Well after a lengthy furlough, I’m back—for the time being, at least. I’ve taken the past month or so to complete an application for a Literature PhD program as it’s one of those things that’s always been in the back of my mind, one of those life goals that a person must attempt to accomplish or else go to his grave with the nagging feeling that, no matter what he’s done with his time on earth, he’s out for 99. I’m inspired by Dawid Malan and Toby Roland-Jones, what can I say? If you’ve read this blog before, and I know that’s not a lot of people, you’ll know that Malan is my favorite player and Roland-Jones—a good Middlesex man—ranks high on my list, as well. Both of these players looked as though they might miss out on England selection despite their relative dominance in the County championship over the past few years and, in Malan’s case, some impressive spells in a couple foreign T20 leagues. Recently, though, they’ve gotten their caps and played well enough to join their compatriots in Australia later this year. So here’s me having just turned 34 thinking that the Ph.D. ship might have sailed when I saw Malan and Roland-Jones accomplish that elusive something relatively late in their careers and I reconsidered. Maybe, I will end up the Dawid Malan of literary criticism, how about that? What a gravestone that would be. Author of The Beehive; widely considered the Dawid Malan of literary criticism. Hmmm. Doesn’t sound half bad, now that I think about it.
I have been keeping up with the cricket world even though I haven’t been writing as much as of late, and, man, did we have some interesting happenings—the West Indies test victory against England chief amongst them. I know they didn’t win the series, and I know they sandwiched their victory with two shellacking at the hands of the Brits, but that win in the middle was absolute magic. I usually watch an international cricket match from a neutral’s perspective since I’m not exactly from any of the countries that play and, even if the US did play at a high level, I can’t say I’m the most patriotic of Americans right now, so I probably wouldn’t care. That said: I was pulling hard for my neighbors to the south. There’s been a wave of media and commentators who have lamented the death of West Indies test cricket, especially following the nature of their defeat in the first test, but they were made to rethink their criticism somewhat after that second test where a couple of the West Indies men showed themselves to be real players and a couple more demonstrated that little something that indicates there might be more to come from them in the future. Instead of dreading the further decline of the nation as a traditional cricketing force, then, I find myself looking forward to their next series; I’m looking forward to seeing if they can build upon what some are calling the greatest upset in test cricket history their last time out. I think Kraigg Braithwaite, Shai Hope, and company have a little momentum. Here’s to another success next time around.
So the summer test season comes to an end, and we inch ever closer to the big one in November. I’ve been fairly critical of the way England handled the handoff of their captaincy considering the paucity of matches leading up to the Ashes, but it looked like it would work out alright for them after defeating the South Africans and having beaten West Indies the way they did in the first test. After the Windies unlikely conquest in the second one, though, the same exact questions remain for England, and these will be the same questions that endure as they head down under. They seem to look indomitable in one match and then entirely impotent in the next match—the toss being the decider most of the time. Now, some of this is down to their newfound aggressive batting style. You’re always going to risk a collapse with the devil-may-care approach they take with them into the crease, and, I forget the statistic exactly, England has encountered some difficulty in breaking that 300 mark in recent tests as a result. They will need to be more consistent in order to win the Ashes, of course, and that’s top to bottom. A lot of pundits want to point to that 4, 5, and 7 spot, or whatever it is, but I say that all the players need to perform more often. There are those unbelievable performances every couple of matches—there’s always those—the ten-fors, the 150s, the highlight performances—they’re what makes England so formidable. There’s also a preponderance of collapses, too, and the Aussies will see those as a chink in the armor, for sure.
The Australians also took a tough defeat at the hands of Bangladesh at the same time England lost to West Indies. I don’t see this as a big deal, however. Bangladesh is obviously on the rise, they were playing in their home conditions, and, let’s not forget, they beat England there not so long ago. The loss should be enough to galvanize Australia as opposed to asking questions of them the way West Indies did to England. I suppose you can guess who I’m taking heading into the series. It should be good fun, nonetheless.
Thanks for checking back in, everyone.
Until next time.
