Captain’s use of spinners in defeat by Bangladesh makes prospects in India bleak and England must bring in a right-hander to bolster batting, but Ben Duckett’s aggression provided light amid the gloom Related: Bangladesh claim historic Test win over England as collapse ensures tied series Related: Tamim Iqbal tucks in and gives spinners and Alastair Cook food for thought Continue reading...
The No8s are outperforming the top-order, Zafar Ansari is not a better batsman than Chris Woakes and Steven Finn continues to disappointIf there is something that characterises this England side, it is the bowling pin nature of their batting contributions: little up top, a lot lower down. The numbers show as much: this year, England’s sixth-wicket average is their highest (over 80), with the seventh, averaging over 50, their next best. Not for the first time, they were bailed out again by weighty contributions down the order, as Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid put on 99 for the ninth wicket – the highest English partnership for that wicket in Asia. Instead of a tail, England had Zafar Ansari at number...
The innings of the Bangladesh opener will have cheered India, who will surely be unfazed by the underwhelming performance of England’s spinnersWatching Tamim Iqbal tuck into England’s spinners in the morning session, it was difficult not to fear for them in India. India have not lost a home Test since losing to England in 2013, winning every match bar one – and that was a washout. In Chittagong, the ball turned from the first over but in Dhaka, the pitch offered only intermittent help so Alastair Cook needed his spinners to give him control – and they could not. Though they improved in the afternoon session, the feeling persists that Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and chums will not afford them...
While defeat in Chittagong would have been a chastening experience for Alastair Cook’s side, it would have been a historic moment in Test cricket and one that Bangladesh will surely manage soonThey say the English are the only people who feel schadenfreude about themselves, and anyone who stuck with English cricket through the 1990s will know there is some truth in that. Back then you had to try to find some small measure of pleasure in their losses, which came around with ritual regularity. There was the rollercoaster thrill of their batting collapses, the dizzy lurch of a sudden but inevitable turn for the worse, and the meditative contemplation of their long and fruitless days in the field, watching the...
Alastair Cook picked three spinners but kept his seamers busy, England still have a gap at the top of their order, and DRS has provided more drama in ChittagongA sport that exists in three international formats is a sport taking risks with its future, and the five-day game now struggles to fill grounds in several nations. But when it is good, it is still the best. In Chittagong, a match that could have been hopelessly one-sided turned out to be a gripper – tight, tense, low‑scoring, ebbing and flowing, keeping us guessing till the final hour. And this was not just proper cricket but modern cricket, with infusions of urgency; Bangladesh began their run chase as if playing T20. Which...