Latest news with #McCullum
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
The familiar issues frustrating England and their fans
If a bad team plays badly, it does not hurt so much. When a team that can be great gets thrashed, those are the ones that really cause pain. And that is why Ben Stokes' England Test team are stuck in this cycle of frustration. From the sensational win at Headingley last week, to a thrashing in the second Test in Birmingham. Whenever England take two steps forward, there is always a defeat that knocks them back. It is familiar issues which are hurting them too... England swept aside as India level series at 1-1 McCullum admits England mistake with Edgbaston toss England v India: England hammered in first India win at Edgbaston Another thumping defeat As England's fate was sealed on day five, Edgbaston was alive to the beat of an Indian drum. "England get battered everywhere they go," sang the tourists' support. This 336-run defeat can be added to the 423-run loss in Hamilton, the nine-wicket thrashing in Rawalpindi, the meek eight-wicket loss at the hands of a poor Sri Lanka at The Oval or the 434-run thrashing by India in Rajkot last February. When England lose, they lose badly. Two of those, against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, could be written off as dead rubbers. Were the list shorter, you could put them down to the odd bad day. But until the trend of one England hammering a series is ruled out, they are not going to get to where they want to go. Series wins could come - they may beat India over five matches here - but some have been talking about this team going on to become the best England side since the one Andrew Strauss led to the top of the world rankings. Head coach Brendon McCullum told his team to "shoot for the stars" at the start of the summer. Fail to change and their ship may not leave Earth's atmosphere. England's Pope fasts again No-one represents England's feast or famine better than Ollie Pope. After a fine century in Leeds, he made a duck and 24 in his two innings at Edgbaston. It is a familiar problem for a batter who did not make a fifty in the four Tests in India at the start of last year after his epic 196 in the first Test. Before play on day five he was working with batting coach Marcus Trescothick on his head position, attempting to prevent himself falling to the off side before contact, as he did when edging Akash Deep in the first innings. With its slope, Lord's is not the ideal place to have such issues. Zak Crawley is another batter unable to break free of his own troubles. His 65 in the first Test, which followed 124 against Zimbabwe, was crucial to England's win but his wild drive in the second over of England's chase was the worst dismissal in an otherwise sensible quest for a draw. He is averaging just 21 when seamers pitch the ball up to him since the start of 2022. If India weren't aware of that weakness before, they are now. What to do about Bashir? The Test also resulted in some ugly numbers for England spinner Shoaib Bashir. The 21-year-old's match figures of 5-286 are the most expensive for England since 1950 and the third-most costly in his side's Test history. No Test spinner who has bowled as many overs (679.1) as Bashir has as high an economy rate (3.80). Not pretty. England's Bashir experiment is at an interesting phase. Picked for his debut last year after just 10 first-class matches and still unable to get a game for his county, he has been picked on potential. Against Zimbabwe at the start of the summer, he looked to be finding success by bowling tighter to the stumps, resulting in a more accurate line, while he was also bowling a fuller length. He deserves credit for working on a 'carrom ball' – an off-spinner's mystery delivery which is flicked from the hand and turns from right to left – which he bowled at least three times in the first innings. But six of his eight wickets in this series have come caught in the deep. The others were a lower-order stumping and a top-edged slog he caught himself. Bashir needs a good week in London for himself if nothing else. England's pace pickle That leads nicely to England's pace bowlers. Having opted to pick an unchanged side for Edgbaston, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue have now bowled 82, 77 and 81 overs respectively. Mohammed Siraj is the only India quick to have bowled more than 62. All three of England's pacemen struggled at times in Birmingham. Woakes was not as threatening after his new-ball spell while Tongue has been played well by India's top order and was not as successful against the tail as in the first Test. Change will surely come at Lord's given three days off is little time to recover and Jofra Archer is waiting in the wings. Could England conceivably leave out all three? Gus Atkinson, who has not played since May because of a hamstring injury, is back in the squad but it would be a risk to play Atkinson and Archer, who has bowled in two innings in a match once in four years, in the same XI. Woakes, 36, may need a rest but England like variety in their attack and he averages 12.9 at Lord's – the best of any bowler in Test history. England would also need to replace his batting at number eight if he is left out – even more so if Carse, an able batter, was also absent at number nine. Sam Cook is the Woakes replacement in England's squad but does not offer that same batting depth. Do not rule out bowling all-rounder Jamie Overton adding to his one Test cap, which was earned in 2022. Gill eyeing Bradman's record That it is England with selection problems is a remarkable turnaround from six days ago. India came into the second Test facing endless questions around their XI. Their big calls have been proven right, however. Picking batting all-rounder Washington Sundar at number eight looked a defensive move but he shared an important stand of 144 with his captain, Shubman Gill, in the first innings and had Stokes lbw shortly before lunch with his off-spin on the final day. The other big call was to rest Jasprit Bumrah. His replacement Akash Deep was majestic and took 10 in the match. In truth, Gill could not have asked for a better week. Some questioned his declaration on day four but its timing meant England faced Deep with the new ball late on and again when it was still hard the next morning. The result was two wickets in each spell. With 585 runs in two matches, Gill now needs a further 389 across the remaining three Tests to break the legendary record for most runs in a series set by the great Australian Don Bradman, who made 974 in the 1930 Ashes. Get cricket news sent straight to your phone
First Post
a day ago
- Sport
- First Post
Eng V Ind: England No "Nice Guys", As India Battles Injuries First Sports With Rupha Ramani
Eng V Ind: England No "Nice Guys", As India Battles Injuries | First Sports With Rupha Ramani | N18G Eng V Ind: England No "Nice Guys", As India Battles Injuries | First Sports With Rupha Ramani | N18G The 4th Test at Old Trafford is no less than a warzone for Team India. Down 1-2 in the series, battling injuries, a cursed Manchester record, and a fired-up England side led by McCullum's no-more-Mr.-Nice-Guy template - the stakes couldn't be higher. In this gripping build-up, Rupha Ramani breaks down India's biggest hurdles ahead of this must-win encounter: a bruised squad, hostile hosts, and psychological pressure boiling over from the Lord's. Will India script history at a ground they've never won at? Or will England's swagger crush India's spirit? All this and more, as First Sports brings you a preview for the biggest test of India's Test mettle. Also on the show, Pakistan isn't keen on sending its men's hockey side for the Asia Cup in India. While the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has cited security concerns, the statement appears to reflect government influence. Is politics at play before the Indian event? And England's rugby team was racially attacked by Argentina fans in San Juan. Not the first time Argentina has been involved in a racist incident. From football to Rugby - sports events have found Argentina being the culprit. Who is to blame for this, and how is it hurting Argentina's football image? See More
The Age
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Age
Spare us the whinging, England. The only thing embarrassing about Old Trafford was your tantrum
Increasingly, the balance of world opinion favours an Indian win in the final game. Why? Because the posturing that accompanied England's Bazball revolution has got to the point that even some among their countrymen are beginning to tire of it all. There is also the fact that the self-appointed great entertainers, all about saving Test cricket and making the game more enjoyable, are now increasingly inclined towards the kind of flinty attitudes held by teams rather more concerned with winning. The contradictions are piling up. Steve Smith, for one, picked this up during the Manchester Test. 'They have started to play a little bit differently in the last couple of weeks in terms of playing the situation, as opposed to going out and trying to be the entertainers that they said they wanted to be,' Smith told the BBC's Test Match Special. 'They are actually trying to win the games now which is perhaps different to what was said in their comments previously.' Loading Back in 2023, England's posturing included barbs about having effectively won a game at Edgbaston that they actually lost, then a flurry of indignation at Jonny Baristow's legitimate stumping by Alex Carey at Lord's. This was closely followed by dog whistling to ensure that Australia's players were given hell for the rest of the trip - the unpleasantness escalating even to death threats. But of course, England did not win the series nor regain the Ashes. Similarly, they are yet to win a series against India under Stokes and Brendon McCullum. And their white ball team has slipped a long way from the heights of the 2019 World Cup, and got to the point last year that McCullum was asked to take over the all-format program. So this year, with India and the Ashes both looming large, there has been a rhetorical shift towards more pragmatic cricket, but also more unpleasant behaviour on the field, in search of tactical advantage. Open discussion of team meetings where tactical sledging was discussed certainly raised the eyebrows of Australian players, seven years after their own descent into the infamous Cape Town Test and all the introspection that followed. Loading Members of that 2018 team are well aware that the path of sledging and unsavoury behaviour is a slippery one, leading to ever-greater animosity. They were amused to hear Stokes mimic their old phrase after a spiteful lord's Test match: 'At not one stage did we go over the line.' The Australians also recall that if the sledging didn't work, it would result in a backlash of commensurate fury from the likes of AB de Villiers or, some years earlier, Brian Lara. McCullum has even called in Gilbert Enoka, his old friend from the New Zealand cricket team and a longtime advisor to the All Blacks, to help shape the culture and identity of England's Ashes challengers. Enoka still has some work to do. Faced with an Indian side that did not want to dance to their tune, England looked churlish, bad-tempered and even a little bit brittle: happy and jovial when things go their way, but sulky and childish when they don't.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
Spare us the whinging, England. The only thing embarrassing about Old Trafford was your tantrum
Increasingly, the balance of world opinion favours an Indian win in the final game. Why? Because the posturing that accompanied England's Bazball revolution has got to the point that even some among their countrymen are beginning to tire of it all. There is also the fact that the self-appointed great entertainers, all about saving Test cricket and making the game more enjoyable, are now increasingly inclined towards the kind of flinty attitudes held by teams rather more concerned with winning. The contradictions are piling up. Steve Smith, for one, picked this up during the Manchester Test. 'They have started to play a little bit differently in the last couple of weeks in terms of playing the situation, as opposed to going out and trying to be the entertainers that they said they wanted to be,' Smith told the BBC's Test Match Special. 'They are actually trying to win the games now which is perhaps different to what was said in their comments previously.' Loading Back in 2023, England's posturing included barbs about having effectively won a game at Edgbaston that they actually lost, then a flurry of indignation at Jonny Baristow's legitimate stumping by Alex Carey at Lord's. This was closely followed by dog whistling to ensure that Australia's players were given hell for the rest of the trip - the unpleasantness escalating even to death threats. But of course, England did not win the series nor regain the Ashes. Similarly, they are yet to win a series against India under Stokes and Brendon McCullum. And their white ball team has slipped a long way from the heights of the 2019 World Cup, and got to the point last year that McCullum was asked to take over the all-format program. So this year, with India and the Ashes both looming large, there has been a rhetorical shift towards more pragmatic cricket, but also more unpleasant behaviour on the field, in search of tactical advantage. Open discussion of team meetings where tactical sledging was discussed certainly raised the eyebrows of Australian players, seven years after their own descent into the infamous Cape Town Test and all the introspection that followed. Loading Members of that 2018 team are well aware that the path of sledging and unsavoury behaviour is a slippery one, leading to ever-greater animosity. They were amused to hear Stokes mimic their old phrase after a spiteful lord's Test match: 'At not one stage did we go over the line.' The Australians also recall that if the sledging didn't work, it would result in a backlash of commensurate fury from the likes of AB de Villiers or, some years earlier, Brian Lara. McCullum has even called in Gilbert Enoka, his old friend from the New Zealand cricket team and a longtime advisor to the All Blacks, to help shape the culture and identity of England's Ashes challengers. Enoka still has some work to do. Faced with an Indian side that did not want to dance to their tune, England looked churlish, bad-tempered and even a little bit brittle: happy and jovial when things go their way, but sulky and childish when they don't.
Indian Express
6 days ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
Ayush Mhatre breaks Brendon McCullum's record with 64-ball century in Youth Test, India U19 fall short of stunning last-day chase
After a prolonged scoring lull during the five-match Youth ODI series against England U19, India U19 captain Ayush Mhatre was in his element during the subsequent Test matches, ending the series with a rapid century. After being set a 355-run target mid-way through the final day at Chelmsford by England U19, the Indian colts went all out for the chase despite losing star batter Vaibhav Suryavanshi for a golden duck off the first ball of the innings. The 17-year-old Mhatre soon took centre stage as he whipped up a cracking century to hand a huge scare to Thomas Rew's English side. Mhatre reached his century in only 64 balls, making it the third-fastest Youth Test hundred in all recorded history. He finished on 126 off 80 balls after an innings studded with 13 fours and six sixes. The Chennai Super Kings revelation was also in prime touch in the first innings, aggregating 80 in only 90 deliveries. Mhatre thereby became only the second batter after New Zealand legend Brendon McCullum to record more than 200 runs in a Youth Test with a strike-rate above 100. The young Mumbaikar went even further up, with his whopping 121.17 strike rate ranking even higher than McCullum's 108.41 in a Youth Test against South Africa in 2001. The New Zealand U19 skipper then, McCullum scored 186 runs from 172 balls (SR: 108.13) in the first innings before adding an unbeaten 46 not out from 42 balls (SR 109.52) in the second. With nine maximums, Mhatre also broke the Indian Youth Test record held by Manoj Tiwary for most sixes in a match. Mhatre had also cracked a century in the first Youth Test in Beckenham last week as both games eventually ended in a draw. India had, however, come close to pulling off a stunning heist on Wednesday as they racked up 290/6 in only 43 overs before bad light deprived them of a chance to reel in the remaining 65 runs. Besides Mhatre, wicket-keeper Abhigyan Kundu was also in blistering nick as he made a quickfire 65 of only 46 balls. WATCH HIGHLIGHTS OF IND U19 vs ENG U19 DAY 4:
