The multi-talented player has a lot to offer his country - but recent form with the bat shows he is not cut out for Test cricketA rand for Jos Buttler’s thoughts as Mark Wood and Stuart Broad were clouting South Africa’s bowlers around Johannesburg? The invigorating final-wicket stand of 82 contained the kind of pyrotechnics we have become accustomed to from Buttler in white-ball cricket. Cross formats, though, and England’s Test wicketkeeper looks as sorry as a soggy Catherine wheel.It wasn’t always this way; Buttler was deemed a triumph of a selection after he received an unexpected Test recall in May 2018. That pick, a ballsy initial calculation by national selector Ed Smith in his first summer in the job,...
The Johannesburg wicket is expected to be quick and Joe Root’s side think they can exploit itOthers may have grabbed most attention on the first three days here, notably Ollie Pope and Dom Bess, but the performance of Mark Wood in his first Test for 11 months has given England cause for real excitement for next week’s series finale in Johannesburg. Related: Dom Bess takes five wickets but rain, drops and South Africa stall England Continue reading...
The Surrey batsman is the youngest Englishman to score a Test century since Alastair Cook and the quality of his batting conjured memories of Joe Root at the start of his careerThere are some young players who you only need to see a handful of times before coming to the conclusion they have a long and distinguished international career ahead of them. Ollie Pope, after his performance during this third Test against South Africa, can undoubtedly be classed among that rare group.It was not just that Pope, at 22 years and 15 days, became the youngest Englishman to score a Test century since Alastair Cook back in 2006 at Nagpur. It was everything about his innings, from the composure shown...
Going back to Grace, via Hutton, Boycott and Cook, England have a long history of stoical openers. Dom Sibley’s 133 over 495 minutes in Cape Town suggests an interregnum is overAnxiety, collapses, swing bowlers, off-spinners, tea, and opening batsmen, especially opening batsmen. They’ve been part of the character of English cricket since the beginning – staunch, and stoical, as anyone who faces up to the new ball on a green pitch needs to be. Grace and Stoddart, Hobbs and Sutcliffe, Hutton and Washbrook. There was an interregnum then. Until, on 4 June 1964, Geoff Boycott came along. He made his debut in the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge (c Bob Simpson b Grahame Corling, 48), with Hutton’s blessing. “Very...
The tone of the game flows backwards from the possibility of five days – just look at Dominic Sibley’s century in Cape TownNo. No. No. And also: no. Not even: no thanks. No, later or maybe or let’s see. This is simply a hard, flat no. And indeed an angry and reproachful no, too. When it comes to the ICC’s suggestion that four-day Test matches may be the future of international red-ball cricket there is only one sensible response. That response is an aggressive, concerted and righteous rejection.This is an informed no, too, a no that understands we live in a sporting world dominated by greed and short-termism (otherwise known as the commercial or “real” world). Change and compromise have...