Veteran seamer silences those who openly doubted his continuing desire for Test cricket with a match-turning burstStuart Broad did not want to be batting on Friday morning. But the previous evening England had collapsed, again, five wickets for eight runs this time, and dumped him right back into the thick of it. So here he was. England were 116 for seven, still 16 runs behind, and Trent Boult was bowling. Broad walloped his first ball for four, then turned the next away for a single.Ben Foakes played out the rest of the over so Broad was facing Tim Southee now. He hit another four, down the ground, then he took a swing at the next delivery and missed it altogether....
Bowling attack of two old masters and one new star undo New Zealand before hosts’ batsmen come unstuck themselvesA reverend, a rabbi and a Buddhist nun walked into Lord’s. No joke. They were all taking part in a multi‑faith celebration of cricket organised during the lunch interval by the England and Wales Cricket Board’s outgoing CEO, Tom Harrison. It was billed as a demonstration of English cricket’s ability to bring people together. Out on the field, England’s bowlers were doing a pretty good job of that too.The stands were full, the sun was out, and the grass underneath it brilliant green. Jimmy Anderson was on from one end, Stuart Broad the other, the slips were catching bullets and New Zealand...
Two England greats may have been exiled, but how can people care when their careers have taken place behind paywalls?The Ashes aftershocks have rumbled on over the past week, and on Tuesday peaked with the news that neither Jimmy Anderson nor Stuart Broad will feature when the so-called “red-ball reset” begins in the Caribbean next month.Both are known to be hurt to miss out and a touch miffed at being told in a couple of short, sharp phone calls rather than in person. Broad was literally raging against the machine in his final outing – picking a fight with a robot camera that kept moving on the boundary’s edge in Hobart and his latest newspaper column continues the theme. Continue...
Two of England’s finest fast bowlers are casualties of a red-ball reset that straddles the line between bravery and stupidityIt’s the beginning of the end, then, for the two finest fast bowlers England have ever had, the decision to drop them as sudden and unexpected as a bullet in the back. Like they say in the Sopranos: “Our line of work, it’s always out there, you probably don’t even hear it when it happens.”Jimmy Anderson knows it. He wrote as much in his column just a couple of weeks ago: “Everyone’s future is in doubt, it always happens when you get beaten in Ashes.” But it’s one thing to say it, another to really believe it’s true and might be...
Andrew Strauss reset England’s white-ball team successfully; now he should dismiss Chris Silverwood and find a new Test leaderSeven weeks ago, at the start of the Ashes, Joe Root made a strikingly clear statement. “Of course it will define my captaincy,” he said. “I’m not naive enough to think that it won’t.”He was right and there’s no wriggling out of it now. To lose one Ashes series 4-0 may be regarded as a misfortune, as long as the captain is inexperienced. To lose two that heavily, when you have been in charge for more Tests than any other England captain, looks like a reason to resign. Continue reading...