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Times of Oman
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Times of Oman
Santner named New Zealand Test skipper for Zimbabwe Series
Auckland: Mitchell Santner becomes the 32nd player to lead New Zealand's men's side in Test cricket as regular Blackcaps captain Tom Latham was ruled out of the first Test against Zimbabwe due to a shoulder injury, as per the official website of the ICC. Latham sufferd the injury while fielding in a domestic T20 game in England, and hasn't been deemed fit enough to feature in the playing XI. But the left-handed top-order batter will continue to remain with the squad, with the hope that he regains full fitness ahead of the second Test match against the Chevrons. Santner, who has 1066 runs and 74 wickets from his 30 Tests, assumes the role fresh off a T20I Tri-Series victory in Harare where the Black Caps remained undefeated in the group stage into the finals. Rob Walter, New Zealand head coach, expressed his disappointment for Latham but backed Santner to do well. "It's never great when you lose your captain (Tom Latham), who's a world-class opening batter and a great team man, but that said we're going to work really hard to have him available for the second Test," he said. "We'll continue to assess and see whether a replacement player is necessary, but at this stage we are hopeful that he'll recover in time," he noted. "Mitch (Santner) did a wonderful job with the T20 squad in this recent series. Whilst the format is different, he certainly has the respect of the players and will be supported by some highly experienced Test cricketers, so I trust that he's going to do a great job," Walter said. New Zealand squad for the 1st Test: Mitchell Santner (c), Tom Blundell, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Matt Fisher, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Will O'Rourke, Ajaz Patel, Michael Bracewell, Rachin Ravindra, Nathan Smith, Will Young.
Yahoo
21 hours 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
The Guardian
a day ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Sheepishness may follow sour grapes in handshakes row as England near end of brutal series
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 briefly act like … well, let's just say their adoption of something similar remains a work in progress. In the wash-up this has become known inevitably as handshake-gate. At 5.20pm on day five, the start of the last hour and with the draw a dead certainty, Ben Stokes hoped to get his players off the field pronto after 143 overs of toil for four paltry wickets. The physical act of shaking hands at this juncture is only customary but the playing conditions permit an early finish if both captains – or the batters out in the middle, who can act on behalf of their leader – agree. It was not an unreasonable or unusual request. India wanted to bat on, however, to reward two players with the centuries that they felt their efforts merited. While the seasoned Ravindra Jadeja, on 89, had been there four times previously, Washington Sundar, on 80, was chasing his first in Test cricket. Though in one sense a confection – 100 is just one more than 99 etc – all players crave three figures and see their careers judged on them also. Declining England's offer, and giving their own supporters a couple of moments to cheer, was also not unreasonable. And so as tedious as the last rites were going to be for them, it was here where England had to simply crack on. Harry Brook sending down some of his right-arm filth to spare the frontliners and hasten matters was fine but it was the sarcastic chirping that was objectively poor. In contrast to their aggression at Lord's – a legitimate tactic in pursuit of a victory, India doing much the same – shouting 'Embarassing' and 'Fucking hell, Washi, get on with it' amounted to sour grapes at being denied the early cut. Although there is some mitigation. Like a stopped clock, Kevin Pietersen was right when he took to social media to stress the exhausted state in which Stokes and his men found themselves (something India were also happy to deepen). This has been a brutal series for both sets of players, the kind that will inevitably lead to lapses in judgment. Four unyielding five-day surfaces in five weeks have strained sinews and synapses in a manner that, with all due respect, the Hundred is highly unlikely to match next month. And the needle that has bubbled up during this series is at the very least a byproduct of the commitment paying spectators demand. There is a reason Test cricket still commands the bulk of the television revenue in the UK, or why Virat Kohli described winning the Indian Premier League as being 'five levels' below any achievements in whites. Franchise cricket does feature the odd flashpoint and many of its players compete as hard as they would for a national team. But by definition it is the lesser product and, in this country at least, yet to stir anything close to the same emotions among the public. David Rudder, the legendary calypsonian, summed it up neatly when speaking to me from his home in Canada a few years ago: 'I always tell people in North America who say Test cricket is boring that they should look at it this way: you can have a regular soldier in the army – a GI – but then you have special forces. And that is what Test cricketers are. It's not just basic training, it's sending guys out to survive for days.' Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion England's GIs simply got it wrong during those graceless final moments and there may even be some sheepishness in the camp since. Not that Stokes is likely to voice it publicly. He may have only just drawn level with Ian Botham's 14 Test centuries but he has long since been cut from the same cloth: never look back, no regrets, onwards, upwards and the like. The Botham gene is what makes him such a force, the very foundation of his maniacal approach to training and playing. This contest, and England's 2-1 lead going into the fifth Test starting on Thursday, would be diminished without it. What that final day in Manchester unquestionably did show was that England struggle when Stokes cannot operate at full tilt and India, even in transition, can never be written off. The Australians celebrating a draw at Old Trafford 20 years ago was used by Michael Vaughan to galvanise his players – proof of a once great team's sudden vulnerability. In this instance, however, it pointed to a touring side that is united.
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
Stokes ready to 'run through brick wall' to feature in India decider
England captain Ben Stokes proclaimed "pain is just an emotion" as he insisted he will do everything in his power to feature as a fully-fledged all-rounder in next week's series decider with India. The fourth Test at Old Trafford, which ended in a draw on Sunday, was a personal triumph for Stokes as he became just the fourth England cricketer after Tony Greig, Ian Botham and Gus Atkinson to score a hundred and take five wickets in the same Test. Stokes, 34, is also now only the third man in Test history to have scored 7,000 runs and taken 200 wickets after West Indies' Garry Sobers and South Africa's Jacques Kallis. But the performance came at a cost for Stokes, whose career has been blighted by hamstring trouble, as he struggled with cramp and more general soreness. Meanwhile a bicep problem in his right arm emerged on Sunday's final day in Manchester. His latest injuries are perhaps unsurprising given a heavy workload that has seen lively fast-medium bowler Stokes already send down 140 overs -- the most he has bowled in any series. However, Stokes, the leading wicket-taker of the series with 17 at an average of 25.2, expects to take the field at the Oval on Thursday as England attempt to seal a 3-1 campaign triumph. "Hopefully I will be alright going for the last one," he told reporters. "It's just a workload sort of thing. We got a fair amount of overs and everything starts creeping up on you. I'll keep trying, keep going and as I say to all the bowlers: pain is just an emotion." Stokes, who said "I've physically been better," added: "I'll always try to run through a brick wall for the team. "I don't want to eat my words but the likelihood I won't play (at the Oval) is very unlikely." England seemed well set for victory at Old Trafford when India collapsed to none for two before eroding any bit of a 311-run deficit on first innings. But KL Rahul and India captain Shubman Gill kept England at bay with an excellent third-wicket partnership of 188. Stokes, who did not bowl on Saturday, had Rahul lbw for 90 during an eight-over spell on Sunday morning and England hopes were high when Jofra Archer finally removed Gill for 103 on the stroke of lunch. However, Joe Root's drop of Ravindra Jadeja from the next ball proved expensive, with the India all-rounder and Washington Sundar batting out the rest of the day as both left-handers made unbeaten hundreds. "When the reality (hits) with where the game drifted towards, there is obviously going to be that comedown," said Stokes. "You can get the vibe that we've thrown everything and not been able to get over the line, there is that sense of disappointment and almost heartbreak –- me being a captain, I was as well." But Stokes acknowledged it was also part of his role as skipper to raise England's morale, saying: "I've got to be that upbeat person as well."
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
India have not ruled out Bumrah for the final Test, says Gambhir
India head coach Gautam Gambhir said they had not ruled out playing pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in the final Test against England at the Oval this week as they look to avoid a series defeat. Bumrah has already played three Tests in the series, the maximum workload team management had targeted for the bowler after he spent three months on the sidelines with a back injury before returning to action in April. India snatched an unlikely draw in the fourth Test at Old Trafford on Sunday but trail the hosts 2-1 in the five-match series. "We haven't had any conversation around the combination for the last Test," Gambhir said. "No decision has been made on whether Jasprit Bumrah will play or not. Ultimately, whoever plays, they will try and do the job for the country." India captain Shubman Gill suggested it might be left up to Bumrah to make the call. "If he feels like he's fully fit and available for us, I think it would be a great deal for us," Gill told the BBC. India went into the fourth Test with a depleted bowling attack having rested the injured pace duo of Akash Deep (groin) and Arshdeep Singh (hand). Bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy had already returned home after a knee injury cut short his tour. Anshul Kamboj made his Test debut in Manchester but Gambhir said they would have a full set of fit bowlers at their disposal for the Test at the Oval, which begins on Thursday. "All the fast bowlers are fit," Gambhir said. "There are no injury concerns." However, India will be without stumper-batter Rishabh Pant, who has been ruled out of the series finale after fracturing his foot while batting in India's first innings in Manchester.
