Matt Renshaw’s recall for the second Test in Mackay makes him the seventh player tried alongside Usman Khawaja at the top of the order in just over two years. Jake Weatherald, discarded after a single Test, is only the latest name discarded in a search that keeps coming up empty. Renshaw’s return proves the selectors […]
Matt Renshaw’s recall for the second Test in Mackay makes him the seventh player tried alongside Usman Khawaja at the top of the order in just over two years. Jake Weatherald, discarded after a single Test, is only the latest name discarded in a search that keeps coming up empty. Renshaw’s return proves the selectors […]
A nine-wicket demolition in Darwin was already one of the great upsets in Test cricket history, but history alone will not be enough this time around. In three bilateral series against this opponent since 2003, the tourists have never once turned a Test win into a series victory, including the last time they managed it […]
Ollie Pope has lost England’s number three spot more often than any specialist batter in the Bazball era, and now a third player in as many years is stepping in. Jacob Bethell filled in twice, scoring a maiden century in Sydney during his second stint, before injury ruled him out of the Pakistan series. Jordan […]
Jadeja reached the landmark in Galle, becoming just the fourth cricketer in history and the second Indian after Kapil Dev to pair 4000 Test runs with 350 Test wickets. He got there in his 90th Test, faster than Kapil, Botham or Vettori managed the same double. The milestone arrived mid-spell against Sri Lanka, with three […]
Pakistan have generally had the talent to compete with England on English soil, but a single passage of play keeps costing them the series. It happened at Old Trafford in 2020, at Edgbaston in 2010, and in smaller ways throughout the 2016 and 2018 tours. Thirty years on from their last series win, in 1996, […]
Because every single franchise managed to find a non-gambling partner before it ever needed the fallback option at all. The Hundred’s board had actually voted in May to allow betting companies as a strict, closely conditioned last resort, but a late scramble for front-of-shirt deals meant all eight teams signed non-gambling sponsors before the tournament’s […]
If the players walk away, the model doesn’t work. Cricket Australia’s self-determination framework only functions because every state assumed the Australian Cricketers’ Association would eventually sign off on a revised pay deal, and that assumption broke on the eve of the crucial June meeting. Six states agreed in principle to decide their own privatisation timelines, […]
By splitting the job cleanly between two bowlers who never really needed to overlap at all. Hasan Mahmud’s disciplined seam did the early damage in Australia’s first innings, and Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s off-spin finished the job entirely in the second, and that clean division let Bangladesh bowl out the world’s top-ranked Test team twice inside […]
Sri Lanka finished Day 1 at Galle with one wicket because they could not convert pressure into dismissals, not because they lacked chances. Debutant Keshara Nuwantha beat the bat 18 times in 21 overs, more than any other bowler in the match, yet finished wicketless. A bat-pad chance off Rahul fell just wide of short […]
Padikkal’s unbeaten 131 at Galle ended a stretch built on indecision, not a lack of talent. India shuffled seven batters through the No. 3 slot across 19 Tests since Pujara’s exit in June 2023, and none reached three figures until now. Padikkal was only a late replacement for the injured Sai Sudharsan, yet he batted […]
Dot-ball percentage exposes the gap because it measures pressure in two different ways: pacers earn dot balls through physical threat; spinners earn them through sustained denial. A 60% dot-ball rate from a seamer and a 60% rate from a spinner describe entirely different problems for a batter. Economy rates for the format’s best bowlers now […]