Category: England National Cricket

• Captain labelled a ‘Cocky Complainer’ on arrival in Perth

• Article critical of Stokes and McCullum’s positive tactics

Australian media gave Ben Stokes a scathing welcome to the country in the buildup to the Ashes. A picture of the England captain pushing a trolley laden with luggage at the airport was accompanied by the headline “Baz Bawl” on the front page of the West Australian newspaper.

“England’s Cocky Captain Complainer, still smarting from ‘crease-gate’, lands in Perth early thinking dopey “BazBall’ can take the Ashes,” read the subhead in reference to an incident in the last series when Jonny Bairstow was controversially stumped. The article went on to criticise England’s tactics under Stokes and the head coach, Brendon McCullum, describing it as “carefree and careless thrash batting”.

Continue reading...

• Root also among 14 players committed to national team

• Bethell and Archer among the other notable inclusions

Ben Stokes has signalled his desire to play in the 2027 Ashes at home after signing a new two-year central contract with England.

Aged 34, and having sustained hamstring and shoulder injuries in the past 12 months, there was a school of thought that this winter’s Ashes – less than three weeks away – could be the Test captain’s swansong.

Continue reading...

Fast bowler says England have confidence and belief as he prepares for what could be his final series against the old foe

“My dad would be Australia and I’d be England,” Mark Wood says with a wry smile when remembering his first Ashes Tests as a boy in his back garden in Ashington, Northumberland. “I’d try to copy Darren Gough, Andrew Caddick, Matthew Hoggard and, later, Jimmy Anderson, who I’d go on and play with. My dad, who didn’t do the actions so well, had to be Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne. He was most proud of his Gillespie but his Warne wasn’t great.”

Wood snorts at the idea that his dad, Derek, might have let him win most of those matches. “No, no, no. It was proper cricket. You had to give each other lbw and every time I hit my dad in the leg he’d be going: ‘No, that’s going over’ or ‘That’s down the leg side.’ I was like: ‘Dad, that was plumb.’ I had to get my DRS right.”

Continue reading...

In his candid new book, the former England fast bowler talks about the lasting mental turmoil that ended his 2013-14 Ashes tour

“I couldn’t get the words out because I was crying,” Steven Finn says as he remembers how, hunched over a microphone, he stared at the last lines he was meant to read aloud for the audio version of his raw and revealing new book. Emotion clogged his throat after he had belonged to three Ashes-winning England squads, while never feeling he fulfilled his immense wicket-taking talent, and having ended up lost and broken on the 2013-14 tour of Australia.

Finn tried again but stifled crying choked his reading. He looked up and nodded at the encouraging producer. His mouth almost crumpled but, this time, he got through it.

Continue reading...

• Bowler resumes running but will not make series opener in Perth

• 32-year-old says he ‘expects to return to bowling shortly’

Pat Cummins is officially out of the first Ashes Test as he continues his recovery from a stress injury in his back, with Steve Smith to reassume the captaincy of Australia in the series opener against England next month.

Cummins has not bowled since Australia’s 3-0 series defeat of West Indies in July and had been in serious doubt for the match in Perth on 21 November. After months of speculation over whether he would recover in time, Cricket Australia on Monday finally confirmed that the quick would have to sit out the game at Optus Stadium.

Continue reading...

England’s T20 series against New Zealand finishes on a rather damp note but the tourists claim 1-0 win

Here we go! That’s tough on the two Tims, who had made a rollicking start.

After three balls: NZ 8-0 (Seifert 8, Robinson 0) Wood’s first ball is an inswinger that swings all the way to the square-leg boundary, with an easy nudge from Tim Seifert. The second ball is a dot, and the third is another four – a full toss, thumped through the covers. But then …

Continue reading...

Four decades ago Mike Gatting lamented 30-game schedule and while improvements were made, players will be weary of gruelling season ahead

A meteorologist would say that England’s winter will start this year at midnight on 1 December; an astronomer would point a few weeks later to the 21st, perhaps even the moment at precisely 3.03pm when the northern hemisphere is tilted furthest away from the sun, the least sun-kissed moment of its least sunny day. But a cricket fan might go a little earlier, perhaps as soon as next Saturday at about 7.15am. Leaves might still be clinging to trees as yet unbothered by frost, but that is when the national side is scheduled to play its first fixture of a hectic touring schedule, and by the time it all ends the Ashes will have been decided, a World Cup will have been won, and it will be spring.

For the players involved in all formats, these moments will bring a combination of excitement and perhaps also a bit of dread. The T20 squad departed for New Zealand on Friday, with the four men among them who have also been selected for the Ashes – Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse and Zak Crawley – knowing that only injury will bring them home within the next three months (and even then for no more than 10 days, before they depart again this time for Sri Lanka and from there a T20 World Cup in India).

Continue reading...

• Injured Australian captain set to miss at least Perth test

• Brook expects Stokes to play all five Tests in Australia

Harry Brook believes Pat Cummins potentially missing the start of the Ashes would play into English hands but warned that Australia’s depth in pace bowlers means any replacement should not be underestimated.

With just six weeks to go until the first Test in Perth, the fitness of Cummins remains a major talking point following the detection of a lower back stress injury earlier this year. According to some reports, his entire series could even be in jeopardy.

Continue reading...

The England white-ball veteran on his post-captaincy career, his Ashes struggles and the recent death of his father

Another summer is over and, for Jos Buttler, life and cricket feel more precious than ever. The fleeting nature of both has been accentuated by the loss of Buttler’s father, John, after his unexpected death in August. The 35-year-old will soon talk movingly about grief and acceptance but, first, he reflects on his venerable place in white-ball cricket after England’s international summer ended in a low-key series in Ireland.

Buttler opened the batting and Jacob Bethell and Rehan Ahmed, who followed him at three and four in the opening match, are both 21. But he had proved his sustained brilliance a few weeks earlier when, against South Africa, he hit 83 off 30 balls in a blistering knock that helped England to become the first team to pass 300 in a T20 international.

Continue reading...

Warwickshire all-rounder always put the team first and hit the heights for England with an enviable Test career and two World Cup wins

As suspected at the time, Chris Woakes bravely walking out to bat at the Oval in August, arm in a sling, crowd on their feet, was his final act as an England cricketer. Grimacing through the agony of a dislocated shoulder, it made for front page news and a fitting, albeit unwitting, exit.

Few Test careers get endings such as Stuart Broad’s mic‑drop at the same ground, or the sentimental farewells laid on for Jimmy Anderson or Alastair Cook. But this one suited Woakes: full circle at the scene of his Test debut 12 years earlier and still putting the team first.

Continue reading...

• ‘The nicest man in cricket’ closes 15-year England career

• Dislocated shoulder ruled him out of winter Ashes tour

Chris Woakes has announced his retirement from international cricket, bringing to a close a near 15-year England career that delivered two World Cup wins and an abundance of memories in the Test arena.

The 36-year-old had been eyeing a spot on this winter’s Ashes tour as the senior pro among England’s fast bowlers, only for the dislocated shoulder suffered during the fifth Test against India this summer to rule him out.

Continue reading...

• Key all but confirms Woakes’ international career is over

• Brook replaces Pope as vice-captain for Ashes series

Rob Key has all but confirmed Chris Woakes has played his last game for England and insisted Harry Brook’s promotion to vice-captain for the Ashes is not “an elaborate scheme” to oust Ollie Pope from the team.

Speaking a day after naming a 16‑man squad to take on Australia, Key, the team director, clarified the selections – not least the late switch in deputy for Ben Stokes – and confirmed Woakes missed out because of the dislocated shoulder sustained during the final Test of the summer.

Continue reading...

While he could be funny, he was also firm and players knew where they stood with umpire who became as famous as them

Dickie Bird may well have been the most consistent, the most famous and the most loved umpire in cricket history and yet when he pitched up at the grounds of ambitious county teams in the 1970s and 80s there would often be groans in the home dressing room.

Dickie’s presence was bound to enliven the game but it would also make it harder to win. Dickie was a cautious umpire, who required certainty before he raised his finger to send a batsman back to the pavilion (often with a bellowed “That’s Out”). To win games, which usually meant taking 20 wickets, the bold captain would prefer one of the more cavalier umpires on the circuit, who might later boast of his hundred victims by the end of May, to be officiating.

Continue reading...

• Wood, Archer, Atkinson, Carse and Tongue lead attack

• Will Jacks gets nod over Rehan Ahmed as reserve spinner

Already the quickest scoring team in Test cricket, England will hit Australia with their fastest bowling attack in a generation – perhaps all time – after announcing their 16-man squad for this winter’s Ashes.

A late curveball from Rob Key’s panel is the inclusion of Surrey’s Will Jacks, offering an attacking option with the bat and serving as the reserve spinner to Shoaib Bashir. Otherwise the squad is largely as expected, including confirmation that Harry Brook, not Ollie Pope, will be vice-captain to Ben Stokes when the first Test begins in Perth on 21 November.

Continue reading...

• Chris Woakes a risk after dislocating shoulder

• Rehan Ahmed also in frame as second spinner

Matthew Potts could be handed a spot in England’s main Ashes squad when Rob Key and the selectors finalise their plans for Australia. While the head coach, Brendon McCullum, has said to expect few surprises after a settled period for the Test side, Jamie Overton’s withdrawal from first-class cricket – plus uncertainty over the fitness of Chris Woakes – does mean there are final decisions to be made this week as regards the seamers.

The core of this group picks itself, with Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue all considered bankers – none are expected to play the final round of the County Championship – and optimism that Mark Wood is on track for a return after undergoing knee surgery in March.

Continue reading...