What was that at Edgbaston? Some Pakistani resolve? Zulqarnain Haider, forgiven a king pair by technology, taunting the English bowlers by showing them his stumps before covering up like a crab, then launching them over their heads and almost smiling as he did so. Saeed Ajmal, taking body blows to score his maiden fifty and make England fret.

Did you see the way Ajmal turned to the dressing room and pumped his fists? Did you see, when Ajmal’s innings did come to an end, Haider halting his partner’s return to the pavilion to shake his hand? Pakistan were never likely to come back into the Test, but that plain show of resistance – and unity – may yet salvage this one-sided series.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sooner or later we are going to read a slew of articles pointing out that England’s selectors are heading for an ‘Ashes headache’ (hell, they’re starting to appear already). Then someone else will suggest the headache is of the ‘nice’ variety. Then a player will get injured and we’ll wonder why we had all those XI-on-the-back-of-a-bus-ticket squabbles anyway. The team for Brisbane will probably just end up picking itself.

But if the talk since Trent Bridge has been of Eoin Morgan’s fast-track to the Gabba on November 25 – with the subsequent gnashing of teeth about who will have to make way – then it reminded me of an interview with Alec Stewart in The Wisden Cricketer last year in which he summed up his time in the England team of the 1990s thus: seven or eight good players, the rest passengers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Australia’s batsmen have become boring. Did anyone see that coming? Cricket’s great entertainers have become its bar-fillers, like Rage Against the Machine getting haircuts and covering Bryan Adams.

As such, it’s up to England’s batters to provide the entertainment in the Ashes, or staying up through the night will become less and less attractive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Will 2010 be seen as the beginning of the end for James Anderson? It’s a despairing thought; he is surely as skilful a swinger of the ball as England has had. But his interminable inconsistency is rapidly stealing the title of England’s modern enigma from Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash.

It has been a strange year for Anderson. After a decent show in South Africa (16 wickets at 34.25) he missed the Bangladesh tour through injury and was a spectator to England’s World Twenty20 win after a surprising – and inspired – decision to play Ryan Sidebottom instead.

Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe it’s because his face is as bland as steamed cod and mashed potatoes but Marcus North doesn’t create much of a stir. After Shane Watson took 5 for 40 in Pakistan’s first innings at Lord’s, John Stern wrote on this blog about the ill-feeling that Watson attracts. After Marcus North took 6 for 55 in the second innings, it was striking to note that he had finally created some strong opinion.

That opinion, for most people, was that North wasn’t a good enough bowler to deserve a place on the honours board. At least that’s something though. Despite scoring two Ashes hundreds and a 96 last year, I’ve still struggled to form much of an opinion of the man. I remember feeling vaguely irked at the time but the feeling soon passed. Aussies scoring hundreds against England usually leave far deeper wounds than that.

Read the rest of this entry »

So England are 3-0 up in their one-day series against Australia, less then a year after losing 6-1 at home to the same side. Going into today’s match at The Oval the series is won. But what significance does this one-day series really have ahead of the winter’s Ashes? Our panel scrap it out below….

Read the rest of this entry »

Between now and November 25 Ricky Ponting will be almost contractually obliged to speak about England through a mealy mouth. And quite right too: for the sake of his own sanity, he must do everything in his power to avoid the thought of becoming the first Australian captain to lose three Ashes series since Billy Murdoch in the 19th century.

But there was something unconvincing about his response to a question late last night at the Rose Bowl – following his side’s four-wicket defeat in the first of five NatWest Series matches – about England’s change of attitude since their 6-1 loss against the Aussies a year ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

While Fabio Capello’s men huffed and puffed and blew themselves out against Algeria, the headlines it generated buried a significant English sporting achievement over the weekend: England beat Australia, at rugby union, in Sydney.

It was England’s first win against the big three – Australia, New Zealand, South Africa – since the 2007 World Cup and a first Down Under since Jonny Wilkinson dropped England to glory in 2003.

Such a victory would normally dominate the back pages but, quite reasonably really, not during the football World Cup and especially not when Wayne Rooney had just played like the baby elephant he resembled on the pitch. If he and the rest of the team continue to perform like that, what hope have our cricketers of getting any column inches for their ODI series against Australia?

Read the rest of this entry »

“My mother would be getting runs off him, let me tell ya.” Geoffrey Boycott wasn’t enamoured with Steve Finn’s first spell as a Test bowler in England. Bowling from the Nursery end (Finn takes the Pavilion end for Middlesex), Finn was too full and too straight to Bangladesh’s left-handed openers.

Finn has emerged as a certainty for England’s Ashes squad. Those who saw him in Bangladesh talk of startling bounce and accuracy on dead pitches, although his performances had a raw edge as well. Finn’s promotion this summer seems a test of stamina and mentality ahead of Australia but there must be an understanding that he is an investment, a young bowler with only one full season behind him.
Read the rest of this entry »

It used to be the preserve of football managers. Now squad rotation is becoming cricket’s thing. It’s becoming England’s thing. Andy Flower likes a fiddle.

He’s spot on. In a general sense, because schedules are putting a strain on player’s durability; in a specific sense, because the opposition are of a lower standard.

Read the rest of this entry »