The ICC test team of the year has just been announced. It’s a decent team on the whole. But there’s one glaring omission: Jimmy Anderson has been left out. This leaves me scratching my not inconsiderable bald bonce. Let’s look at the team. It’s led by Alastair Cook and also includes Joe Root and Stuart Broad. They’re joined by David Warner (boo!), Kane Williamson, Younis Khan, Steve Smith, Sarfraz Ahmed, Trent Boult, Yasir Shah and Josh Hazlewood. Ravi Rashwin was named 12th man. As far as I’m...
What England should learn from New Zealand (but probably won’t)
The dust has settled. The celebrations are over. Magical as our miracle escape against New Zealand was, a few home truths must be digested. We can still be confident about the Ashes – Australia’s humiliation against India leaves their team spirit and confidence in tatters – but things aren’t looking as good as they were two months ago. If you look on the bright side, this could be the wake-up call we needed. New Zealand exposed some serious flaws – and fortunately, they’re relatively easy to...
