England

Luke Wood is set to make his England ODI debut in the Netherlands but has not played a 50-over game for three years. As such, his call-up to Matthew Mott’s first white-ball squad for the three-match series which starts on Friday, squeezed in between the second and third New Zealand Tests, is a revealing moment.

England batter Joe Root has replaced Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne at the top of the ICC men’s Test rankings, following his recent run of form. Root, who recently became only the second England batter to score more than 10000 Test runs, has been in fine touch during the ongoing home series against New Zealand, producing knocks

It may take some time for the shock to wear off, but when it does it may strike New Zealand how close they were to winning this Test – which, given the final make-up of their XI – might have counted among one of their most remarkable wins. A post-tea mishit to a fielder, a

England have added Mark Alleyne and Neil Killeen to their coaching staff for the ODI tour of the Netherlands. The pair will form part of the team supporting new white-ball coach Matthew Mott in his first engagement since being appointed in May. Alleyne worked previously with England’s T20I players in the Caribbean earlier this year,

Moeen Ali has confirmed his willingness to return to Test cricket for this winter’s tour of Pakistan, and has announced that he is officially “unretired” following a conversation on Sunday morning with England’s new head coach, Brendon McCullum. Moeen called time on his Test career in September, after claiming 195 wickets in 64 Tests, as

A tough day in the field for Stuart Broad was made all the more gruelling on Saturday, after a 6am wake-up call to tell him that the Nottinghamshire pub that he co-owns was on fire. Firefighters were called to the award-winning Tap & Run country pub in Upper Broughton, near Melton Mowbray, at about 3.20am

Tom Cooper, the veteran Australian batter, is set to play his first ODI in nine years next week after being included in the Netherlands squad to play England in three World Cup Super League ODIs in Amstelveen. Cooper, 35, has made 41 appearances for the Netherlands across ODI and T20I cricket and was part of

Jack Leach will make an immediate return to England’s Test team after the selectors named an unchanged XI for the second Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge, starting on Friday. Leach, for whom the Lord’s Test had been his first at home since the Ashes in 2019, had to be substituted out of the

Big picture Are you not entertained? Thus was the mood music from a raucous four days of the first LV= Insurance Test at Lord’s. In so many ways, it was immaterial whether England won or lost that opening contest of the summer, so long as they put on a show that captivated a few wavering

Mark Alleyne, the former England and Gloucestershire allrounder, will join Welsh Fire as an assistant coach ahead of their upcoming men’s Hundred season. Alleyne, who represented England in 10 one-day internationals and captained Gloucestershire to nine one-day trophies in seven years, joins head coach Gary Kirsten and fellow assistants Matt Maynard and Jason Kerr to

Adil Rashid has insisted that he has “not closed the door on Test cricket” and has been in contact with Brendon McCullum, England’s new coach, about the possibility of returning to red-ball cricket after an absence of three-and-a-half years. Rashid’s last Test appearance came in Barbados in January 2019 and he has not played a

If Stuart Broad learned one thing from his dramatic post-Ashes axing, it was to not look too far beyond his next match. The old “one game at a time” phrase couldn’t be more yawn-inducing but Broad’s approach is much more nuanced than that. So, like his wise words to the England team mid-Ashes drubbing about

Two players, great mates, both winners. But the contrast in the joy expressed by Ben Stokes and Joe Root over England’s first-Test victory over New Zealand was palpable at Lord’s on Sunday. Root, by his own admission, unburdened by the captaincy – not so much in terms of his personal performance after notching up yet

Joe Root said he had been spurred on by the opportunity to “pay a bit back” to Ben Stokes after his innings of 115 not out guided England to a five-wicket win against New Zealand at Lord’s in their first Test match since his resignation as captain. Stokes described Root as “Mr Dependent” in the

Stuart Broad says that England will carry their new-found positive approach into the clutch moments of their 277-run chase, after Joe Root’s unbeaten 77 and a streaky but vital half-century for Ben Stokes had taken the fight to New Zealand on an absorbing third day of the first LV= Insurance Test at Lord’s. Broad himself

As Kyle Jamieson hooked a short ball from James Anderson down the throat of Matthew Potts at deep fine leg five balls after the lunch break on the opening day of the English Test summer, with New Zealand in dire straits at 45 for 7, it appeared out of the question that the World Test

Jack Leach has been withdrawn from the first LV= Insurance Test against New Zealand at Lord’s, and is a doubt for next week’s second Test at Trent Bridge, after suffering concussion symptoms following a heavy fall in the outfield. Concussion protocols allow for a player to be substituted out of the game so long as

Moeen Ali has been awarded an OBE for services to cricket in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, and has conceded that “the door is open” to a possible return to Test cricket under Brendon McCullum’s new England regime. Moeen, 34, retired from Tests last summer, after claiming 195 wickets in 64 matches, in addition to 2914

Matthew Potts, the Durham seamer, has been preferred to Craig Overton and will make his England debut in the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s which starts on Thursday. Potts, 23, has been the standout bowler in county cricket this year, taking 35 Championship wickets at 18.57 for Durham. Ben Stokes, England’s new captain,

The champions are back. One year ago to the day, New Zealand arrived at Lord’s for the first of three seismic Tests: the first two – a draw in London followed by a convincing win in Edgbaston – gave them only their third-ever series win in England and their first since 1999; the third was

Surrey 129 (Jacks 51, Smith 3-13, van Meekeren 3-32) beat Gloucestershire 92 (Higgins 37, Curran 4-14) by 37 runs England have gone left-arm crazy in white-ball cricket, picking as many as five left-arm seamers in their 14-man squad for a three-match ODI series in the Netherlands next week. Two of them, Sam Curran and Reece

David Payne and Luke Wood are in line to make their England debuts against Netherlands in Amstelveen next month after being included in a 14-man ODI squad which features five left-arm seamers. The three-match series, which runs from June 17-22, takes place between England’s second and third Tests against New Zealand, meaning players involved in

England’s fast-bowling injury crisis has allowed Matthew Potts to emerge from the outer and bowl himself into a 13-man Test squad for the first two Tests against New Zealand, a call-up which he admitted on Monday “wasn’t on the radar at all” at the start of the season. Potts, a 23-year-old seamer from Sunderland, had

Ollie Robinson‘s cascade of injury and misfortune has been compounded by the news that he tested positive for Covid-19 last week, on the day he was due to turn out for a County Select XI to prove his fitness against New Zealand at Chelmsford. Robinson was ruled out of the tour match after reporting stiffness

Brendon McCullum has suggested that he will look to reintegrate a number of England’s white-ball stars into the Test side – naming Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone as players who could be part of his future plans. McCullum was unveiled as England’s new Test coach at Lord’s on Friday, speaking at

Despite its grand pretensions, international cricket is a pretty small world, and perhaps no-one could understand this better than a son of Dunedin – the sort of one-horse (and several albatross) town where everyone knows everyone, and nobody’s business stays their own for long. And so, while Brendon McCullum admitted to some mixed feelings as

Brendon McCullum has admitted that his appointment as England’s new Test head coach was “a big risk taken by everybody” but believes there is strong core of talent on which to begin the side’s rebuild. McCullum was named as the man to take charge in red-ball cricket earlier this month, stepping down from his role

Ollie Robinson’s hopes of an imminent Test recall have hit another setback, after he was forced to withdraw from the County Select XI to face the touring New Zealanders at Chelmsford on Thursday, having reported stiffness in his back during the pre-match warm-up. Robinson, one of Wisden‘s Five Cricketers of the Year, made his Test

Eoin Morgan, England’s white-ball captain, says he will need to take it “week by week” if he hopes to lead his side out for this winter’s T20 World Cup in Australia, but is prepared to own up to feeling “cooked” at any stage in this year’s busy itinerary. Morgan, 36, has not played any competitive

Andrew Strauss says that England’s ambition is to become the “best in the world at all formats of the men’s game within the next five years”, after announcing a panel of experts for the ECB’s high-performance review that includes Sir Dave Brailsford, the former head of the British Cycling team that topped the medal tables