All over in India

The last test of the series would have been predictable in other recent visits to India, the home team winning by an innings in the end with only Crawley, root and Bashir coming out with much credit.  But before the match started I was hopeful of BB England closing the gap in the series.  Well in the end England did lose the series 4-1 but even this eternal optimist can no longer claim we are the best Test team in the world.  To be fair we didn’t do any worse than any of the other teams that visit India and we probably worried them more than most, to go down by this margin isn’t a disgrace.  But when it counted Stokes’ England were not clinical enough and amongst all the brilliant BB cricket this problem has reared up often over the last twelve months.  When England (or anyone) last won in India our spinners; Swann and Panesar, were better than the home team’s and we had a batting line up full of proven test class players.  This time around our inexperienced spinners done really bloody well but were not as good as Ashwin and Jadeja, not that we could reasonably expect them to be.  Also the Indian batsmen scored seven centuries to England’s three, and for once Stokes had a poor series, enough said.

For the first year of the Stokes/McCullum tenure England consistently fielded the best possible XI but from the start of the 2023 English summer this has not been the case.  We’ve got to wait until July for another England test match by which time we have to expect Harry Brook will be back in contention which means realistically either Foakes or Bairstow will have to make way.  Obviously coming from the Wicky’s union I would pick Foakes every time because he keeps with the effortless excellence we would normally associate with batsmen like Gower or Lara.  Fair play to mad Johnny for reaching 100 caps but compare him to all of the other sixteen Englishmen to have reached this milestone and he isn’t in the same class.  Maybe the selectors will decide to take a punt on a new face entirely which might be the best course of action.

With the retirement of the great Stuart Broad and the great Jimmy Anderson surely winding down, (despite looking fresh in taking his 700^th test wicket this week) there are opportunities in the pace bowling line up.  Chris Woakes will surely be in the mix this summer as will Mark Wood but these two are in their mid thirties so in the final stages of their careers?  For a while Ollie Robinson looked like he was going to be an automatic choice but his fitness appears suspect.  There are a few around the fringes like Potts and Tongue but what would we give to have Jofra Archer fit and in rhythm?  The biggest plus from the Indian tour however is the spin bowling options, all of a sudden we have a handful that can step up in test cricket.

Still on the subject of sport I watched some brilliant rugby this weekend, (obviously Union, not the headbutting competition practiced by convict colonies and northerners) in particular the England-Ireland match which meant the six nations will go down to the final weekend.  But although we call it the six nations I’m not sure this is entirely accurate.  Ireland’s two tries were scored by a New Zealander and in the Italy – Scotland match tries were scored by South Africans and an Australian.  I suppose this trend started in cricket and England have been as guilty as anyone but for some reason I think it devalues international rugby.

Tonight all the worlds’ media obsessed will be tuned into the Oscars beamed around the world from Hollywood.  For anyone who has been in isolation for their whole lives this is an award ceremony for people who are really good at playing ‘pretend’.  To complicate things further these famous pretenders pretend they like each other and everyone pretends the results aren’t fixed.  Or as we say round these parts, it’s a load of old bollocks.