England tour of India 2021 News

Moeen Ali has announced that he will no longer play Test cricket and he has emphasized how he reached that big decision. He was called up to play in the recently-concluded home series against India after the first Test and Moeen has said that he struggled to “concentrate” on any aspect of the game to such an extent that he got the hint that he was “done” from the longest format of the game. Explaining his decision-making process, Moeen said that he felt that he wasn’t in with all his mind although he gave all he had to offer. He said it became impossible to feel belonged mentally although he was loving the return to Test cricket and relishing competition. Moeen was criticised for playing a “rash” shot in the first innings of the Oval Test that turned the tide in favour of India when all looked perfect for England. Moeen said that getting out to poor shots was not something new for him but it confirmed his feeling of not being “wholeheartedly” into it to himself. Moeen finished his 64-match long Test career with little distance from an iconic double landmark of 3,000 runs and 200 wickets and he did want to reach the milestones before hanging his boots. However, the final Test against India did not take place which prompted him to think “that was it”. "I felt like I was done, to be honest. I was hoping to play the last Test - there were a couple of milestones I wanted to pass - but once that game got called off, I realised that was it. Headingley was a great win but I just found I couldn't concentrate. I've played rash shots before and had poor games before. But I just felt like I wasn't in it. I've never felt that before. It's not that I didn't want to perform, I just didn't feel like I was fully wholeheartedly into it,” Moeen said. "You try your best. I just found it really hard to get in the zone bowling, batting and in the field. And the more I tried, I just couldn't do it. In the past when I came back into the team, it might take a bit of time but then I'm all in. But that series, I just couldn't do it. The atmosphere felt really good. It was really nice to be back in the dressing room. But I just found cricketing-wise it was a bit of a struggle." Moeen never went away from the radar of the selectors and the team for the longest format but since the 2019 Ashes series at home, he was never a permanent member of the side. He was brought into the squad for the second Test of the series against India in Chennai before flew back home as part of a pre-scheduled rotation policy. The move was criticised heavily and the team management was ridiculed for not having clear communication with Moeen on what sort of plan and future they have in their mind for him. Later, he was overlooked for the home series against New Zealand and then the first Test against India. Only a below-par performance in the first Test when the hosts missed the services and all-around ability of Ben Stokes that Joe Root and Chris Silverwood called him up back to the Test squad. He was stripped off England’s central contract and Moeen looks back on the development as a turning point that “did break” him up a bit. He acknowledged poor performances in the 2019 summer with the ball but also lamented inadequate preparation for bowling in Test matches against an all-strength Australia side. Moeen said that he felt he was going through the “peak” phase of his bowling and the contract snub was a tough pill to swallow. He said that the ECB explained to him that the team was not sure of the amount of cricket he will play in the longest format behind the move to not give him a contract. Having seen his career at crossroads, he decided to explore career opportunities in franchise cricket and by the time England recalled him to the Test squad against India in Chennai, he was already destined on a different path. "That did break me a little bit. I felt like I had a poor game [at Edgbaston in 2019] and rightly got dropped. But I felt I was at my peak in my bowling to that point. If you look back now, I didn't play towards the back end of the World Cup. We then had a Test against Ireland in which I hardly bowled and then two days of training for the first Ashes Test. It rained on those days, so I bowled indoors. "So, I didn't really get the preparation I would have liked and I didn't bowl very well in that game. But I felt like I was still at the peak of my bowling. Prior to that, I was bowling better than I ever had in Test cricket. And then I didn't get a contract. I had asked for a break and was told it was because they weren't sure how much I was going to play. It was very disappointing at the time. So I looked to crack on and play franchise cricket. "But then it possibly took too long to make my way back into the team. I didn't play enough first-class cricket and by the time I did get back into the team for that one Test in Chennai, I was on a different path. I don't think I lost interest in Test cricket but I think I lost the ability to do it as best as you can. Moeen was in contention to play another Ashes series in Australia irrespective of his harrowing record in the country and he admitted that the ambition of playing a high-profile series on the pitches he has not done well so far crossed his mind. However, he chose to walk out of it citing his own uncertainty and said that the feeling he developed while playing against India was strong enough to call it a day. "There was part of me thinking about the Ashes this winter. I would have loved to go back and do well because last time I didn't do so well. But I just felt like I couldn't do it for that long. It's such a long trip if I'm not 'in it'. If I felt like I did in India when I was out there, then I would probably retire after one match. So it's done, Moeen said. England will have to quickly find a spin-bowling all-rounder as the readymade option of playing Moeen Ali on spin-friendly condition is shut once for all. England don’t have a rich cupboard of spinners and Moeen’s retirement will only compound the complexity and spin-bowling issues for England cricket and the team management led by Root and Silverwood.

It might just be hours away from the first World-level final for a Test championship, but it has been a heck of a journey for the teams and players to participate in the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship. It is surprising how shorter formats like T20Is and ODIs had their World Cups or Wolrd level competitions so early in their life but it took 144 years for Test cricket to finally have its World level competition. There were doubts and aspersions cast over the points system and even the entire system of the WTC and how without the home and away format teams are going to be judged, how will it affect the games as a whole and many more. They still remain there, but could not take away the joy and that these two years of competitive Test cricket have given to the fans. Every game had a context and every move of the teams meant something in the end as it was all leading down to one thing- Lord’s, the mecca of cricket. However, Coronavirus arrived, it changed the points calculations system, turned the hot favourites as teams with outside chance and most importantly shifted the venue of the Final from Lord’s to Southampton. Now at Southampton, there are two teams, India and New Zealand and both of them would fight it out against each other for the ultimate inaugural Trophy. We at OneCricket tracked the journey of the two teams in two separate posts which you can find here and here. But along with the journey of the teams, there were several top-notch performances, both with the bat and the ball. While the top five batting performance of the WTC has already been enlisted here. It’s time to look at the top five bowling performances of the tournament. Josh Hazlewood vs India 2020 When India toured Australia last December, its Test journey towards the defence of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy didn’t really stat well as it folded for its lowest total in Test history (36) in the second innings of the first Test, a Day / Night affair at Adelaide. Part of the reason for that debacle was a menacing spell of fast bowling by a certain man called Josh Hazlewood. Usually the third wheel in the Aussie pace trident of Pat Cummins, Mitchell and Starc and himself, Hazlewood was different that afternoon. Having picked just one wicket in the first innings, where both Starc and Cummins picked four and three each, Hazlewood poured himself out in the second. He was on the money, never leaving his line and length and most importantly never allowing the batsmen to get into their comfort zones. All five of his wickets, except one, were batsmen getting caught behind the wicket by the wicketkeeper and captain Tim Paine. The only time a batsman deceived to charge him down (Ravichandran Ashwin), he bowled a climbing length ball, which got big on the Indian batter and his eventual shot was skied hook which landed safely in the hands of Labuschange at mid-off. His five-wicket haul in which he removed Mayank Agarwal, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha and Ashwin was pivotal in leading the Aussies to a great comeback win. Axar Patel vs England 2021 Playing a Test at your home town ground is special, it’s even more special if it is just your second Test in the career and then going on to picking a six-wicket haul in that game can take you to cloud nine. But how could one describe ending up with an 11 wicket match haul, two five-wicket hauls in the same match and getting a Man of the Match award to go along with all that? It’s indescribable, right? That’s exactly how Axar Patel felt when he played in the first Test at the newly revamped Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The local boy picked up six wickets in the first innings to bowl England out for 112. When India got bowled out for 145 in rely on that, Axar was once again on the money as the 27-year-old took another five-wicket haul to demolish the English batters and bowl them out once again, this time at 81 only. In both the innings, he made Jonny Bairstow, who was just drafted into the team, his bunny. No doubt, there was turn and spin on offer, but to utilise that and take more wickets than Ashwin while being in the same team playing on such a track was a work of the dreams. Jasprit Bumrah vs West Indies 2019 Jasprit Bumarah became only the third Indian ever to take a Test hat-trick and joined the league for Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan. But that hattrick wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t for a DRS call made by India skipper Virat Kohli. The first wicket among the three consecutive wickets that the man from Gujarat took was a peach of a delivery to Darren Bravo, who could do nothing but knick it to KL Rahul in the second slip. The second one, a booming inswinger to Shamarh Brooks, crashing onto his padas and hitting middle and leg as was shown in the review. The third one hit new man Roston Chase on the pads, but it was muted appeal by Bumrah. He was hardly even interested in going for the review after the umpire turned the initial appeal down. But as it turned out to be pitching in line, and hitting the wickets, the 26-year-old Indian pacer had the unlikeliest of the hattricks in his kitty. In that innings he took a total of six wickets, one prior to the hattrick and two post it, forcing West Indies to bundle out for 117. Tim Southee vs India 2020 Tim Southee has been in fine form throughout the World Test Championship picking 51 wickets in the seven games that he has been a part of. However, it was his performance against India in the first Test that got the attention of all the people. In that game, he picked up four wickets in the first innings, playing a great role in restricting India to 165. There was swing on offer and on green top with the overcast condition, Southee can be considered second best only to maybe Jimmy Anderson. He got the wickets of Prithvi Shaw, Rahane and Ashwin along with that of Mohammad Shami. However, it was his second innings five that made all the difference. He removed two settled players Mayank Agarwal (58) and Rishabh Pant (25) to speed up New Zealand’s victory. Along with these wickets, he also removed Hanuma Vihari, Ashwin and Bumrah. Kyle Jamieson vs Pakistan 2020-21 Another New Zealand bowler who pitches it up and tries to swing it, Kyle Jamieson also enters the list with his riveting 11 wicket match haul achieved against Pakistan in the WTC. The tall fast bowler picked five in the first innings which included prized scalps of the likes of skipper Mohammad Rizwan, Fawad Alam and opener Abid Ali. However, it was the second innings and his six-wicket haul in it that impressed the most. To get Azhar Ali’s wicket, who was set and batting quite nicely, Jamieson bowled a leg stump line from around the wicket but kept the balls a bit short of good length. Getting frustrated, Ali finally knicked one as Jamieson’s persistence followed. Along with Azhar he once again removed Rizwana, Faheem Asharaf and Haris Sohail. Special Mention: Stuart Broad vs West Indies 2020 There have been various spells in the WTC which have been great and various bowlers like Lasith Embulduniya from Sri Lanka, Naseem Shah from Pakistan and Jofra Archer from England have had spells to remember but not all of them could be a part of it. However, one spell that deserves a special mention is that of Stuart Broad against West Indies. Having lost the first match against the visitors and then lost their original skipper Joe Root, England were finally forced to call upon Stuart Broad whom they had left earlier in the first Test. With a statement to prove, Broad picked six wickets in the second Test to draw the series level. Then, needing to win the last Test to win the series and take the Wisden Trophy which they had lost to West Indies in 2018, the 34-year-old turned on the heat, picking six wickets in the first innings to roll Windies over for 197. In the second innings, he picked up four more wickets to finish the game with a 10 wicket haul. With the last match of the inaugural edition of the WTC still left to be played, could we be in for a treat and could we see the best bowling spell yet to be bowled? To know all that, walk with OneCricket as we cover the entire action unfolding in the Final of the WTC through our app and website.

Reiterating his commitment towards the England cricket team, pacer Jofra Archer has said that he has his eyes set on the ICC World T20 and The Ashes series scheduled towards the end of the year. However, he has ruled out any hurried return rushing to the cricket field and said that he has made peace with sitting out of the entire upcoming English summer where the hosts will play as many as five Tests against India. “One thing I am determined about post-elbow operation is not to rush my comeback because my primary focus is to be playing for England in the Twenty20 World Cup and Ashes later this year,” Archer wrote in his column for Daily Mail. “Those are my targets. If I come back before then and manage to play in the home Test series against India — then fine, so be it. If I don’t, I am quite prepared to sit out the summer.” He has said that the chance of adding few more years in his career is significantly higher if he reduces some months out of it due to a lack of surety over his fitness level. Having played with a recurrent injury over the last last couple of years, Archer asserted that if he does not time his return well, it could well mean the end of his cricketing career. “I just want to get this injury sorted once and for all and that’s why I’m not looking that far ahead or at dates for a return to action — because if I don’t get this right, I won’t play any cricket. Period. I am not going to do myself any good by coming back before I’m fully fit, so I will take my time and do what is best for me and my life,” Archer added. Detailing his elbow injury that went under the knife last Friday, Archer said the option of going through surgery was the last one on the table and he decided to go ahead with it only after all the other methods such as resting and injections failed to produce desirable results. He had gone through another surgery on his hand after injuring while cleaning a fish tank at his home. The finger surgery ruled him out of the ODI series against India and the IPL 2021. He made a high-profile return in the county championship for Sussex in the game against Kent but could not walk away unscathed. He could bowl only a few overs in the second innings and walked off the field holding his right elbow. “Surgery was always the last option and we wanted to exercise every possible strategy before we went down that route. It was the last thing on the list. It is not always a fix and in four weeks we will find out how things have gone,” Archer said. “But after playing for Sussex against Kent earlier this month, it wasn’t a difficult decision to go down the surgery route because trying to manage the injury with rest and pain-killing injections clearly wasn’t working.” The elbow injury first surfaced on England’s tour of South Africa in late 2019. Since then, Archer has been in and out of the England squads. He played only two out of four Test matches against India before travelling back to the UK after the T20I series.

India’s latest spinning star Axar Patel, who wreaked havoc in the Test series against England has said that the English batsmen don’t read the deliveries from the hand of bowlers (spinners) and hence they are always unsure of the nature and type of delivery a bowler delivers. In an interview with The Indian Express, Axar Patel also opened up on his thought process in the series against England and said that bowling stump to stump line denies the English batsmen opportunities to sweep and reverse sweep as they can’t pick the variation from the hand. Bowling outside the line of stumps allows them a free hand to play their favourite swipe shot. “If they are in doubt whether it’s spinning or not, they just play sweeps and reverse-sweeps. If one bowls stump-to-stump, then it gets tough for them but if the ball is pitched outside off-stump or leg-stump they go for the sweep. They don’t read the ball from my hand, instead, they go by where it’s pitched,” Axar Patel said to The Indian Express. Axar missed the first Test of the series due to a knee injury but was included in the playing XI starting the second Test. He was instrumental in India’s fightback in the series after a big loss in the first Test. He picked up 27 wickets from three Tests at a staggering average of 10.59 runs per wicket.

Jofra Archer has suffered yet another injury setback as his elbow injury has resurfaced in his return to the County championship game against Kent in Hove. Archer went back from the field after bowling just five overs in Kent’s second innings of the game. Sussex coach Ian Salisbury confirmed in his address to the press that Archer’s elbow was sore and hence his inability to open the bowling in Kent’s second innings created confusion in the Susses team. However, he opened the bowling and bowled five overs to extract the opening wicket of Jordan Cox in what could well be his last over of the game as suggested by Salisbury. “I think there was some confusion about the state of Jofra’s elbow. Ben thought he was going to bowl but his elbow was sore and there was confusion over that and he couldn’t bowl. If you saw today, he’s not going to bowl tomorrow. You’ll have to ask the ECB,” Salisbury said. Jofra Archer first suffered this elbow injury on England’s tour of South Africa in late 2019 due to stress fracture. He recovered to make it to the IPL 2020 but the problem resurfaced on the tour of India earlier this year. The elbow injury combined with a freakish finger injury ruled Archer out from two out of four Tests against India. Archer’s elbow injury has been a persistent headache for England team management especially with the Ashes scheduled to take place at the end of this year. A lot of hope and expectations were built on Archer’s return to the longest format for Susses after going through surgery on his finger. However, another episode of recurrent elbow injury has squashed England’s hopes of settling down concerns with regard to Archer’s fitness and availability in the Test format.

Kuldeep Yadav has suffered a steep downward curve in his career. From being called as India’s number one spinner after claiming a fifer in Australia in 2019, to not finding a place in even an IPL playing XI, Kuldeep’s career has gone full circle. He warmed the benches for both India and KKR while newcomers came and performed on their ways to success. He also lost his place in the ODI team due to poor returns in the wicket column and leaking too many runs. He has felt disappointment over missing a place in the Indian team, but the exclusion at the KKR has particularly affected him leading him to question his own abilities. In an interview with The Indian Express, Kuldeep said that the Knight Riders did not play him even in Chennai where pitches were tailor-made for spinners like him. The exclusion left him shocked but he was helpless at it. “I was especially when I didn’t find a place in my IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders. I wondered, ‘am I that bad?’ It’s a team-management decision and it would be wrong to go and ask them. I wasn’t played in Chennai during the IPL despite knowing it’s a turner. I was a bit shocked but couldn’t do anything. The bio-bubble life has also thrown challenges for everyone. When I am not playing, nothing looks nice,” Kuldeep said. Kuldeep has also been dropped from a jumbo Indian squad for the tour of the UK where they will play New Zealand and England. India have selected four spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar but Kuldeep has not found a place in the team.