CategoryEng v NZ 2021

Selection Not To Blame

Many of England’s critics, including the editor of this platform, have blamed everyone from Chris Silverwood to the ECB itself for our Test team’s failings in recent times. But are we being too harsh? After all, it’s extremely hard to beat India away from home. It always has been. And surely there’s no shame in losing to New Zealand, who are a very fine side, with key players like Stokes missing? Today new writer Robert Meakings states the case for the defence …...

An indictment of the ECB

Remember the term ‘fortress Edgbaston’? Well, the best way to undermine a stronghold is to chip away at its foundations until the whole thing collapses. Billy Crawford gets to the root of the problem … Cast your mind back 16 years to September 13th, 2005. Thousands upon thousands of people lined Oxford Street and crammed into Trafalgar Square to greet the England cricket team. Such was the clamour for the national summer game that 20,000 people had been turned away from Old...

Cowards

What a disappointing end to what could’ve been a terrific Test match. New Zealand’s declaration was typically sporting and yet England showed absolutely no interest in going for the runs and entertaining the public. It left David Lloyd lamenting “one of the worst Test matches I’ve ever seen” whilst somewhat predictably bigging up The Hundred. It was therefore a dark day for those who love Test cricket. Why were England so negative? It’s partly because very...

No Stokes. No Balance.

Just some quick thoughts about England’s Test squad for the New Zealand series. What did you make of the squad? At first glance I was pretty happy. Every single one of the players selected deserves their place. But when I started thinking about the makeup of the final XI, the concerns crept in. The problem, of course, is how on earth England are going to field a balanced XI from the 15 names selected by the Ed Smithless braintrust. It’s not really their fault, as it’s...

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