Category: England Cricket

• Shoulder tear likely to need seven weeks of rehab

• Ollie Pope will lead England while Jofra Archer is rested

Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the final Test match of England’s international summer with a grade-three muscle tear in his shoulder, sustained during the drawn fourth game against India at Old Trafford. Ollie Pope will captain the side in his absence as England seek to defend their 2-1 lead and complete a series victory.

Recovery from a muscle injury of such severity is estimated to take between six and 10 weeks, though England’s medical team have estimated Stokes’s likely recovery time at around seven weeks. England are due to arrive in Australia for the start of their Ashes preparations in just over 14 weeks, with their captain optimistic that he will have fully recovered in time for a potentially career-defining series.

Continue reading...

• Gambhir engages in angry exchange with groundman

• Fortis tells Gambhir: ‘You can’t tell us what to do’

The spicy spats that have increasingly been a feature of the action in the England-India Tests so far this summer spilled on to the training pitch on Tuesday when the tourists’ head coach, Gautam Gambhir, had a row with Surrey’s head groundsman as his team prepared for the latest clash at the Oval on Thursday.

Ben Stokes’ squad were enjoying a break, but with the series still to be decided in the final Test and India 2-1 down after their fightback at Old Trafford the visitors’ work in the nets was far from straightforward as tensions surfaced in angry exchanges between the pair at the centre of the dispute.

Continue reading...

Ben Stokes and his team got it wrong on graceless end to final day that showed their vulnerability and India’s unity

India spent a day with Manchester United’s squad before the fourth Test, only to then pull off the kind of collective defensive effort rarely seen at the other Old Trafford in recent seasons. But they were not alone in veering away from their pre‑match preparations.

Gilbert Enoka, the All Blacks adviser who made famous their “no dickheads” policy, did some work with England on the training days, only for them to act briefly like … well, let’s just say their adoption of something similar remains a work in progress.

Continue reading...

• Fourth Test, day three: India 358; England 544-7

• Root races up to second in all-time Test runs list

Friday in Manchester belonged to Joe Root as 20,000 people inside Old Trafford watched a master at work. Inevitable is a dangerous word in a fickle sport like cricket and yet the events that transpired felt as close to this as is possible: the likeliest of outcomes once Root gambolled out to the middle first thing under an azure blue sky.

The first expectation was that England, trailing India by 133 runs on 225 for two, would take control of this fourth Test and, sitting 2-1 up, the series as a whole. Ben Stokes, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had inflicted such damage on day two that it was going to take something remarkable from the tourists to turn their fortunes around.

Continue reading...

• Fourth Test, day one: India 264-4

• Wicketkeeper’s participation at Old Trafford in doubt

After the row about time-wasting at Lord’s came an unscheduled 10-minute delay on the opening day in Manchester, but this time no one was grumbling. Rishabh Pant was being driven off on a golf buggy nursing a suspected broken foot, the agony on his face as clear as the egg that had swollen up within seconds.

This was a very Pant way to get injured, India’s zany wicketkeeper having attempted a reverse sweep off Chris Woakes only to bottom-edge the ball on to his right boot. England burned a review for the lbw but it was as good as a wicket, Pant retiring on 37 and his further participation in this pivotal fourth Test left very much in doubt.

Continue reading...

Spinner may have thought his Test days were gone, but consistent performances for Hampshire have been recognised

As the one enforced change in England’s XI for the hotly anticipated fourth Test against India at Old Trafford this week, Liam Dawson replacing the injured Shoaib Bashir represents a 180-degree turn on pretty much every metric.

Bashir has been the long-term investment this past year: a 6ft 4in right-arm off-spinner who, aged 21, struggles to get a look-in at Somerset and has instead been honing his craft at the highest level. His ceiling is fancied to be higher than his towering release point, even if he is a No 11 with the bat and a competent fielder at best.

Continue reading...

England team hang on their captain’s every word but he is on his longest run of Tests without a century

A day out from the second Test against India at Edgbaston and Andrew Flintoff was dog-sticking to England’s batters in the nets, his very presence bringing memories of 20 years ago flooding back. It was here where Flintoff wrote his name into Ashes folklore, igniting the afterburners for England’s statement first innings, rescuing the second with a six-laden counterattack, and then sending down a famous over on the third evening that vaporised Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting.

As well as driving England to that famous two-run victory, 141 runs and seven wickets across the four days made it Flintoff’s statistical peak as a fast-bowling all-rounder – the only time he went north of 100 runs and five wickets in the same Test. People often underestimate the physical and mental demands that the dual role places on those hardy enough to even attempt it; expecting both facets of their game to deliver consistently is unrealistic save for a handful of freakish greats.

Continue reading...

Northamptonshire and England cricketer hailed as a fearless batsman who was nicknamed ‘Ned’

It was some time in the 1980s. The details have gone hazy: it could have been any county cricket ground and any captain being asked by the press why they had lost so badly to Northamptonshire: “What went wrong?” The answer was equally terse: “We got Nedded.”

A “Nedding” meant being on the receiving end of a blistering innings from Wayne “Ned” Larkins, who has died in hospital, while awaiting a heart bypass, aged 71. When he was hot, he could be the most thrilling batsman in the country. But demons of insecurity lurked beneath his cheery countenance and his 13 Test matches were a feeble reward for an exceptional talent.

Continue reading...