England are hoping to prove that “old is gold” after banking on a vintage attack for their must-win Ashes Test at Emirates Old Trafford.
With record wicket-taker James Anderson returning to the XI less than two weeks before his 41st birthday, the home side are set to roll out the oldest pace attack in Ashes cricket since the Australian class of 1928.
That was the last time either side fielded four seamers aged 33 or above, a bar England will clear with ease when local favourite Anderson joins 37-year-old Stuart Broad, 34-year-old Chris Woakes and Mark Wood, the baby of the group at 33.
Their last remaining twentysomething, Ollie Robinson, made way for Anderson after struggling with back spasms during last week’s win at Headingley, and England’s collection of veterans even extends to 36-year-old spinner Moeen Ali.
“I was always told that old was gold,” said the all-rounder, who will continue to bat at number three in Manchester.
“Somebody said it was the oldest attack since 1920-something. As somebody who’s quite old, I think it’s a great thing to be part of.
“But it’s not just old, it’s Jimmy, it’s Broady, Woakesy, Woody – they’re really good bowlers, good guys and hopefully they can get some wickets.
“You always know what you’re going to get, especially from those four seamers. Myself…you never know what you’re going to get, but with those guys you definitely know how good they are.”
Just a few short weeks ago Moeen was happily enjoying his red-ball retirement, only deciding to return to the fray after Jack Leach’s injury left England without an experienced spinner.
Now, as well as performing an important job with the ball, he finds himself pulling double duty in the pivotal number three position that was vacated when Ollie Pope dislocated his shoulder at Lord’s.
Harry Brook briefly inherited the mantle in the third Test but moved back down to his preferred position at five for the fourth innings and produced a knock of 75.
Moeen had initially volunteered to go up the order on a one-off basis but has been persuaded to remain in place to allow Brook to settle in the middle order.
That is entirely in keeping with an international career that has been built around selflessness and flexibility, occupying every spot from one to nine over the course of 66 Test caps as well as performing a variety of roles in the white-ball set-up.
“I just thought it was best for the team and the other guys more than myself,” he admitted.
“That’s the most important thing. I think Brooky is a great player and will be a great player, I just personally feel five is great for him. The impact he can have there is much more than he probably can at three at the moment. I just feel right now, for the team, it’s probably best I go three. I feel fine about it.”
Moeen has five Test centuries to his name but the last of those came in December 2016 and, although he is deliberately cautious about his latest positional change, he is also open to the idea of concluding his career with a dream finish.
“You’ve got to be a bit realistic. If it happens it would be amazing and I would absolutely love that, but I don’t ever look too far ahead,” he said.
“We’ll see, if I’m playing well and I get in I have made Test hundreds before and it’s not like I can’t do it. It’s just when you’ve been out of Test cricket a while…even before the series, I wasn’t actually that worried about my bowling. It was more the batting.
“But things happen for a reason. I genuinely believe that and I’ve always believed it. That’s why when the call came (to come out of retirement) I thought it’s an opportunity I can’t turn down.
“I’m a big one on faith and destiny and all that. It would be amazing to win an Ashes and finish Test cricket properly.”
Moeen’s comeback has already yielded one significant milestone – reaching 200 Test wickets at Headingley – and he now stands just 23 away from 3,000 runs.
Only 15 players have ever achieved both landmarks, including three Englishmen in Sir Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and Broad.
Moeen joked: “I think that means more to my dad!
“It would mean a lot to me as well, but dad is the one who is buzzing for it. Hopefully I can get there. I think it would make my family proud.”
IPL: Mumbai Indians condemned to last-place finish after 18-run defeat to Super Giants
Rohit Sharma's half-century was not enough for Mumbai Indians as they slipped to an 18-run defeat to Lucknow Super Giants at Wankhede Stadium.
The defeat consigned Mumbai to bottom place in the Indian Premier League for the second time in the space of three seasons, after losing 10 matches this year.
LSG were also left to lament their misfortune, as despite reaching 14 points, they did not qualify for the play-offs.
KL Rahul's 55 got the ball rolling for Lucknow, but their innings was ebbing out until Nicholas Pooran's dazzling 29-ball 75 took them to 214-6, despite the efforts of Nuwan Thushara (3-28) and Piyush Chawla (3-29), who stepped up in Jasprit Bumrah's absence.
Rohit's 38-ball 68 set the tone for what looked set to be a promising Mumbai chase, as he struck 13 boundaries around a short rain delay.
However, Mumbai went from 88 without loss to 120-5 in the space of six overs, leaving the tail with too much of a mountain to climb.
Data Debrief: Lucknow miss out
While Mumbai sit bottom of the pile yet again, it is a case of what might have been for LSG, who for the first time in their three-season history, failed to make the top four.
Fourteen points is often enough to get over the line and into the play-offs, but their poor net run rate of -0.667 means they miss out.
Tape ball programme can help England find unorthodox talent – Richard Gould
The England and Wales Cricket Board hopes to unearth a new seam of talent beyond the game’s traditional league structure with a national tape ball scheme that allows players to thrive without “whites, willow and leather”.
The practice of using a soft ball wrapped in electrical tape to aid swing and variable bounce is a common one in Asia, where it has helped produce express pace bowlers like Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi and spinners such as Rashid Khan and Shakib-al-Hasan, but has been slow to enter the mainstream conversation in the United Kingdom.
The Chance to Shine charity has long pioneered tape ball cricket as part of its engagement hubs and now, with the ECB keen to live up to its lofty aspiration of becoming the most inclusive team sport in the country, it is at the heart of a new core cities programme designed to engage ‘diverse communities in urban areas’.
Speaking at a launch event where games were hosted in a warehouse space in Birmingham, ECB chief executive Richard Gould was optimistic about reaching out to those with an interest in cricket but limited access to the pavilions and prepared pitches in the club setup.
“We talk about clubs with picket fences around them. In the past that has been seen as the preserve of the ECB. We’ve missed a complete trick on that,” he said.
“When we talk about the recreational game we’re not just talking about Premier League clubs and village cricket clubs now. We’re talking about all forms of cricket that take place.
“You can play the game anywhere, any time, with anybody, in any environment you want. You don’t have to have whites, willow and leather to do it. You can just pick up a bat and a ball and have some fun.”
As well as fulfilling its remit of reaching out to all comers at a grassroots level, Gould also believes there are benefits to finding cricketers with different styles who have learned the game outside the traditional, private-school heavy pathways.
“Without doubt there are,” he said. “We have to get out and try to find the talent. More to the point, we have to try and find talent in areas that we haven’t normally looked for it.
“I do think county pathways will be looking to make sure they don’t miss out on this talent. It’s just about punching through all of our normal procedures and finding ways to both get people in the game and unearthing that talent which may be unorthodox and great.”
Meg Lanning: Exercise obsession and not enough fuel led to Australia retirement
Former Australia captain Meg Lanning revealed her “obsession” with exercise and not eating enough precipitated her surprise international retirement late last year.
Lanning was at the helm of one of the most dominant eras the sport has ever seen but she missed last year’s Ashes for medical reasons and pulled the plug on her Australia career in November.
She opened up about her hidden health issues on the Howie Games podcast, explaining that running up to 90 kilometres a week coupled with eating two small meals a day led to her dropping from 64kg to 57kg.
View this post on Instagram“I was over-exercising and under-fuelling,” the 32-year-old said. “It wasn’t a physical thing. I’ve always been really physically active and liked that side of it, but it became a bit of an obsession.
“I’d maybe eat a couple of meals a day if I was lucky but they weren’t significant. Initially it didn’t start off as a deliberate thing, it just became a bit of a new normal.
“But it slowly crept into conscious decisions because essentially I felt good.
“I wasn’t getting injured like everybody was telling me I was going to do. It sort of just spiralled and I was in denial, even though everybody kept telling me something wasn’t quite right.
“I was not in a place to be able to go on tour and play cricket and give the commitment levels that were required for that Ashes series, mentally and physically.”
Lanning, who led Australia to five World Cup titles in total and Commonwealth Games glory in 2022, said her struggle was not officially diagnosed as an eating disorder.
“It wasn’t labelled as that but I was exercising a lot and I wasn’t eating enough to fuel that – it was a bit out of whack,” Lanning said.
“It was a bit of control because I felt very out of control with what my future looked like. I felt like I was in control of that and that made me feel better.”
Lanning sought help from medical professionals after also struggling with insomnia and continues to play domestically, while she has been signed for London Spirit for The Hundred this year.
“I dreaded night time because I knew I would go to bed and not be able to sleep,” she said. “That would make me so mad. I would just get more angry with myself. If you can’t sleep, you can’t do anything.
“I feel like I’m in a good spot now. Cricket is still part of what I do. But I wasn’t cut out for the international touring schedule and what came with all of that.”
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
