Kim Hughes has scored 88% of his career runs in tough batting conditions
Andrew Strauss may have to rest James Anderson or Stuart Broad for a game in the UAE
Pakistan's Umar Gul is bowled out as Bangladesh's fielders watch during the fourth day of their second and final test cricket match in Dhaka December 20, 2011. REUTERS/Andrew Biraj DHAKA …
Dean Brownlie: featured in a yet-to-be-published chapter of the Argus report titled, “Lessons from the Shield across the ditch”
The progress into Test cricket from the limited-overs game by Australia’s David Warner has been astonishing and highlights England’s old-fashioned thinking, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian. Back in the 70s, and even beyond that, there was a firm belief, certainly in England, that you did not need to tinker with the two international formats when it came to selecting teams. There were practical reasons, of a kind, in that it did not seem worth trying to develop a separate side for the few games that were played, sideshow as…
“Doug Bracewell was always going to be a tough customer,” writes Ian Snook for Fairfax Media. “He had to be just to keep up with his father Brendon. As a three-year-old he fully comprehended “line” and “length” when bowling in the nets and he understood the punishment if the ball travelled down the leg side. This lad was getting ready to play Test cricket.” Brendon is no ordinary individual and no ordinary coach. Cricket oozes out of every part of his body. A New Zealand international at the age of…
Are the injuries to modern-day fast bowlers really down to too much cricket, Dileep Premachandran asks, among other things, in the Sunday Guardian. Botham and Hadlee bowled nearly 44,000 deliveries between them in Test cricket alone. Neither possessed a body that would have made them candidates for a Gold’s Gym advertisement, but in their prime both were genuinely quick. There’s a lesson in there for those entrusted with charting a course for young pace bowlers….
Michael Holding: 14 wickets on a flat track at The Oval in 1976
Also: why Test cricket is like The Wire. And is Phillip Hughes really made out of a chunk of Ayers Rock? Andy Zaltzman discusses these and other thrilling topics (among them: why he is an eternal Chemplast and Napoleon Einstein fan) with Daniel Norcross of Test Match Sofa Download the podcast here (mp3, 25MB, right-click to save)….
It is often said that New Zealand raise their game when they face their Trans-Tasman rivals Australia but the reality over the past decade is quite different, writes Will Brodie in the Sydney Morning Herald. It’s as if sports-starved fans have contrived to accept the myth of Kiwi competitiveness out of hope for a compelling Australia v New Zealand series, desperate to avoid the dullness of the past decade of Test cricket played between these two teams….