Silly Point of View

ICC World Test Championship The urn is secure. Yet again Australia have put on a dominating performance to seal the Ashes within the first three matches, a pattern which has become so repetitive I doubt the English fans would want to make up early from now to support their team. According to the experts there was some quite optimism about the Bazball led English team while some called this Australian side as the worst one since 2010 but all that talk was buried by a team who has missed their major players in all three games so far. Josh Hazlewood out of the series, captain Pat Cummins playing only one game, Nathan Lyon left out for the second Test and now ruled out of the Ashes with hamstring, Usman Khawaja injured for the second test, Steve Smith out of the last match with Vertigo-like symptoms. This is the list of injuries the hosts have navigated in this series but the results easily in their favor. Fourth straight win at home against their rivals and unbeaten in the Ashes since 201...

ICC World Test Championship 2013. 2017. 2021 and now 2025. The last four times England has visited Australia for their most anticipated Ashes series, each time the series wrapped up after first three Tests with the home team taking the honors each time. On this instance, it just took a total of 11 days and 4719 balls (the second lowest bowled in any Ashes series before the winner was decided) for Australia to gain a 3-0 lead going into the last two Test matches. There is no doubt that the decorated Ashes series considered as the greatest event in cricket's history has been one-sided for decades now. To give you more context, since 1990 Australia has hosted 10 Ashes series, winning 9 of them except in 2010-11 when England won their first series in Australia after 24 years with the final score of 3-1. In the same timeline, England has hosted 9 Ashes where Australia have won three and drawn two even though England has been unbeaten at home since the infamous 2005 clash. The domination...

ICC World Test Championship We are back in familiar territory once again. Australia on the verge of sealing another home Ashes against their fierce rivals. Two easy wins on the back of a couple of magnificent POTM performances by Mitchell Starc has put the hosts 2-0 up and in a comfortable position. Australia were missing their regular captain Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, leading wicket-taker Nathan Lyon and regular opener Usman Khawaja at different moments in this series. However, the replacements have done a fabulous job ensuring the selectors that the back-ups can turn up when called upon putting Australian cricket in safe hands. Pat Cummins is confirmed to return for his first International match in 5 months while Nathan Lyon will slot right back in the XI at Adelaide. Pat Cummins will finally make his way back in the playing XI in the third Test at Adelaide England has given away two huge advantages already. The task is only going to get tougher from now on. And with the scoreline...

ICC World Test Championship 15 years. 17 matches. Time passed since England's last win in Australia. Another shambolic performance in Brisbane means Australia is now leading 2-0 in the series. Mind you, Australia were missing Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon in this game. That's a total of 287 matches and 1166 wickets absent from the Aussie attack. Their batting order has not been in a strong form for more than a year now. It couldn't have been easier than this for England to finally find that elusive win in an away Ashes. Joe Root also managed to break his century drought in Australia on the first day at The Gabba. England scored 334 in the first innings and still became the first team to lose a day-night Test after scoring more than 300 batting first. Poor bowling puts Australia in driver's seat It all started with that dreadful 20-25 over spell for England bowlers at the start of the second innings. I cannot remember the last time a team bowled so poorly w...

ICC World Test Championship Pink ball swerving under lights. Keeper standing up against pace and collecting short balls way over his head. Another 6-fer for the highest wicket-taker in Tests among left-arm pacers. A first Test ton for Joe Root Downunder. Teams scoring 325 even after losing their two top order batters for a duck.  And only 74 over bowled across the day?  The kind of day fans love to see in the 5-day format. Plus all this happening in a Day-night Test makes it even a better experience. There is still some hesitancy among players when it comes to Day-night Test cricket. Joe Root himself admitted before this match that he "personally" didn't think Ashes needs a pink-ball Test. After finally breaking the jinx of scoring a 100 in Australia, we'll see if his thoughts have changed. But all this talk shouldn't take away the focus from a brilliant innings under lights by arguably the greatest English cricketer. With his first ton here in 30 innings where he...

ICC World Test Championship Will they? Won't they? The question over the availability of Australian pacers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins' has been hanging since the start of the Ashes series. And even with a gap of 9 days between the first and second Test, both of them were not named in the 14-man squad for the day-night Test in Brisbane starting tomorrow. Hazlewood's hamstring injury he suffered in Sheffield Shield just before the start of the Ashes has not yet healed but captain Cummins' recent stints in the nets have fueled an outside chance of his inclusion in the XI. Since Usman Khawaja is also ruled out due to back spasm, Australia would love to get some experience back if Pat Cummins managed to make his much awaited comeback at the Gabba. With so many permutations and combinations possible, Australia is keeping the identity of their XI a secret until the last minute. England on the other hand have named their XI with the only change being Will Jacks replacing Ma...

ICC World Test Championship "Batting orders are overrated". This was a statement given by the Aussie red-ball captain  Pat Cummins  a few days back. Cummins was not part of the XI that played at Perth against their rivals England on a nightmarish Optus Stadium pitch. However, he saw his statement come true 'by chance' in a span of two days when  Travis Head  smoked the English bowlers all around the park with such disdain in the fourth innings to give his team an eight wicket win. A match that lasted only 847 balls and saw 32 wickets fall within six sessions had only one 50+ score in the first three innings until Australia were forced to shuffle their opening pair due to a niggle  Usman Khawaja  picked up in the match. Khawaja also did not open in the first innings when  Labuschagne  partnered the debutant  Jake Weatherald .  After opting to bat first on a pacy, uneven pitch England saw the wrath of steamy  Mitchell Starc , the fi...