Martial

How to take wickets on a flat road. Shoaib Akhtar. Intimidating. Fire. Aggression. Passion. Always gave his all for country.

@Cricket_Hippie @WG_RumblePants Team A wins the series 2-1 and is slightly stronger in both departments. More importantly they have a world class spinner. I'd like to have D Gough in there too [ perhaps in place of Harmison? - Hoggard - better swing bowler in English conditions ].

Tresco Strauss Vaughan KP Thorpe Collingwood Flintoff Prior Swann Hoggard Harminson Vs Cook Duckett Trott Root Bell Stokes Bairstow Ali Broad Anderson Sidebottom Attempted Balanced Eng Test teams of 21st century Who wins. Where’s my Howzat set? @WG_RumblePants #cricket

Perhaps the most underrated aspect of Pollock's bowling was his surprise short ball in early years of his career. Nipping the ball either way with consistency. He was also a much better batter than what his overall number suggest.

Jayasuriya smashing 17 balls fifty at Padang in Singer Cup or Afridi smashing 37 balls hundred at Nairobi. Both did that 30 years ago and were rightly the real game changers as far as modern and aggressive brand of cricket is concerned.

Have said it before too. Khurram Shahzad could be Pakistan's best bowler in next World Cup in South Africa. But knowing how things unfold, he won't even get picked in the squad.

Watching him right from the day he squared up Mark Vermeulen on debut and that WC spell at Kingsmead vs Pak. Anderson is still taking wickets with same hunger in his professional career.

@NoContextCounty That stance from John Simpson gives the Ed Joyce vibes. I guess he made his debut at Edgbaston when England went with some new faces for the ODI series during the 2021 summer.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTT

All young Pakistan batters should be forced to work on skills and tighten their technique in NCA with specialist coaches. There should not by any shortcuts if they want to succeed and have some sort of career or reputation.

That is a typical Abbas wobble-seam dismissal in English conditions.

Saud Shakeel has more skills to find success in ODI than every young batter in the country, but he never got fair chance or a longer run in this format.

Panesar was one of those eye-catching left arm spinners. He outperformed Swann in that 2012 series vs Pak. His battle with Younis Khan was watchable. He had a great way of appealing. May well have played more had a few things went in a right direction.

@hershybru @theanalyst Trescothick himself didn't leave much and used to frequently play those on the up drives/punches. This current England coaching phenomenon is different. Anyways, leaving the ball always remind me of your audacious leave against Kasprowicz at Newlands.

@theanalyst Trescothick hasn’t worked on him leaving on length.. 45% of all his dismissals he defends balls going over the pegs or outside the line of the stumps😉

Zak Crawley looks to have got a rough one today. desperately need better cameras and DRS in county cricket

Shaheen has always been a poor death overs bowler. He hasn't quite evolved or taken his skillset to another level. Has frequently lost his compusure under pressure. Decent to good bowler at country level but was never in class of top tier modern day bowlers.

@nimishdubey Abdul Razzaq has a strong case of hitting the ball near the sight screen as frequently, though he did that in more of a brutal way [ clearing the front leg and all that ] as compared to Ian Botham.

Lord yes, this was a trademark. Has anyone hit the ball so close to the sight screen as many times as Ian Botham has?

Fleming was a genuine swing bowler and could reverse it too [ action was tailor made for it ]. I remember that vicious reverse swinging yorker that went through Mark Ramprakash's defence in one of the Ashes Test.

Pak needs a fit Fakhar in South Africa for 2027 World Cup [ most likely be his last hurrah ]. An in-form Fakhar with his horizontal bat shots and skills would hugely benefit his side in such conditions.

@NoContextCounty Cook was spot on. There is absolute no alternative of spending time in the middle for four day cricket. You get to learn more about your own game and where exactly you need to evolve, regarding the technique in particular and temperament.

I was going to post something about KP’s comments on Cook/Bethell, but turns out he’s blocked me, so I’ll have to do it here. I fully understand the argument about being around the best players but it’s not exactly like he’d be playing club cricket, surrounding yourself with the likes of Chris Woakes and Beau Webster still has immense value. Would playing against Surrey’s 8 internationals in the side for the first game of the season, or a Notts side this week with Josh Tongue and Fergus O’Neill challenging your defence do you any harm? Alistair Cook hasn’t played in the IPL but he knows exactly what it takes to succeed in Englands top order, something JB has repeatedly spoken about being a huge goal of his. I feel the conversation gets muddled hugely over what the end goal of all of this is. I accept there is huge merit with the goal of long term development to playing in the IPL and learning from those around you but Jacob Bethell is England’s number 3 and he needs to hit the ground running this summer, how can you do that without playing? Do we want our test players learning more about their own game or showing us how good they are right now? Neither is wrong but I feel we as a cricketing culture need to decide the parameters of the final goal before making sweeping statements on the best way to get there.

@tds122 Nobody from current era can bowl that many overs in county cricket. That is another great hallmark for Wasim Akram. He bowled so many overs in a season for Lancashire. Had an insane workload, especially early on in his career. A once in a generational bowler.

The 90s . Genuine world class bowlers putting in the hard yards in county cricket . Name me a current international bowler who would survive & thrive on the rigours of a full county championship season plus the WTC . I'll start with two Mitchell Starc Mohammed Siraj .

@CricketopiaCom If I remember well, Lara smashed him in WI too the year prior to this. Kaneria still went on with a few words. And then the best ever player of spin smashed him with disdain. A series where Yousuf scored like a machine. That was also Lara's last Test series .

Never Sledge Lara! #ThrowbackThursday When Danish Kaneria tried to sledge Lara and got the treatment.

Ali Raza can be a triumph card in 2027 World Cup in South Africa. His good to hard length bowling at good pace is something his side would need.

Why no short leg in place if the pitch is playing like that? the captain there should have been more proactive.