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26th over: England 130-0 (Crawley 53, Duckett 75) Nyauchi has a big LBW appeal turned down when Crawley misses a flick across the line. It was full enough but delivered from wide on the crease and would swung past leg stump.
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That’s the end of a comfortable morning session for England’s openers, who had a look at the bowlers for a few overs and then started to go through the gears. Zak Crawley hit some lovely drives in his 86-ball 53; Ben Duckett found gaps here, there and everywhere to race to 75 from 71.
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22nd over: England 112-0 (Crawley 51, Duckett 59) Victor Nyauchi, another right-arm seamer, comes on for the first time today. Duckett blazes his second ball through extra cover for four, a stand-and-deliver special. I wonder whether, even now, Duckett is a little underappreciated – not necessarily for his productivity but just how much fun he is to watch, and how rare/unique it is for an England opener to have so many boundary-hitting options. He’s so creative and could time the pants off an overused metaphor.
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Crawley, no slouch himself, tucks a couple off the pads to reach a classy, largely serene fifty, his first in 11 Test innings. It’s tempting to say it was inevitable, given the modesty of the opposition and the quality of the pitch, but I’m not so sure: a pharmaceutical grade Crawley performance would have been 0 and 1 against Zimbabwe followed by 64 and 62 in the first Test against India, then 191 off 172 in the second.
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Crawley celebrates reaching his half-century”,”caption”:”Zak Crawley celebrates reaching his half-century.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1747914132000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”07.42 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1747915348000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”08.02 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1747914518000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”07.48 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”07.48″,”title”:”A half-century for Zak Crawley”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 22 May 2025 09.19 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 22 May 2025 05.00 EDT”},{“id”:”682f0c7c8f08bab187fac6a1″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
21st over: England 105-0 (Crawley 49, Duckett 54) AND THERE IT IS, THE FIRST CENTURY OPENING PARTNERSHIP FOR ENGLAND IN A MEN’S TEST SINCE 1 JUNE 2023. Crawley brings up the milestone by waving Muzarabani to third person for a couple.
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This is interesting: Sky are reporting that Ben Stokes has clarified his comments about Jacob Bethell in yesterday’s press conference. Apparently he was referring to the squad rather than the XI, so as things stand it’s still two from Crawley, Pope and Bethell for the first India Test.
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14th over: England 69-0 (Crawley 27, Duckett 39) Richard Ngarava has changed ends to replace Muzarabani. Stuart Broad thought he should have started from this end. A drive from Crawley beats Curran in the covers and bounces away for four, the last action of a comfortable first hour for England.
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Duckett.”,”caption”:”Ben Duckett on the first morning at Trent Bridge.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1747911678000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”07.01 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1747912150000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”07.09 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1747911934000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”07.05 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”07.05″,”title”:”Drinks: England off to strong start”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 22 May 2025 09.19 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 22 May 2025 05.00 EDT”},{“id”:”682eefca8f089d49b2790144″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Zimbabwe’s team includes Ben Curran, brother of Tom and Sam, the brilliant white-ball allrounder Sikandar Raza and the classy middle-order batter Sean Williams.
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(For those who aren’t familiar with him, Ben’s father Kevin was a feisty, hard-hitting allrounder who played 11 ODIs for Zimbabwe and spent the best part of 15 years in county cricket. Had the residency qualification been shorter than 10 years, he would surely have played for England.)
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England Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes (c), Smith (wk), Atkinson, Tongue, Cook, Bashir.
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Zimbabwe Curran, Bennett, Ervine (c), Williams, Raza, Madhevere, Tsiga (wk), Ngarava, Muzarabani, Chivanga, Nyauchi.
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That means an early look at a) Zak Crawley and b) Zimbabwe’s exciting fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani. It’s overcast at Trent Bridge – although Stuart Broad, the local expert, thinks it’s a bit too cold for the ball to swing.
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Ben Stokes says he would have bowled as well.
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If the history of English cricket tells us anything – and a reminder came only last winter with the women’s team and a bloodbath in Australia that forced a change of captain and coach – it is that these things tend to operate in accordance with the Ashes cycle. Whatever iteration of Bazball this is, its place in history – and a few jobs in the set-up – will likely be defined by the Test results over the next nine months.
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Hello and welcome to the third and final act of Bazball, the high concept film that has consumed English cricket for the past few years. The first two acts followed a narrative arc that Robert McKee would approve of, if only he knew what the hell cricket was. In 2022 and 2023 we had the set-up, with England playing some astonishing cricket and sweeping (almost) all before them. Last year they encountered conflict and obstacles, with series defeats in India and Pakistan and a growing backlash against the B-word.
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Now it’s time for the resolution. In the next eight months England will play 11 Test matches, starting with Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge over the next four days, and the historical judgement on Bazball will be cast. We all know what a happy ending looks like: Sydney, early January, Ben Stokes holding a little urn and haemorrhaging tears of joy like the modern man he is. But not every great film – and Bazball is most certainly that – has a happy ending: Mulholland Drive, Se7en, Casablanca, Chinatown. If England draw with India and are pummelled by Australia, the euphoria of act one will be forgotten. Forget it Baz, it’s Australia away.
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There’s something else to consider. England have crept up to No2 in the Test rankings, a subject that we are contractually obliged to mention only when they have a chance of reaching top spot. There’s a disconcertingly feasible scenario whereby they can win the Ashes in Australia and become world No1 at the time. Don’t get too excited, though; the World Test Championship is still off limits. Even if England win all 11 Tests, they’ll lose so many points for a slow over-rate that they’ll probably still be stuck in mid-table.
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England are expected to beat Zimbabwe at a canter, so the main focus will be on the individual narratives. Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope are realistically playing for one place against India; Sam Cook has finally been dropped from England’s greatest uncapped XI; Shoaib Bashir has been retained despite a bruising six months; and Josh Tongue, who has bowled ferociously for Notts since returning from injury, plays his first Test since the Lord’s Ashes Test of 2023.
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Lord’s 2023. Jonny Bairstow’s stumping, Ben Stokes pumping sixes to all parts. The stakes felt bloody high then, even though we were still in act one. Now it’s the start of act three, and it’s time for this laboured metaphor to stop the denoument.
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Play begins at 11am, with the toss at 10.30am.
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Key events
34th over: England 178-0 (Crawley 67, Duckett 108) A couple of close shaves for Duckett. He smashes a pull over midwicket for four – in the air but past the leaping Raza – then mistimes a stiff-wristed push that loops just short of Nyauchi.
The rapidly growing perception that Duckett is in a hurry is reinforced when he pings four more off the pads. For those of you who were frozen in time four years ago, an England opener is 108 not out from 106 balls and it is entirely normal.
Ben Duckett makes a 100-ball century
33rd over: England 169-0 (Crawley 67, Duckett 100) Duckett works another single to reach a fine, typically creative century at exactly a run a ball. He’s hit 15 fours, all round the park, and will fancy a few more. As will Crawley, who forces Raza stylishly through backward square leg for his ninth four.
32nd over: England 164-0 (Crawley 63, Duckett 99) Duckett moves closer to his fifth Test hundred by clipping Nyauchi for three. Later in the over he misses a lusty drive outside off stump, smiles puckishly and then collects a single to keep strike. One more.
31st over: England 159-0 (Crawley 62, Duckett 95) Duckett skids back in his crease to clatter Raza between cover and extra cover for four, a perfectly placed stroke. In this form Duckett could find the gap in a refutation.
30th over: England 151-0 (Crawley 59, Duckett 90) Duckett moves into the nineties with a dab behind square for two, a shot that also brings up the 150 partnership. The last time two England openers added 150 in a home Test was 10 years ago, Alastair Cook and Adam Lyth against New Zealand at Headingley. England still managed to get hammered in that game.
29th over: England 149-0 (Crawley 59, Duckett 88) Zimbabwe were lightly criticised this morning for picking an extra seamer rather than an extra batter. They need every bowler they can find now.
When play resumes, Crawley sweeps Raza fiercely through square leg for four. It looks like there’s an all-day buffet at Trent Bridge.
Ngaraza is really struggling. They’ve brought a cart onto the field but the pain is such that he can barely get into it. Eventually he is driven off, shaking his head in frustration.
28.2 overs: England 142-0 (Crawley 55, Duckett 85) Duckett reverse sweeps a full toss wide from Raza wide of slip for four. It was in the air but perfectly safe.
It may also have reduced Zimbabwe to three seamers. Ngaraza ran after the ball and has pulled up with either a back or a hamstring problem. There’s a break in play while he receives treatment; he’s crouched over and looks in a lot of pain.
28th over: England 137-0 (Crawley 54, Duckett 81) Victor Nyauchi starts with a jaffa to Duckett that hits something on its way to through to the keeper. He goes up with feeling for caught behind but Nyauchi turns straight on his heels; replays show that it brushed Duckett’s jumper.
Duckett is denied by a fine stop in the covers, then edges straight between slip and gully for four. That was a terrific over, probably the best of the day.
27th over: England 133-0 (Crawley 54, Duckett 77) Time for some spin from the allrounder Sikandar Raza. He can spin the ball both ways and is hiding it behind his back as he runs up. No sign of turn in his first over and England pick up three low-risk singles.
The 13 active players walk back onto the field of play. Old ball, flat pitch: Zimbabwe are facing an afternoon of exceedingly hard yakka.
Lunchtime reading
Lunch
26th over: England 130-0 (Crawley 53, Duckett 75) Nyauchi has a big LBW appeal turned down when Crawley misses a flick across the line. It was full enough but delivered from wide on the crease and would swung past leg stump.
That’s the end of a comfortable morning session for England’s openers, who had a look at the bowlers for a few overs and then started to go through the gears. Zak Crawley hit some lovely drives in his 86-ball 53; Ben Duckett found gaps here, there and everywhere to race to 75 from 71.
25th over: England 129-0 (Crawley 53, Duckett 74)
Thanks to Mojo Wellington for sending in the overseas TMS link.
24th over: England 125-0 (Crawley 52, Duckett 71) A gentle statgasm for you as we approach lunch. This is England’s first century opening partnership before lunch in a home Test since Lord’s 2009, when Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook reached 126 for 0 against Australia.
Four more to Duckett after a misfield in the covers. He has a modest conversion rate in Tests, 24 per cent, so will be keen to make this count.
23rd over: England 117-0 (Crawley 51, Duckett 64) Duckett reaches well outside off stump to toe-end a short ball from Muzarabani for four more. When Muzarabani gets it right he’s a handful, as he reminds us with a beauty that beats Crawley’s attempted drive. He has bowled better than figures of 9-2-37-0 might suggest.
A half-century for Zak Crawley
22nd over: England 112-0 (Crawley 51, Duckett 59) Victor Nyauchi, another right-arm seamer, comes on for the first time today. Duckett blazes his second ball through extra cover for four, a stand-and-deliver special. I wonder whether, even now, Duckett is a little underappreciated – not necessarily for his productivity but just how much fun he is to watch, and how rare/unique it is for an England opener to have so many boundary-hitting options. He’s so creative and could time the pants off an overused metaphor.
Crawley, no slouch himself, tucks a couple off the pads to reach a classy, largely serene fifty, his first in 11 Test innings. It’s tempting to say it was inevitable, given the modesty of the opposition and the quality of the pitch, but I’m not so sure: a pharmaceutical grade Crawley performance would have been 0 and 1 against Zimbabwe followed by 64 and 62 in the first Test against India, then 191 off 172 in the second.
Stokes clarifies Bethell comments
21st over: England 105-0 (Crawley 49, Duckett 54) AND THERE IT IS, THE FIRST CENTURY OPENING PARTNERSHIP FOR ENGLAND IN A MEN’S TEST SINCE 1 JUNE 2023. Crawley brings up the milestone by waving Muzarabani to third person for a couple.
This is interesting: Sky are reporting that Ben Stokes has clarified his comments about Jacob Bethell in yesterday’s press conference. Apparently he was referring to the squad rather than the XI, so as things stand it’s still two from Crawley, Pope and Bethell for the first India Test.
20th over: England 98-0 (Crawley 44, Duckett 52) Crawley and Duckett put together plenty of fifty partnerships but their last century stand was against Ireland two years ago so they won’t turn their nose up at three figures here.
Crawley moves them closer with a smooth swivel-pull for four when a short ball from Ngarava sits up nicely on leg stump. The way this is going, you could almost introduce an honesty box and let England pick their score. 550 for four off 100 overs? Go on then.
19th over: England 93-0 (Crawley 40, Duckett 51) Muzarabani, on for Chivanga, begins his second spell with a terrific delivery that straightens off the seam to beat Crawley’s defensive push. The rest of the over is of similar quality and Crawley plays out a maiden.
18th over: England 93-0 (Crawley 40, Duckett 51) Ngarava moves around the wicket and beats Crawley with a good delivery bowled from very wide on the crease. He moves back over for Duckett and has an LBW appeal turned down when Duckett whips across line; it was missing leg stump on the angle.
17th over: England 92-0 (Crawley 39, Duckett 51) Duckett slashes Chivanga high over the slips for four to reach a typically breezy fifty from 47 balls. The last 41 runs have come off only 28.
Crawley and Duckett are being rewarded for their patience in the first half hour, when batting was reasonably tricky. Now it feels like a buffet on a very flat Trent Bridge pitch.
16th over: England 85-0 (Crawley 37, Duckett 46) England are flying now. Duckett bunts Ngarava through mid-on for four; Crawley drives sweetly to the same boundary, long-off for him.
“Nothing better than a Test match Thursday for me,” begins Ettienne Terblanche. “Half a mind to skive off work, grab a Guinness and a lasagne and spend the afternoon listening to the gentle/violent thok! of leather on willow while bathing in the afterglow of Ange calling me his best mate. I live in Johannesburg, so I may be imagining that last bit.”
15th over: England 75-0 (Crawley 32, Duckett 41) A gentle outswinger from Chivanga is driven imperiously for four by Crawley, a shot that wouldn’t have looked out of place during his masterpiece at Old Trafford in 2023.
This Test feels like a shootout between Crawley and Pope, and it could be that a very good score isn’t enough. There’s a precedent here, and it even involves a Crawley.
Going into the one-off Test against Sri Lanka at the end of the 1998 summer, Graeme Hick and John Crawley were fighting for one place on the Ashes tour. Hick sealed his place on day one with a stylish 107. Or so we thought: Crawley raised him with a spectacular 156 on the second day and ended up getting the nod. (As it transpired Hick, left out of the original party, was in the team by the second Test but that’s another story.)
Drinks: England off to strong start
14th over: England 69-0 (Crawley 27, Duckett 39) Richard Ngarava has changed ends to replace Muzarabani. Stuart Broad thought he should have started from this end. A drive from Crawley beats Curran in the covers and bounces away for four, the last action of a comfortable first hour for England.
13th over: England 63-0 (Crawley 23, Duckett 39) Crawley is beaten on the inside by an inducker that whooshes past off stump. Chivanga is swinging the ball consistently, which will make him a threat against Crawley in particular if he can find the right line.
12th over: England 59-0 (Crawley 22, Duckett 37) It took about two overs for Nasser Hussain to start sledging his co-commentator, the former Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell, about the flippin’ murder Test of 1996.
The sweepers go out on the off side which suggests the plan is what Alistair Campbell has been asking for. Famous for once asking his bowlers to bowl wide to England; I think this present attack are gonna bowl to England. Bumble, wherever you are, they’re still bowling wide.
Muzarabani, who appears to have excellent control, starts to hit a sixth-stump line to Crawley. After four balls he throws in the surprise nipbacker; it beats Crawley on the inside but hits him too high for an LBW appeal.
11th over: England 59-0 (Crawley 22, Duckett 37) Tanaka Chivanga, a pacy swing bowler, replaces Ngavara (5-1-22-0). He finds some immediate inswing to Duckett, but he’s too straight and Duckett clips consecutive boundaries through midwicket and backward square.
A leg-side short ball is helped round the corner for four to make it 12 from the over. England are officially at cruising speed.
10th over: England 47-0 (Crawley 22, Duckett 25) Crawley moves into the twenties with a pristine cover drive for four off Muzarabani. A Hawkeye graphic on Sky shows how ruthless England have been this morning:
9th over: England 43-0 (Crawley 18, Duckett 25) An inviting short ball from Ngarava is flogged over midwicket for four by Duckett, who started slowly but is vrooming through the gears: 10 from his first 19 balls, 15 from the last nine.
8th over: England 36-0 (Crawley 16, Duckett 20) Duckett cracks Muzarabani through extra cover for four more, then makes it three boundaries in four balls for England with a bread-and-butter work off the hip. England have almost doubled their score in the last two overs.
“Having followed Notts via livestream this year,” begins John Starbuck, “I can say that one thing about Tongue is that when he takes a few, they come very soon after each other. Delicious anticipation awaits.”
A tall Notts quick who takes wickets in clusters? Oh go on then.
7th over: England 26-0 (Crawley 16, Duckett 10) England’s openers usually go off like a pair of pacemakers, but they’ve been relatively restrained this morning.
Saying which, a wide half-volley from Ngarava gets what it deserves when Crawley rifles a boundary through the covers.
6th over: England 19-0 (Crawley 12, Duckett 7) Crawley drives uppishly and just wide of the bowler Muzarabani, who reached to his left in his follow through but couldn’t get there. The next delivery is a big nipbacker that hits Crawley amidships.
So many overseas fast bowlers, including greats like Dale Steyn, struggle to find the right length when they first play in England. Muzarabani has started impressively in that regard.
5th over: England 16-0 (Crawley 10, Duckett 6) Duckett is beaten, trying to cut a ball from Ngarava that was too close even for him to manufacture the shot. Crawley, who has started confidently for a man in such putrid form this year, drives pleasantly through the covers for a couple before punching another drive that Ngarava fields in his follow-through.
That’s the lovely thing about this moment, right now. Zak Crawley could feasibly be playing his final Test match, or this could be the start of an 11-Test run in which he bashed 1178 runs at 62 and cements his reputation as one of the great rough-track bullies. Everything’s on the table
“If we’re after more misconstrued ends to a film,” begins Ant Pease, “I think it’s hard not to mention Dancer In The Dark. Sure, the final minutes contain the occasional speed bump on the road to total contentment, but a lot of people will overlook the bottom line; that a vulnerable young man got his sight back, in what to me is a wonderful endorsement of the American healthcare system.”
I haven’t seen it so I can’t really comment. Not sure I’ll bother now if it’s another bloody feelgood romp.
4th over: England 13-0 (Crawley 8, Duckett 5) The first short ball of the day, from Muzarabani, is pulled effortlessly for four by Crawley. Fair to say the ball isn’t flying through, so if England get to lunch in good shape they could run riot this afternoon.
Muzarabani ends an otherwise excellent over, and actually the short ball was worth a try, by slipping one past Crawley’s defensive push.
3rd over: England 9-0 (Crawley 4, Duckett 5) Ngarava bowls a very accurate second over, with a suggestion of shape away from the left-hander. Duckett leaves all six deliveries with an extravagant, Mike Gatting-style shouldering of arms defends the majority and it’s a maiden.
“Lots of talk about Cook and fair enough – he’s earned this,” says Phil Harrison. “But I’m really pleased to see Tongue back in the equation. He was excellent in those Tests he played in 2023 and I reckon he’ll be a handful in Australian conditions. How many quicks do you reckon England will take to Australia? Given how many bases they want to cover and how injury prone most of them are, I reckon it could be about eight or nine!!”
I can’t say for certain because he hasn’t answered my WhatsApps for years, but I get the impression Rob Key is more excited about Tongue than any of the other emerging fast bowlers. The Bairstow rumpus overshadowed the first three days of the 2023 Lord’s Test, when, in the circumstances, Tongue bowled exceptionally well.
As for the seamers, yep I think they will have at least nine over there or at least on standby. Ten if you include Jimmy in the coaching team, ready for an emergency call-up with the series 2-2 going into the final Test at Sydney.
2nd over: England 9-0 (Crawley 4, Duckett 5) Blessing Muzarabani, a very tall right-arm seamer, shares the new ball. He has 51 Test wickets at 21 and, though the majority came against Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ireland, plenty of good judges think he’s the real deal.
He pitches the ball right up, inviting the drive in the hope the ball will move enough to find the edge. Crawley clips a straight ball through midwicket for three and Duckett lashes a cover drive that is well stopped. There has only been a little bit of seam movement so far, nothing in the air.
1st over: England 5-0 (Crawley 1, Duckett 4) The pitch looks flat but the overhead conditions could make this a tricky morning session for England.
Crawley works a single to get off the mark, then Duckett clubs a short ball to the extra cover boundary. Ngarava has an LBW appeal turned down when Duckett is beaten by a bit of seam movement. It was too high but that will encourage Zimbabwe.
“Are there any changes to playing conditions for this match compared to a standard five-day Test?” asks James Higgott. “More overs per day? Different lead required for the follow on? Making up time lost to rain?”
I think there are supposed to be 98 overs a day, but England can’t manage 90 so good luck with that. The follow-on mark is 150 runs rather than 200.
The left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava will open the bowling to the out-of-form Zak Crawley. For the first time in the Bazball era, Crawley’s place in the team is under threat.
Never a truer five words
“Test cricket is back,” says Marcus Abdullahi. “Rejoice!”
The players are ready. Zak Crawley is smiling, Ben Duckett is always smiling. Let the Test match summer begin.
“First Cook in an England team for seven years,” says Andrew Goudie. “How time flies.”
Doesn’t it just. We’re all gonna die I’m afraid.
“It looks to me that Zimbabwe have got it right, with five bowlers, and England are limited to four,” says John Starbuck. “They are a seamer short and, unlike some earlier selections, they have only one all-rounder (Root, a limited spinner) given that Stokes won’t be expected to exert his frail body just yet. Shoaib Bashir might have done a good job, even if we have a limited choice of possible seamers.”
John, John, John, over the next eight months we’re going to have a gazillion conversations about the balance of the England side. Let’s just enjoy ourselves for a few days – or until Zimbabwe reach 200 for 3 in reply to England’s 121 all out and Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue have gone off injured and Ben Stokes is into his 12th over of offspin because he’s pulled both hamstrings.
“Se7en?” sniffs Matt Dony. “Not a happy ending? John Doe gets exactly what he wanted, and who doesn’t love a lovely little present? After these next eight months or so, Baz and Stokes can wander off into a sepia sunset for a well-earned rest, like Mills and Somerset.”
Oh, so now we’re making jokes about the brutal murder of innocent fictitious characters?
You sicken me.
A lovely bit of pre-match reading
The teams
Zimbabwe’s team includes Ben Curran, brother of Tom and Sam, the brilliant white-ball allrounder Sikandar Raza and the classy middle-order batter Sean Williams.
(For those who aren’t familiar with him, Ben’s father Kevin was a feisty, hard-hitting allrounder who played 11 ODIs for Zimbabwe and spent the best part of 15 years in county cricket. Had the residency qualification been shorter than 10 years, he would surely have played for England.)
England Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes (c), Smith (wk), Atkinson, Tongue, Cook, Bashir.
Zimbabwe Curran, Bennett, Ervine (c), Williams, Raza, Madhevere, Tsiga (wk), Ngarava, Muzarabani, Chivanga, Nyauchi.
Zimbabwe win the toss and bowl
That means an early look at a) Zak Crawley and b) Zimbabwe’s exciting fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani. It’s overcast at Trent Bridge – although Stuart Broad, the local expert, thinks it’s a bit too cold for the ball to swing.
Ben Stokes says he would have bowled as well.
England named their team a couple of days ago, with the aforementioned Sam Cook making his Test debut at the age of 27. His record in domestic cricket, all in Division One, is outrageously good: 300-odd wickets at an average of 18. He could be England’s Scott Boland.
England Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes (c), Smith (wk), Atkinson, Tongue, Cook, Bashir.
After years of being ignored because England were also-rans being overshadowed by the World Test Championship, the rankings are back!
This four-day Test is the first meeting between the sides since 2003, when England won both Tests by an innings. Interesting team they had, a mix of generations with a couple of bolters.
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Marcus Trescothick
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Michael Vaughan
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Mark Butcher
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Nasser Hussain (c)
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Robert Key
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Alec Stewart (wk)
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Anthony McGrath
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Ashley Giles
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Matthew Hoggard (Richard Johnson in second Test)
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Steve Harmison
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James Anderson
Ali Martin’s preview
If the history of English cricket tells us anything – and a reminder came only last winter with the women’s team and a bloodbath in Australia that forced a change of captain and coach – it is that these things tend to operate in accordance with the Ashes cycle. Whatever iteration of Bazball this is, its place in history – and a few jobs in the set-up – will likely be defined by the Test results over the next nine months.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the third and final act of Bazball, the high concept film that has consumed English cricket for the past few years. The first two acts followed a narrative arc that Robert McKee would approve of, if only he knew what the hell cricket was. In 2022 and 2023 we had the set-up, with England playing some astonishing cricket and sweeping (almost) all before them. Last year they encountered conflict and obstacles, with series defeats in India and Pakistan and a growing backlash against the B-word.
Now it’s time for the resolution. In the next eight months England will play 11 Test matches, starting with Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge over the next four days, and the historical judgement on Bazball will be cast. We all know what a happy ending looks like: Sydney, early January, Ben Stokes holding a little urn and haemorrhaging tears of joy like the modern man he is. But not every great film – and Bazball is most certainly that – has a happy ending: Mulholland Drive, Se7en, Casablanca, Chinatown. If England draw with India and are pummelled by Australia, the euphoria of act one will be forgotten. Forget it Baz, it’s Australia away.
There’s something else to consider. England have crept up to No2 in the Test rankings, a subject that we are contractually obliged to mention only when they have a chance of reaching top spot. There’s a disconcertingly feasible scenario whereby they can win the Ashes in Australia and become world No1 at the time. Don’t get too excited, though; the World Test Championship is still off limits. Even if England win all 11 Tests, they’ll lose so many points for a slow over-rate that they’ll probably still be stuck in mid-table.
England are expected to beat Zimbabwe at a canter, so the main focus will be on the individual narratives. Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope are realistically playing for one place against India; Sam Cook has finally been dropped from England’s greatest uncapped XI; Shoaib Bashir has been retained despite a bruising six months; and Josh Tongue, who has bowled ferociously for Notts since returning from injury, plays his first Test since the Lord’s Ashes Test of 2023.
Lord’s 2023. Jonny Bairstow’s stumping, Ben Stokes pumping sixes to all parts. The stakes felt bloody high then, even though we were still in act one. Now it’s the start of act three, and it’s time for this laboured metaphor to stop the denoument.
Play begins at 11am, with the toss at 10.30am.