It makes no sense that James Pattinson can hit the England captain’s stumps but not take his wicket simply because the bails remain onIt’s the end of the 21st over of England’s first innings at Edgbaston. The Australian quick James Pattinson is finishing his seventh. He’s been rapid, moved the ball through the air, threatened constantly. He bowls the England captain, Joe Root, a combination of all three. Angle in towards the stumps, a hint of swing. Straightening off the seam to beat Root’s shot as he steps across to try to cover the line. A wooden sound, and the umpire gives him out caught behind.Root’s review reveals a spike on the waveform sound-tracking graph. But not when the ball...
The Australian batsman was booed on his way to the crease, but 144 runs later left to applause from all around the groundThey came for one kind of story. What they got was another entirely. Under gloomy Birmingham skies Steve Smith produced an innings of rare and compelling brilliance, ending on 144 out of 284 and transforming through a combination of craft and will the direction of this first Ashes Test.It came, of course, in the most extraordinary circumstances. We booed him out – and we booed him back in again. And then in again. And then out. And then again at 4.44pm as Smith sprinted off the field, only to come haring back on again as the covers were...
Australian fast bowlers against English batsmen has been the defining contest in this most famous of sporting encountersThere are the usual signs that it is getting closer. The Ashes white noise starts to fade. The Ashes hum starts to die back, wider current of Ashes anxiety to fall away. And suddenly Test cricket begins to pare itself back to the basic, atomic level business of Australian bowlers against English batsmen, Baggy Green in the field against starchy whites at the wicket. Look back and cricket’s oldest two‑hander has so often pegged itself out this way. Hence, perhaps, the strikingly emotive response to Joe Root’s announcement that he will move up one space to bat No 3 for England in Thursday’s...
I know I’ve struggled with the bat – the criticism hurts – but I’m going to play with freedom in this Ashes and should be judged on my bowlingThe Ashes are the pinnacle of Test cricket for any England player, and if we can follow up our World Cup victory by winning back the urn from Australia it would represent one of the greatest summers for the sport in this country.It would be quite an English thing to say we need to come down from the extreme high of that day at Lord’s, however. Everyone in the squad would do anything to experience it all again but what we can do is harness the feelings and confidence it gave us,...
From shirt numbers to the Test Championship, via concussion substitutes, bantermime booing and much more1) At Edgbaston on Thursday, Test cricket will be dragged kicking and screaming into the early 1990s. For the first time, players with have their name and number on the back of their shirts: as in white-ball cricket, Joe Root will wear No 66, proving that the responsibility of captaincy need not get in the way of a popular pun.2) After years of vetoes and false starts, the all-singing, all-dancing, all-context-providing Test Championship will begin this week. Teams collect points over a two-year cycle, with the top two playing in the final in June 2021. There are 120 points available in each series, so winning a...