England need only to look to the example of Steve Smith to see how relinquishing the captaincy can restore batting formThe serious postmortems are on hold since there is barely time to breathe between Test matches. The outsiders have not been playing any red‑ball cricket recently; even so it was a mild surprise that the selectors plucked out the same 13 names for the Test at the Oval, though it is unlikely that the same 11 will take to the field, especially if Ben Stokes is still suffering from a sore shoulder.There will be talk of a headlong pursuit of World Test Championship points. But even without this fresh incentive there will be much to engage us. An Ashes Test...
The gnarled, pocket tug-ship Australian gave Archer some chat but was dismissed by the fired-up fast bowlerMatthew Wade enjoys a chat. As talk-show formats go this one probably wouldn’t make it past the proposal stage, even in the city of Partridge, Granada TV and feisty men of all ages with a liking for the sound of their own badinage.Not that this is likely to discourage Wade, who on the fourth day of this fourth Ashes Test helped dish up the most abrasive moment to date of a series that has up to now been peppy without slipping over the line into boorishness. Related: David Warner hammered to new low thanks to Broad mind games | Ali Martin Related: Trevor Bayliss...
Supporting top batsmen such as Steve Smith and stitching together faltering innings makes captain a valuable Ashes assetWhen your Ashes tour around England extends from days into months, you start to read the local consensus. Pub talk, pundit talk and player talk overlap, sometimes divergent and sometimes repeated. When this year’s subject has been Steve Smith there has been a general despondency; for Australia’s fast bowlers a general disquiet; for the wicketkeeping captain, Tim Paine, more often a general disdain.Perhaps this was given an early boost when a Birmingham reporter asked Paine whether Edgbaston was the most intimidating venue in cricket. Paine’s brush-off was received as an insult, as though a cherished source of national pride was to believe that...
Two and a half hours of spills, thrills and bellyaches put Australia out of sight and the home side may already be thinking about how to survive and force a decider at the OvalFor a while in mid-afternoon as the score ticked along, the white shapes moved listlessly about the Old Trafford turf and the men in green helmets punched gloves at some fresh milestone, something odd seemed to happen.Squint a little and the picture began to dissolve. Baggy-jeaned ghosts shuffled at the edge of the stands. Jangly guitar music seemed to float across the Manchester skyline. And for two and a half hours between lunch and tea on the second day of this fourth Test England went back to...
Australian opener was dismissed for the fifth time in the series by the England paceman who very much seems to have the left-hander’s numberSome Test series are defined by a single match-up. With the 2005 Ashes being used to fill every gap in the broadcast schedule during this year’s edition, there have been plenty of chances to see the full suite of performances but the duel that decided the result surely has to be Andrew Flintoff taking down Adam Gilchrist.However powerful Australia’s batting from the late 1990s through the first decade of the 2000s, there were plenty of times when the team was saved by Gilchrist. Until his arrival Australian wicketkeepers had averages in the 20s and chipped in with...