2025-2026 Summer of Cricket

Smith and Atkinson batting very well. England halfway there! 😬 Don’t think this is as over as the commentators think, given NZ’s very depleted bowling attack.
 
Very tired after staying up till the end of that. What a great series win though! First series loss at home for England in a 3 match or more series since 2012, I think they said?

And very satisfying for NZ to do it after being 1-0 down, and losing so many bowlers, Phillips, Williamson to retirement, etc. Much like that 3-0 win in India, every player made a big contribution at some stage during the series … no real stand-outs, but just a great team effort. And a great display of depth in the side, too.

Good on England for showing some resolve on the final day, I was worried for a while there! Run outs definitely didn’t help them though.

Next up for NZ, two tests at home vs India, then four tests in Aus … dare I dream? Nah we’ll get smashed as usual! 😂😂
 
Thankfully there will be no more talk of moral victories and focusing on entertaining the public rather than winning.

England have 10 tests to sort themselves out before the Ashes start next year.
 
Seano said:
Same for Australia, Lefty...need to sort out our top order. And I'm not sure we can persist with Cameron Green either.
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Yes, we certainly do need to have a long hard look at our batting and there is time for new batsmen to settle in before the Ashes start.

However, the fundamentals of our team are solid and we have an excellent captain in Cummins and vice-captain in Smith.
 
I wouldn't be expecting much competition from England in the near future. From what I saw in the test series vs NZ, there's a real lack of leadership options in that side ... and a lack of quality in pretty much every aspect of the team - batting, bowling, spin bowling ... actually, ok, they have some decent pace/medium bowlers. Keeping is not a strong point.

For all McCullum did wrong, he did get them playing two years of their best cricket in ages. They certainly decimated us (NZ) in the first Bazball series over there. But then Broad retired, Anderson retired, Stokes declined, players who did well for them in that era like Bairstow, Leach and Robinson randomly fell out of favour. At that point they needed to start rebuilding and reign in their tactics a bit ... but it's been very scattergun since then and probably the pressure of yet another Ashes series quickly approaching every two years led to some short term decisions.

If I was them I'd just focus on the next test series. What's the best team we can select, who can we get in there as a solid, dependable leadership choice (even if not currently in the test side!) and let's try and grit out some real effort days of test cricket. Pick some players because you believe in their skill and give them a decent run in the side. Forget the Ashes, if you're playing well that will take care of itself.

But personally I have to say England have won what, five Ashes series out of 20 in the last 40 years ... they are not going to present a decent challenge in the Ashes series, so don't get your hopes up for an epic. There's the WTC to focus on and much better bilateral series out there to watch.
 
jamesgould said:
there's a real lack of leadership options in that side
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I did have it on in the background, but I didn't notice during the broadcast of the last test v NZ; a podcast I listened to mentioned that the Kiwis were giggling at how stupid and reckless the English were in throwing away their wickets in a game that was still winnable at the start of play.
 
jamesgould said:
I wouldn't be expecting much competition from England in the near future. From what I saw in the test series vs NZ, there's a real lack of leadership options in that side ... and a lack of quality in pretty much every aspect of the team - batting, bowling, spin bowling ... actually, ok, they have some decent pace/medium bowlers. Keeping is not a strong point.

For all McCullum did wrong, he did get them playing two years of their best cricket in ages. They certainly decimated us (NZ) in the first Bazball series over there. But then Broad retired, Anderson retired, Stokes declined, players who did well for them in that era like Bairstow, Leach and Robinson randomly fell out of favour. At that point they needed to start rebuilding and reign in their tactics a bit ... but it's been very scattergun since then and probably the pressure of yet another Ashes series quickly approaching every two years led to some short term decisions.

If I was them I'd just focus on the next test series. What's the best team we can select, who can we get in there as a solid, dependable leadership choice (even if not currently in the test side!) and let's try and grit out some real effort days of test cricket. Pick some players because you believe in their skill and give them a decent run in the side. Forget the Ashes, if you're playing well that will take care of itself.

But personally I have to say England have won what, five Ashes series out of 20 in the last 40 years ... they are not going to present a decent challenge in the Ashes series, so don't get your hopes up for an epic. There's the WTC to focus on and much better bilateral series out there to watch.
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Any ashes series over there is a massive challenge. We havnt won a series over there outright since 2001 (just think about the quality of sides we have sent in that time).England will most likely go into the series as deserving favourites.
 
For the first couple of years Bazball was great imo. Not just for England but for cricket as a whole. It brought attention back to Test level when T20 in particular was threatening to take over.

As James said, before Bazball England were in a rut and it was great to see them play such fearless and attacking cricket. Some of the scores they chased down were incredible!

It did need to evolve though which sadly it didn’t. Towards the end and especially in that third Test against NZ, it was almost a caricature of itself.

So what’s next? Decisions are needed on both the coach and the captain. Both offer ootions to previous incumbents, one feels like a backward step, the other could be a positive.

Root stepped in for the second Test after Stokes’ misdemeanour but that doesn’t feel like the right move longer term. Brook is the limited overs captain but he’s the most Bazball player we have and is still quite immature in lots of ways. Pope was the previous assistant captain but he looks to be out of the current thinking. I’m genuinely stumped (pardon the pun) on who the next captain should be.

Andy Flower is apparently the leading contender to take over the coaching role and I could get behind that. A bit more pragmatic than the evangelical mindset committed to attacking cricket that we’ve had over the last few years but still wants to be aggressive in his style of play.

Rob Key and the higher ups at the ECB have some big decisions to make!
 
EASBay17 said:
Any ashes series over there is a massive challenge. We havnt won a series over there outright since 2001 (just think about the quality of sides we have sent in that time).England will most likely go into the series as deserving favourites.
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It’s funny how international teams have these good matchups and bad matchups. NZ has won two test series in England in the last five years, so I look at it as not a difficult place to win if you play well. Same as India, they’ve only won one test series in NZ since 1968, and we beat them 3-0 in India in 2023, so I look at them as a pretty beatable opponent.

But then we play Australia and you just completely dominate us every time home and away, so to me you should pretty much destroy everyone. 😂

I think all these countries have problems with South Africa, but I’m sure if I looked into it they’d probably suck against Sri Lanka or Pakistan or something haha.
 
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