India had a six-week break to explore Britain before this Test and Rishabh Pant and Ravi Jadeja kept up that vibeThere was much talk before this game about the six-week hiatus the India team enjoyed after the World Test Championship and the opportunity it afforded them to enjoy the delights of Britain. Some disappeared into the Scottish highlands, others to England’s hinterlands and the youngest of the crew threw themselves into the hipster dens of east London. Their break has clearly had a lasting impact because even on day three of the Test match the holiday spirit has not quite left them.From the moment that Rishabh Pant walked out for his flirtatious cameo in the morning, it was clear that...
A lack of big scores from Kohli, Rahane and Pujara is worrying the tourists as they prepare to begin five-Test series in EnglandThe batsman who fancies himself as the best in the business and one of the greatest of all time has not scored a century in nearly two years. It was at Eden Gardens in November 2019 when Virat Kohli last tasted reaching three figures in any form of the game, a typically immaculate 136 lighting up India’s inaugural pink-ball Test match as they crushed Bangladesh by an innings inside three days.That was then and this is now. Kohli will have five Test matches against England starting at Trent Bridge on Wednesday in which to set the record straight,...
World Test Championship can bind supporters worldwide and become a competition every cricketer dreams of winningThe pandemic robbed New Zealand’s cricketers of a much-deserved victory parade on arrival in Auckland on Saturday morning. Instead the World Test Championship mace will now spend the next 14 days in a hotel room with BJ Watling while the team undergo quarantine.With the captain, Kane Williamson, staying behind in England to play in the Hundred, Watling was a fitting choice as its custodian, the now retired wicketkeeper having truly embodied their understated, team-first culture. Zoom calls and room service are no substitute for ticker tape and fans, of course, although the afterglow from their victory over India – and the final as a whole...
The Test series defeat to India came in extreme conditions and Joe Root’s side can bounce back this summerAmid all the despair about England’s heavy defeat in the Test series in India, it is important to keep some perspective: before the tour started almost everyone I spoke to was predicting a 4-0 defeat and, though it was in the end only a little less one-sided than that, Joe Root’s side avoided a whitewash and managed to pull off one of their best away results in recent years.India’s record at home is incredible and they came into the series full of confidence after winning in Australia; England had an inexperienced batting lineup, particularly against spin, and badly needed a top-level, ready-to-go...
While India’s Virat Kohli talked up the contribution of his newer players, Joe Root admitted his charges have a way to go yetThere was a weary inevitability about the last day of the series. England 10 for one, 10 for two, 20 for three, 30 for four, the wickets dropping like tired eyelids, loss washing over them like sleep falling on an exhausted man.It leaves their winter split neatly in two: three handsome victories – two in Sri Lanka by seven wickets and then six wickets, and one in India by 227 runs – followed by three ugly defeats by, respectively, 317 runs, 10 wickets, and an innings and 25 runs. Related: England fall apart again as spinners wrap up...