England have been playing positive cricket for four weeks, but the slick visitors have perfected it over the past four yearsAt one point during an interminable and broken afternoon at Edgbaston, the camera zoomed in on the array of listless faces on the England balcony. Perhaps this, rather than the swishing blade of Rishabh Pant or Jasprit Bumrah, was the first big test of England’s vivid new approach to Test cricket. Whether with the bat or in the field, this is a team that feeds on momentum, the buzz of a live audience, that lives for the vibe and the thrill, that wants to do everything in a hurry. So what happens when the heavens open with India leading the...
The veteran England bowler and India’s tailender will be forever linked after the most expensive over in 145 years of Test cricketIndia are nine down, the last pair are in, and Stuart Broad knows exactly what he wants to do. Bounce them. Jasprit Bumrah is in and Bumrah can’t bat, not really. You can count his career average on your fingers. He’s only made one fifty in 12 years of cricket, and after four years in the Test side he has a top score of 34. That was at Lord’s last summer, in the second Test of this same stretched-out series. England tried to bump him in that innings, too, in revenge for the way he had bowled at Jimmy...
England fast bowler took some punishment against India but has the determination and confidence to keep on improvingThe cricket ebbed with the weather at Edgbaston. England’s advantage went with the clouds that blew away in the afternoon and India’s batsmen thrived under a bright blue sky later in the day. It made a long, hard day of it for the bowlers, who found the ground shifted so quickly beneath them that they lost the footing they had secured in the morning.When Matt Potts started bowling his spell to Rishabh Pant, he had taken two for 39; when he finished it, he had two for 72. A four through cover, two through point, two more to long leg, another through mid-wicket,...
The opener has finally made his first overseas Test century and his captain will be looking for him to help India dominate again at Old TraffordThe one word Rohit Sharma hated more than any other through the initial part of his international career was talent.As heir apparent to the batting greats of the generation before him, the next big thing from the storied Mumbai school of batsmanship, great things were expected of him. And expected of him instantly. When his natural ability did not translate into a mountain of runs, he would be taunted as talent, but no performance, on social media. The doubters used his strength to target him. Continue reading...
Old Trafford was the scene of three Test wins for the home side last summer and Joe Root’s side need another this week if they are to avoid a series defeatOld Trafford was deemed to be the less comfortable of the two biosecure venues by England’s men last summer, with its city location and smaller perimeter a distant second to the leafy golf resort that is the Ageas Bowl. Some even called it an “open prison”.But cricket-wise the old ground was also the scene of the three Test wins they managed to secure during that weird season – two against West Indies, one against Pakistan – and thus a source of encouragement as Joe Root’s now weary-looking side hope to...