3 minute read Before the English domestic season recommenced, we picked out the four quick bowlers we felt were most likely to represent ‘the next generation’ following the retirement of Stuart Broad. (We didn’t at that point know that James Anderson was also on his way out.) Precisely none of these bowlers have played for England since. So where does that leave us? To quickly recap, the four quick bowlers we identified were Matt Fisher, Saqib Mahmood, Matt Potts and Josh Tongue. All four are in their mid-20s and had been handed Test caps in the last couple of years. It seemed safe to assume o ..read more

< 1 minute read Ollie Pope made a jaunty hundred, so you’re supposed to talk about that. It’s just that Ollie Pope doesn’t open the batting the way Ben Duckett opens the batting. Ben Duckett at times talks such A-grade bollocks that it can be easy to forget that opening the batting like an insane person is absolutely 100% working out for him. Today England lost Zak Crawley in the very first over of the match. As Crawley’s opening partner, what Duckett is supposed to do when that happens is dig in, be watchful, weigh up conditions and see off the new ball. Digging in for Ben Duckett means hi ..read more

3 minute read There was a maudlin quality to the closing stages of the first Test between England and the West Indies, but the sun is out, another Test is about to begin and there is much to look forward to. 1. England absolutely pissing away the new ball This is quite unlikely to happen – Chris Woakes isn’t known for spraying it about – but at some point soon, England will once again absolutely piss away the new ball. This is very exciting. England absolutely pissing away the new ball was such a formative cricket experience for us, it feels bizarre that we have gone so long without it. Sure ..read more

2 minute read How do you cope with loss? You take it one step at a time, of course. What does that mean in practical terms? Why not pretend that James Anderson’s got a bit of a niggle this week? And then for the next Test, just do the same again. Jimmy’s not gone. He’s just got a bit of a hip flexor thing at the minute. In no way undermining that strategy, here are links to all the various James Anderson pieces that went up on this site last week (and in the past), in case you missed any. Longevity First up, four pieces that either directly or indirectly acknowledge the sheer length of his Te ..read more

3 minute read Today it seems fitting to run this magnificent graphical tribute to James Anderson’s batting, which was sent in by longstanding-but-intermittent King Cricket contributor, Bert, who writes…. Days like this don’t come along very often. We are witnessing the end of one of the greatest eras of sport this country has ever seen – the career of James “Jimmy” Anderson. So it seems appropriate to offer a small graphical tribute to surely the greatest number 11 batter this country has ever produced. Jimmy Anderson scored zero in Test matches 78 times! In nearly one third of the total numb ..read more

2 minute read We don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from players’ debuts – but we report on them anyway. Much to admire, but can Gus Atkinson play the reverse sweep? And how grumpy will he be when England’s fielders revert to shelling one chance in three, rather than velcroing-in everything remotely within reach? These are surely the more important questions. Bowling In terms of plain old bowling, Gus Atkinson did okay. A wicket with your second ball can, technically, be improved upon. But not by much. Similarly, 7-45 could have been 7-35 or 8-45 or whatever. He also had a ..read more

3 minute read We’ve written about James Anderson a lot over the years. He has a lot of qualities, but one of his finest – to our mind – is his irritability. We named James Anderson in an England XI that comprised the players we have invested in the most and we also crowned him Lord Megachief of Gold 2017. If you want to read about how much he means to us or how great he is at cricket, those are the pieces you should read. Today we want to talk about his tetchiness. Because Jimmy’s tetchiness is a wonderful thing. Exhibit A: Here he is gleefully celebrating a run-out. Jimmy is a man who does e ..read more

4 minute read Loads of people have been picked for England since James Anderson made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in May 2003. This XI comprises some of the least successful – plus Jimmy himself. Just imagine the exasperated head shaking! 1. Adam Lyth – 265 Test runs at 20.38 Surprisingly few of the very many opening batters England have gone through since Andrew Strauss retired have been out-and-out poor. We feel a bit bad for Lyth here. He did score 107 v New Zealand after all. 2. Jason Roy – 187 runs at 18.70 There was no Test hundred for Roy, however – just a 50. The high water mark fo ..read more

3 minute read James Anderson plays his final Test next week, having made his Test debut in 2003. There was a bit of a fallow ‘bowling at a single stump during the lunch interval’ period early on, but even then he did play at least one Test match every year. It struck us that quite a lot of seemingly ‘big’ England Test careers have been not just shorter than that, but massively shorter than that. We wondered how many of them could be squeezed into the same span of time. The premise is this: we have had 21 years of James Anderson – what does that equate to when measured in other people? The key ..read more

4 minute read Don’t know if you saw, but India beat South African in the T20 World Cup final at the weekend. Numb Virat Kohli makes ‘enough’ runs T20 strategy is shaped by statistics, but if there’s one thing they don’t measure too well, it’s the likelihood a player’s entire muscle memory will be momentarily wiped when a truly big game is in the balance. Hardik Pandya could afford to concede two fours off his last two balls and India would have still won the T20 World Cup final. Hardik told himself to keep it outside off stump and duly boomed a wide. Playing World Cup finals is hard. Writing a ..read more