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,...
Kohli built a side that could win in Australia and England, with an emphasis on fast bowling that had never been seen before Virat Kohli has left the building. India’s most vocal captain, on and off the field, signed off from his Test leadership position via social media. A day earlier Kohli had addressed the media after India’s loss to South Africa in the Cape Town Test that gave the home team the series 2-1 but did not hint at stepping down. There was no intimation from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, not so much as a tweet or a media release. When he thought the time was right, Kohli called it.In his time as Test captain...
The league restarts in the UAE on Sunday and has shown its power by bending the global schedule to accommodate itWho could forget the Indian Premier League 2021 part one? All aboard the franchise flagship, fingers pushed firmly in ears, as a deadly Covid surge ran through India.While the players were trapped in bio-bubbles – Covid-tested every two days, surrounded by healthcare professionals, three ambulances outside every ground – the general public wept outside hospitals, pleading for beds for their desperately ill relatives, and repeated, heartbreaking calls went out on social media for oxygen cylinders. Continue reading...