Style or substance? Resolute defence or blistering attack? Mercurial talent or dogged resistance? It is a fun quirk of this sumptuous cricketing summer that the World Cup is running parallel to the County Championship. And while the formats are very different, players in both are vying for one identical prize: a place in England’s top order for the opening Ashes test. Here is the low down on the main contenders for England’s top three. I have considered playing style (PS), first class average...
Seven Young English Batsmen (Who Will Definitely Save Our Test Team)
You know it. I know it. I’m still not sure if they know it, but England just aren’t very good at batting. We’ve picked young English batsmen based on form, picked based on averages, but none of the county players who have been called up really cut the mustard. Most of us can agree on what the perfect first-class batsman looks like. Yes they need the technique to combat the best bowlers, but that alone is not enough. They also need adaptability to changing conditions, and the skill to deal with...
Wobble Wobble: County Cricket’s Greatest Trundlers XI
It is with great regret I conclude that the British public have lost our minds. We’ve spent the summer basking in a heatwave: sun-worshipping and blaspheming. These rising temperatures are no cause for celebration. For as the summers get hotter and hotter, our cricket pitches get drier and drier. And with such changes come consequences. I am talking, of course, of the existential threat that climate change poses to the dibbly dobbler bowler. This noble breed of cricketer is tailor-made for...
Ashes to Ashes, Stump to Stump
It’s time for a change of pace. So here’s Peter Jackson Eastwood, operating right arm over the top from the literary end. Eat your heart out, Dylan Thomas … Now as a Test Cricket purest, I don’t care much for the Big Bash, And as England prepare for the greatest of series, I fear they could be burned to Ash. And yet I still cling to that morsel of hope, For we Englishman never despair, I light a candle for a Bell cover drive, And pray to Ryan Sidebottom’s hair. ...
Championship Roundup: Winners, Losers, Irritants
This time of year is, frankly, a very confusing time for the modern cricket fan. As the IPL gets into full swing – with million-pound man Stokes swinging like a 1920’s speakeasy and Tymal Millions steaming in like a locomotive – it’s easy to conclude that this is cricket’s new soul. And yet, in (normally) damp old England, pockets of dangerously obsessed, statistic-adoring sporting misfits rub their hands together, optimistically pop open the suncream, and blow the dust from...
Four Day Tests And Tom Harrison’s Surreal Reality
As his aggressively loud alarm rang incessantly, Tom Harrison slowly opened his eyes. ‘God,’ he thought, as he woke, ‘that alarm is boring, I must invest in a more exciting one.’ He pulled himself out of bed, admonishing the dreariness of his fuchsia pink dressing gown as he wrapped it around himself, cursing silently at the banality of his neon yellow slippers. Down his unexciting staircase he walked, into his uninteresting kitchen. He tried to enjoy a bowl of cereal for his breakfast, but how...
