, but actually it’s not always that good an idea. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley gave an illustration why in the 2023 Ashes. It’s a mad but completely true fact that England haven’t had a settled opening partnership
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4 minute readIt was only one innings, but two Zak Crawleys batted at Old Trafford last week. The first was what we call in these parts “a jousey bastard” who cemented his reputation as the most gifted inside-edger in world cricket. The second was an almighty destroyer of worlds who flickered into
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7 minute readThe 2023 Ashes is almost here! And you’re not ready! You think you are, but you aren’t. You don’t know what to watch out for. But don’t worry, we’ve done the hard work for you and come up with this list. You need to watch out for these things… 1.
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2 minute readWe put it to you that if Zak Crawley wants to make it as a Test batter, he should restrict himself to using only the inside edge of his bat. Because honestly, he’s absolutely nailed this underappreciated method of run-scoring. Three times in two overs, Zak Crawley inside-edged a four
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4 minute readZak Crawley is not a popular man in some quarters. If you want a measure of this, you could do worse than count how many times his name cropped up in this week’s discussion about wicketkeepers. “And yet Zak Crawley still gets picked,” was a common reaction to the news
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3 minute readStarts are important. Starts set everyone’s mood and so shape everything that’s to come. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Abattoir Blues album starts with two bars that sound like the climax of an encore. Nick then forcefully instructs us to, ‘get ready for love,’ and by 12 seconds, there’s
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