Spirits Cricket

Paul Collingwood is yet to make a final call over his participation in the much hyped twenty 20 series that is going to be held on the Pakistani land.

Earlier it was reported that Collingwood had agreed to be a part of the Rest of the World squad that would take on Pakistan in the proposed series.

But, the former English all-rounder has clarified his position. While he has admitted that he has had a chat with Andy Flower who would be managing the Rest of the World squad, he stresses that he has not committed to Flower that he would definitely be there playing in that series.

As per Collingwood, it’s an exciting proposition, no doubt because he is not an active international Cricketer anymore. He bid adieu to the international game long back. But this is a chance to get involved in international Cricket again as all the games of this series are going to be counted as international games. (more…)

New England Test captain Joe Root says that the experience former skipper Alastair Cook will bring to the team would be helpful to the success of the team now and in the future.

Cook resigned from the role in February after record 59 games.

“I think Cook will be great. He’s done a fantastic job and I’ve inherited a side that’s so settled – he has to take a lot of credit for that. I’ve got fantastic senior players. Alastair is a great person to go to – he will let me get on with it and do it my own way.

“It’s in his DNA to help the rest of the guys out. He always led from the front which is what made him such a great leader. If he’s firing on all cylinders with the bat then we’ll be in a good position at the end of the summer,” Root said.

On the other hand, bowler James Anderson told the BBCSportthat he has no plans of retiring after the forthcoming Ashes series. The 34-year old Poms star fended off speculations that he might call it quits.

“If we win the Test series, I’ll be over the moon. It means we will have had an amazing year. But right now I have no interest in stopping,” the Lancashire swing bowler said. (more…)

Joe Root confesses that playing test match Cricket in Australia four years back was a different kind of experience altogether, both in terms of the game as well as in terms of the environment.

Root was a rookie at that time and the Aussie spectators, who are quite infamous for coming down hard at the Rookies, showed no softness towards him and dished out abuses to him right through the tour whichever venue he went to.

And what made matters worse for him was that he couldn’t add too many runs to his tally either. Out of the eight innings that he got to play on the tour before getting axed, he could play just one good knock of eighty odd. In the remaining innings, he couldn’t cross the mark of 30 even once.

The Yorkie reveals that during that series he listened a lot to the analysts who were sitting on TV and talking about his game, pointing out what he was doing wrong and what he should change to score runs. (more…)

Jason Roy is a great prospect for England with the view of the 2019 World Cup.

Aggressive opening batsmen in ODI Cricket were a rarity for England in the last 5 years and that’s why, they couldn’t create a sense of fear among the international bowlers.

However, now, the Three Lions have two such batsmen, Roy and Hales, who don’t play the waiting game and instead, like to tear into the bowlers.

In his innings against Sri Lanka yesterday in London where he plays his domestic Cricket as well, Roy was fearless to say the least.

Caring very little about the length of the faster men, he was forcing himself on the front foot on each ball which was almost disrespectful and embarrassing to Sri Lanka. And, his dismissiveness of the visitors’ strongest department, that is spin, was exhilarating too. He did not have any kind of regard for the ability of their spinners.

Playing it off the pitch is the general way of playing spin in England, but, for Roy, it’s about reducing the distance between him and the bowler to change the length of the ball to his liking and to take the turn out of the scene, much like an Asian.

Also, the elbows of Roy remain so upright. There is probably no player in the world who keeps his elbows more upright than that. (more…)

Stuart Broad reckons there is not much difference between England and South Africa in terms of conditions, but, it would still be very difficult for his team to emerge victorious in the upcoming test series in the rainbow nation.

The English guys are going to make their way to South Africa next month for 4 test matches, 5 One Day Internationals and a couple of Twenty 20 internationals.

The action will kick off with the Boxing Day game in Durban.

According to Broad, test victories playing abroad are absolutely rare nowadays as almost all the teams thrive in home conditions and you have to play out of their skins to beat them in their backyard.

Speaking in a talk show, the tally lanky speedster from Nottinghamshire said, “I would like to believe South Africa is a place where we should not be having too many troubles in regard to the conditions. Most of the surfaces over there happen to be slightly bouncy and you would be able get the ball to nip around a little bit as well.”

“But, touring abroad, it’s never easy. If you see the overseas records of the teams over the recent years, you would not find too many impressive numbers there. It’s been quite difficult for almost everyone.” (more…)

England was standing on the verge of a shocking win in Abu Dhabi before bad light came into play and spoilt the party for them.

It was a classic example of how quickly things change in the test matches in subcontinent.

At the completion of the 4^th day, nobody would have foreseen that game producing a result.

But, what unfolded the day after just showed everyone what test Cricket means.

It’s about patience and skill. You’ve got to play well every single session or you would slip down.

Pakistan just had a couple of poor sessions with the bat and they were in serious danger of a defeat.

Some poor shot selections had almost cost them the test match there.

However, this is not to take any credit away from the English bowlers especially Adil Rashid who was playing his first test match and was taken to the cleaners by the Pakistanis in the first innings.

Still, when he came on to bowl on the final day, he was looping the ball, was tempting the batsman to try and go after him and that was remarkable for a debutant.

Moeen Ali too was pretty good and James Anderson, as always, was there with early breakthroughs with the new ball.

From England’s point of view, they might not have won the game, but, they would not be disappointed. (more…)