15 Sept 2025 · 63 min
Daniel Norcross, Stefan Shemelt, Michael Carberry, and Vinny Carberry grade England's summer cricket performances. They assess Ollie Pope, Jacob Bethel, Joffre Archer, and Zach Crawley, weighing form against selection calls ahead of the Ashes.
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Hello, I'm Daniel Norcross. Welcome to the TMS podcast. Brendan McCullen's School of Cricket is out for the summer, and I'm alongside Stephen Finn, Michael Carberry and Stefan Shemelt to judge how each player has fared across the formats in England's home fixtures. Who heads home with an A star? And who could do better?
You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 live.
We're gonna go through the players, not every single one of them, because quite a few have played this summer and we're going to give them a grade. And apparently this is. This is old money grading. It's gcse, so you guys will know more about it than I do. We have an A down to an.
F. I'm not sure they grade GCSEs like that anymore.
No, that's why I said old school. It's old school. So now it's nine to one, but we're going to do A to F. Okay? So I'm presuming A is a 9, A is an 8 and F is 1. F must be 1. Somehow I don't know how we get down there. But we'll see. Maybe we'll work it out as we go along. Just trust us. All right? And so where did this summer all begin? Well, it began weirdly here at Trent Bridge, didn't it, against Zimbabwe, with a game that probably took on a great deal more significance than we imagined it would do. Four reasons, and the major reason being that Jacob Bethel did not play. He was the man in possession from the previous Test matches against New Zealand, who had only got that chance because Jordan Cox had bust his hand and because Jamie Smith was away on paternity leave. So once Jamie Smith had come back in the side, Ollie Pope was permitted to stay at three. And then he got the 170 odd here as England thrashed Zimbabwe, which is a pattern that has been repeated through much of this year. Actually, Zimbabwe have played Test matches and got absolutely walloped. But the problem then was that the one player that Jacob Bethel could have come in for got 170. And from that point on, we then had Jacob Beathel wandering around, running, running on the drinks. So the player I want to start with is Ollie Pope, because I would say, I don't know if you agree with me, Stefan, but in that top seven, there's only one slot that's really up for grabs. If you think about the way the England selectors have decided what the opening batting is going to be for the Ashes, we know it's Duckett and Crawley. We know Root is obviously going to play, we know Harry Brooks going to play, and Ben Stokes when fit, and Jamie Smith. So the one slot is Ollie Pope. So let's start with Ollie Pope. How has his summer been?
Ollie Pope's summer has been exactly how we would have imagined Ollie Pope's summer could have been. And I'm certain that as an extension of this, we will talk about Jacob Bethel. And I don't know if it was as simple as a decision as Ollie Pope made runs against Zimbabwe, therefore Ollie Pope had to remain in the. In the team against India. I think it would have been much easier for England to leave him out, obviously, if Pope hadn't got runs. But I would really like to think that England's selection or England's knowledge of their players or England's impression of their players didn't hinge on whether or not their incumbent number three got runs against a relatively average Zimbabwe.
Problem being though, that he didn't just get runs, he got a big hundred. And then you're saying, well, why, why would. How do we leave him out? And that was kind of the noise that was. Was happening when we. The whole summer started with that slight misunderstanding. Maybe Ben Stokes misspoke a little bit about how Jacob Bethel was obviously going to come straight back. Back once he'd come back from IPL duty. And he rephrased that or clarified it to mean the squad, not the team. Yeah, but ollie pope gets 170, you're not going to drop him, are you? Yeah.
And that was a really bizarre situation in that, you know, I was standing next to Ben Stokes when. When he. He said that the. Jacob Bethel comes straight back in. I was trying to remember. Exactly. You put two and two together and you probably know what's going to happen. Those of Stokes exact words.
Right.
And.
And we didn't, did we?
We did it. And I think it depends on, you know, what I'm trying to remember exactly what the question was in terms of is Jacob Bethel going to come back in? And Stokes thought he was talking about the squad. Every journalist in the room thought he was talking about the team. It was a misunderstanding. And I think there was a number of us journalists in the pub that night watching the Europa League final. And we were gradually getting messages from the England camp saying, Ben Stokes isn't exactly happy with what you've written today. And it was all cleared up. And then we spoke to Ben Stokes after the game and he used those words about, there isn't. There was an agenda that was twisted against Ollie Pope and it was a very strange situation. And at that point, well, we came away thinking, well, Ollie Pope's definitely going to be batting number three against India and we will take Ollie Pope's performances against India as the. As the barometer of where he is in terms of a Test match number three and his place in this team, and I'll go back to that point of. It is exactly what we would have expected. I think he's got a career batting average of 35, and across that series, he averaged 34. We learned nothing more about Ollie Pope than we didn't know already. And you could really say the same about Jacob Bethel across this summer. We don't know a great deal more about him than we knew already, other than he's an incredibly talented young prospect. But we don't yet know if he will go on to be successful at Test level or if he's ready to play Test cricket at the highest level at the moment, because he just hasn't played enough.
Well, he played one Test match, Michael, and it was an absolutely crucial match with the series in the balance. He came out to Bat at a really crucial moment. He got out to a pretty horrible shot. But this isn't having a go at Jacob Bethel. He'd barely pe. Picked up a bat. I mean, there was various statistics going around about the number of balls that he'd faced in the entire summer. And what was it? Steph was about 270odd. It was. It was something of that magnitude, wasn't it?
I think he'd bowled more balls by his own admission. He said that he should have batted more, didn't he? He did an interview after he scored that hundred and he said it before.
He made the hundred.
Did he say it before?
On the morning of the game, he was asked, you know, and he was on it. You know, I should have. I probably should have played more cricket. Then he went and made his maiden professional century and made for quite a good story arc across the day.
Yeah.
So. But back to Pope and. And by extension Bethel, because I think when we, when we're putting on together our report card, we may as well mark them both together.
They're intertwined.
They are intertwined. Their fates, carbs are intertwined. What have you made of Ollie Pope somewhere? Because look, he did get 100 against India, he got 100 against Zimbabwe. When he's good, he's very, very good. When he's not, it's the same Ollie Pope. A bit skittish. A bit. Those, Those familiar traits are still there, aren't they?
Yeah, yeah. I agree with Stefan. You. The needle for me hasn't really moved on Olymp that much this season. I think, again, it's been very chequered. You know, no disrespect to Zimbabwe, but you. You'd sort of expect him to score runs against Zimbabwe. I thought the. The 100 against India was, was. Was a great knock, but after that he struggled. It was very in and out.
Are people working him out? Is that part of the problem? Because it happens a lot in series. That Pope makes an impact at the start of a series and his impact reduces. I don't know whether that's fatigue or whether over the course of a five match series, bowlers start to get the hang of how they want to bowl at him.
Looking at him, the batsman, Ollie Pope, look, I've always felt watching him bat, there are issues within his setup, if you like, where I think a good bowler, if they're patient, can expose him. He's very cat on a hot tin roof when he goes to the crease. And I think he needs to learn to relax a little bit more. I think he has a little bit of an issue of playing straight as well. I've always felt that from the time I've watched him, bat never comes down straight. And you've got bowlers the likes of Stark and Bumrah swinging the ball around in our conditions, I mean, anyone's going to struggle.
Tends to fall over a touch, fall.
Over quite a lot. Bolt gets bowled a lot for, for a top order batter. So I think there's, there's always, you know, you remember this is a lad who started his career at Surrey as a number six. So to suddenly be thrust into an England setup at the top, you know, the highest level batting at 3. So I think there's going to be. I suppose you have to make some allowances maybe. And you're batting at six at the oval. Yes, so to speak.
Behind five usually pretty good batters in a dominant side.
One thing I would say when I talk about Ollie Pope averaging 34 against India across those five Test matches, I think if Ollie Pope averaged 34 in five Test matches in Australia, England can win the Ashes with that.
A number three that does that.
I think that would be enough.
Well, it's a really good point because actually when some statistics came out earlier this season about the relative scores of number threes for England over the years, he's actually comparable because, I mean, I think actually his career average at number three is nearer 40 overall, playing against a very good Indian side. So how on earth, Stephen, are we going to give him a grade in this report card? Because on the one hand we think he's not moved forward. On the other hand, if you put into context the role he plays, which is one that Joe Root doesn't want to do, no one seems to want to bat number three for England. He's doing something that nobody really seems to care for and he's actually doing it pretty much as well as anyone since Jonathan Trotter's done it.
Yep. It's very hard to decipher, isn't it? You're looking at it. And you think his natural batting position is in international cricket is a five or a six, I would say. But there's just no space in that Middle order. Route. 4, Brook 5, Stoke 6, Smith 7 is a very strong 4. 7 for me and one that is going to serving them really well. I think in Australia that, that middle and lower middle order. And I like him as a player. I think I do think he's a fantastic player. When he does score hundreds, they tend to be influential hundreds. He doesn't do it in the. In pointless times when other people have. I think there have been criticisms of players who've gone before who would score easy hundreds at easy times in series.
Ian Bell got that criticism quite a bit. Sometimes not fair, but. Yeah, exactly that. Sometimes, you know, when, when sides score 500, he was always getting 100.
Yeah. Whereas I feel like Ollie Pope's hundreds actually matter and make a difference within games. So for that reason, I like him as a player. And yeah, I think I would agree with Steph that if he would average 34 in the Ashes, England would take that and I think it would set England up for that middle order and lower middle order to really make inroads with the bat in hand.
Okay, look, we've got a lot of players to get through. We've got. We've got to give a mark. Has anybody here ever been a teacher? Carbs as a coach. So I think he's. I think he's closest. So I, I would like you to propose a mark. Given that a A is right at the top, then you've got an A, then you've got a B and going down towards F. What are we giving him?
Aren't they use as well there might be you.
If, if, if I can't see anybody around this table daring to give anybody that, I'm going to give you the name of a U. But, but who knows? We might do it.
I'll give him a B minus.
B minus.
Oh, I was in C territory, so I'm with. I wouldn't die on Carbs Hill to.
People with a B minus. B minus. B minus. Question mark minus, but no B minus. You happy with that, Vinnie?
Yeah.
Well, let's put that on his report card. He's got a B minus. It could do better, but he's doing great. But he's working hard. He's clearly working hard. I think we can give him that. There's a lot of effort going on there. One wonders if maybe a touch less effort might actually help him. Right, I want to move on to, for me, the most exciting development for English cricket this summer. And the player himself will probably bat that off and say, what do you mean, exciting development? I've been playing quite a long time for England, actually been playing quite a lot in the last year, but it hasn't felt like it. Joffre Archer. The return of Joffre Archer created a buzz and his very first spell was scintillating and magnificent. He picked up the wicket of Jaiswal really early on, didn't he with a catch at slip and it felt like English cricket was rejuvenated, that the idea of the Ashes started to be more than a pipe dream. The moment he came hurtling in from the pavilion end, it was, it was gorgeous. Vinnie, you're the fast bowler here, Joffre. Joffre himself has said, I've actually played quite a lot of cricket for England in the last year. I've done loads of 50 over games, plenty of T20 cricket. Where's this pin vindication of the approach to get Joffre Archer out absolutely fit? There seemed to be no ramifications, no injury problems and he appeared to bowl as fast on the first day of Test matches as he did on the last day of Test matches, give or take, you know, half a mile an hour. It was pretty impressive stuff.
Yeah, very, very impressive. And yeah, vindication for the way that he's been managed and handled, I think really impressive the way that he's managed and handled himself and the expectations that he puts on himself, which is the real challenge when you're injured as a fast bowler. You're sat there and they are long, hard, horrible hours of rehab when you just want to be out there playing cricket and it can become incredibly frustrating and then when you get your opportunity, you snatch at it and things don't click quite as well as you'd like them to. Whereas I've seen nothing of the like with Joffre. He makes bowling look effortless and natural, which clearly helps when you're coming in off the back of. Especially in test cricket we're talking here. He has played a lot of white ball cricket for England over the last 12 months. But test cricket in particular, to come in and get the flow of the game and make impacts immediately in that lorz Test match after having not played a test for a long time was something that's really impressive. And, and I think actually the, as you highlighted the fact that he didn't lose pace across the test matches really and was able to bow significant spells on the last day of that Lords game to get rid of pant to almost impale the wicket keeper when, when he bowled him on that last morning. So yeah, it's, it's been really heartening to see him back in an England shirt playing all three formats, not missing games for injury. He was rested, I suppose you could call it on the ice rink down at Cardiff. And rightly so. Yeah, rightly so. Not saying the other bowlers are expendable, but if I were to want to wrap cotton wool and Bubble wrap around anyone, it would be Joffre Archer. Especially looking at what we have coming forward. And that's the most exciting thing is now that we're at the end of the home international summer but looking forward in, in six, eight weeks time when they're on that plane to Australia and they're having their practice sessions in Perth and you're seeing that ball flying through to the wicket keeper on the 30 yard circle, that's what's really exciting.
Cobbs. I would have been tempted to give Joffer an A or an A star. The only thing that's holding me back is something that's not his fault.
He doesn't play for Surrey.
No, it isn't that. It's that the England management I think got their tactics with him slightly wrong by making him play at Old Trafford. Instead of the over winning. There were two one up and I know what they were doing, they were going for the kill. But Old Trafford, we've done enough games at Old Trafford to know that and seed enough cricket this summer as well. Where at that point Lancashire hadn't been able to force a win in any game. It's not a batting paradise, it's just a turgid, dull pitch for the most part. For the test match pitch and England ended up using Archer, it felt to me unnecessarily at the oval he would have been absolutely devastating on that surface on the first two days. The oval pitch is really spicy and I don't think that game would have got anywhere near a six run win to India if Joffre Archer had been fit and firing for that game. Instead they rested him for that game. So actually I think England lost a bit of Archer impact over the summer. But that is not Joffre Archer's problem, it's how he's being used.
Well I get, look for me I know Joffre fairly well. I just hope that the England management do learn from previous mistakes where when he first came on the scene, remember a test match in. I think it was, was it Wellington Mount Morgane? Yeah, I mean same situation there where he was asked to run up and bowl 89 overs of bouncers on a pitch was barely bouncing ankle high. I mean that's just foolish in my opinion. So I'm hoping that lessons have been learned from, from those times going forward. Knowing now that he's had a lot of injuries. Great to see him back backing up games. I thought he was pretty good through the 100 as well. He bowled fast, got got his old mojo back for me he, you know, he's got some good. And I've always said this to Joffre, you know, yes, you've got good skills as a bowler, you know, don't forget that the stumps don't move, you know, you can hit the stumps. And knowing sometimes knowing when someone's got that pace as a batter, you're naturally on the back foot and waiting for the bumper. But he, he gets a lot of people bowled on the, on, on the crease. So don't, you know, don't lose that skill either. So it's great to see that that's, that's happening. The old pace is back. More important, he's backing up games. But you just hope now that, yeah, the management side of Joffre Archer, we have to get that spot on. I mean, if we can go into most Testament, I'm not saying he's going to play all five test matches, matches in an Ashley series, it's probably unlikely, but just to have the option of himself or would to be able to bring sub in and sub out, you know, just to have that, you know, that little bit of X factor, someone who can take the pitch out of equation in that series is going to be crucial.
We, we saw how the impact that Wood made at Headingley in, in the Ashes series a couple of years ago and when he burst through Usman Quadra and no one had been able to get through Usman series, it absolutely did. But, but one thing to note, Stefan, is how his relationship with Stokes develops. Because it was quite fascinating watching him at Old Trafford, wasn't it, where Stokes is very much the man in charge of that team. His ideas are the only ideas that count. And you could see Joffre getting a little bit frustrated with the plans that Stokes was setting for him wanting perhaps slightly different plans and Stokes is not going to have it. Stokes is going to do whatever Stokes wants. So Joffre needs to understand, doesn't he, that everybody who plays in that team, you know, there's Stokes's vision and then you have to perform it.
Yeah, but, but Ben Stokes is a good enough leader, tactician and man manager to know that it won't be one size fits all for, for the other 10 players in his team and he will give leeway to more leeway to some than he will to others. And he will have an, an arm round some and he will have a rocket for others. So I'm not concerned about that, actually. I think that, that. And let's not forget Stokes and Archer go a long Way back it was Ben Stokes that walked up TO Joffre Archer 2019 World Cup Final before the super over and said, you know, this does not define you. They have, they are tight, I think as, as individuals. But in terms of Archer's summer one, he, he deserves an incredibly high grade just for his desire to get back to play Test cricket.
You could see in the wicket that he took, the relief, the, the passion of that first wicket was amazing.
And actually, I guess I'm only speaking for myself here, I could be a pretty cynical hack, but that was genuinely emotional, life affirming moment to see him take that wicket and sprint off towards square. I mean, who knows, who knows where he would have ended up if showed Bashir hadn't intercepted him. He might still have been running now.
Along with him around to here. They'd be halfway to Scotland.
But also, you know, again from a journalist point of view, I'm always ready to give the ECB some grief, but the way they managed him back to fitness, they deserve a lot of credit for that. And remember in the run up to that Lord's Test match we were talking about how little first class cricket he'd played. We'd only played bowled so many overs for Sussex in the run up to that in first class cricket, but he was good to go and he backed it up all the way through the Lord's Test. I do think you're spot on in your assessment of the following Test match where England put all their eggs in one basket and trying to win the series. Entirely understandable in, in having Archer and Bride and Kars in the same team. There was a slightly weird situation with Gus Atkinson in the run up to that Test that threw England's plans out, but it did leave them with that weird seam attack at the oval and it all sort of fell apart. So that was a misstep in the way that they managed their resources just going back to the Ashes. One thing to remember is, is the first three tests are really spaced out. Eight or nine days in between first and second and then second and third. What we definitely don't want England going to do is planning too far ahead like they did last time and got it completely, completely wrong. If they can get Archer and Wood on the same pitch in Perth, that could be really, really tasty. But yeah, high grade for Archer, high grade for Waves.
I think we're all going to go for a high grade. The question is, is it an A, an A or a B plus? I'm going to propose an A.
Well, I think you always want to leave room for a higher ceiling. Yeah, I would agree with him.
Yeah. Because I don't know if we'll come on to these players, but I can think of other players that I would want to give a higher grade than Josh.
Okay. You're right. Okay. This is very exciting. What about you, Cubs? Are you happy with the A, or do you think I'm being a bit too excitable?
I think an A is fair enough. I think Joffer has worked incredibly hard to get back to this point in his career where he can do what he can take those wickets, bowl running and bowl fast. It takes a lot of mental energy, so I'm happy to give him that eight.
Lovely. So we got an A for Archer the next. We've done Jacob Bethel, so. Oh, well, actually, we didn't do Jacob Bethel.
We didn't give him a grade.
We didn't give him a grade. I think we do. We have to. We have to go back and give Jacob Bethel a grade. And it's quite hard to do so because he's been a bit of a phantom cricketer. We mentioned already that he said that he wished he had played more. I think I wished he'd played more. Warwickshire, plenty of caddy championship fixtures. He could have played.
Not his fault, though. Not necessarily his fault.
No, it's not necessarily his fault, but the ECB can demand these things and. Right. But the point about giving someone a grade is that not everything necessarily has to be your fault. But what grade do we give him? Because, yes, he's got his first professional 100. It was a magnificent knock. He didn't have a great test match. He didn't have great time in the whiteboard games before he got that hundred. And he didn't have a very good hundred. I don't know whether we're counting the hundred in this. Probably not. We're putting this grade together because it's his England performances.
This is an international report card.
It is an international report card. Exactly. So I'm in the sort of C to D bracket for Bethel.
Yeah.
He's just scored his first international hundred.
When Finney was talking about the an international report card, he sounded like a man who sat through a number of ECB appraisals. Don't you worry about how I've been bowling for Middlesex or Sussex?
I have done. I'd be presented with weighted averages, which always put my average up.
Now, the reason I mentioned the letter D is that we've already given Ollie Pope a B minus and he has scored two Test match centuries and averaged 34 against a very, very strong Indian side in a five match Test series.
Bethel has to come underneath Ollie Pope.
He has to come underneath Ollie Pope, doesn't he? So where are we going with that? You're outraged by a D, so I'm presuming you're in for a C. You.
Can'T judge someone on one test match.
That's exactly what we're doing.
Well, I know. I'm saying you can't.
He's got a bunch of white ball games behind him as well.
Earlier on, I'd be in B territory. I wouldn't.
So you want to give him a higher grade than Ollie Pope?
I think. I don't agree with the minus. I think you should be an A star. A, B, C, B, D, E or.
F. But that's where we are.
And you've decided he's changed. He's shifting the goalpost. It's because he doesn't want to say anything mean about anybody. Which.
That's not true. That. That's. That's.
Who do you want to say mean things about? Let's talk about them. You.
Your report card. F, Steph for the summer. So Cross you?
Yeah.
I thought carbs. A star.
That's my nephew.
Right.
That's why.
Come on. We need to move on. What are we giving Bethel? I'm proposing a circle.
I've rung the exam board for an extension on the exam.
Oh, I like that. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm allowing. I'm allowing Bethel a resit.
You don't think he's actually. I don't think we have enough data, submitted enough papers.
My issue is. What? I'm reluctant to give him a grade because I don't think we just don't have enough data.
We're sending him back to school. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Literally. Okay.
He's resetting the whole year.
Yeah. That's a great shout. Great shout last year for Jacob. Bethel. Go do it.
Because I can't give him a grade. That's the whole point.
I like that.
That is the best compromise we've come up with. Thank heavens he's on our.
Yes.
Well, not a panel. Right.
Otherwise he'd be sat there with a.
D.
I'm gonna leave. Perhaps the best. Well, I'm. I'm suggesting the best of last. So let's. Let's head to a more middle of the road, slightly controversial character in Zach Crawley. Now, Zach Crawley is the sort of person that sends the fans berserk. And he also. He. He gets the England management saying things that rile people. So you get, yes, you get this phrase, he's an impact player and an impact opener, which is, you should see carbs eyes right now. They have rolled the back of his head as a, as a proper opener. Michael Carberry, the idea that your role is, is sometimes an impact role and that that's good enough. The implication has always been that Zach can get four single figure scores and then hit a fabulously impactful 80 or 100 and then go back to four single figure scores. That's not probably how you view the role of an opener, is it?
No comment.
So I think that's a definite no, isn't it?
Well, I mean, look, I'm only, I'm only playing around. I mean, I just think some of the stuff that comes out of him is just ridiculous. Your job is to score runs. You can't tell me that you're happy getting one score in a series. You know, that's your job. It's your job as a batter. The frustration for me with watching Zach Crawley is he doesn't seem to be the kind of player that gets better after how many tests he played 50 something test matches, nearly 59. 59. He plays the game the same way 59 times. And that's, that's the worry for me. The dismissals are the same. There's no improvement. You'd like to think someone, I never got to that territory, but you like to think 59 games, you like to watch him bat and think, okay, well, he's starting to figure out a method. You know, those silly dismissals, those brass shots are starting to, you know, there's a little bit of thinking going on. There just doesn't seem to be any improvement. Yes, we know what he can do when all the planets align. I'm not, I'm not taking that away from him. And yes, he's a very destructive player when he gets going. But I think to open a batting, you have to, you have to understand that that's a responsibility. You're, that you're, that settles the dressing room. And for me, looking forward to this Ashes series. I mean, look, Australia have their problems, top order as well. I think sometimes the series can be won or lost just simply. If you're looking at respective top threes, someone like Crawley can just start to develop a little bit more of an understanding of opening the batting when the ball is moving. You can't just stand there trying to trade all the time. There's times where you have to just rein it in. A Little bit, yeah. I mean, himself and Duckett, I think, you know. Yeah. Look, they go about in their own way, but I think they can be effective. But that for me is the issue is at Crawleys, I don't see that improvement. We're getting that same.
There was one innings, wasn't there, at Headingley? The Headingley where they chased the runs. Second innings in the second innings.
I'd love to see more of that.
Yeah, yeah. Because then we went to Lords and he was sprinting down the pitch trying to whack Bummer off his length.
I just want to suggest that when we discuss Crawley, we've got to kind of discuss him in the round of Ducket, because where we had Pope and Bethel as somehow intertwined, I think what the management might argue is that Crawley and Ducat are more than the sum of their parts. So whilst your criticism is entirely valid, don't see a different Crawley, perhaps what they see is an opening pair that is actually as impactful, as good an England pair as England have had since Strauss and Cook. And they've been trying to replace the Strauss Cook partnership.
Well, that's definitely the case, isn't it? They're the best opening partnership, as in that their performances over a consistent period of time and he's part of that.
So even if he is only averaging 30 odd, and Duckett's often the more productive partner, they do come as a pair, don't they?
They average more together than Cook and Strauss did.
Really? Yeah.
So the average partnership for Crawley and Duckett is 46 and a half.
What was carbs and cookie? Is that a no, Bear with me.
I just lost my page.
Oh, sorry.
But they are the.
They are the fifth most prolific opening pair for England of all time.
What is their average?
46 and a half.
That's pretty good, isn't it?
You take that. Yeah, it's tricky, isn't it? It is very, very tricky because you look at the raw numbers of Zach Crawley, he averages 32 in his Test career, or maybe less so 31 in his Test career. He averaged 32 this summer. They are unremarkable numbers. Clearly, for someone who's played 59, in.
A way, they are remarkable because he's played 59, 10.
But. But then you look at that partnership and the foundation that it lays for what is England's strength, which is numbers 4, 5, 6, 7. Then therefore, are they doing their job.
For the team and they're doing it at pace as well?
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, their strike rate must be higher than any Any of the the other contenders for England's best opening pairing. So I want us to do Crawley and Duckett in the round because what this season has done is sort of confirm with Duckett off the back of a pretty decent champions trophy. No one else had a decent champions trophy really for England particularly. He did. And there was talk about how he was possibly the best all format opener England have had for a very long time. He was scored scoring runs in test matches, scoring runs in 50 over cricket. He was contributing in T20s. He was so ever present that eventually they won't call it burnout, but he looked absolutely exhausted and they had to let him go. You don't have to do the T20s. This has just gone on too much.
Well, I'm glad they made that decision actually. I'm glad that even after one game of a series that they, they noticed that and changed it because he got.
11 off 30, didn't he? And it was the most unduck it like innings.
Yes and I'm glad that they recognized that that was the case and they've stood a few of those guys down because they've noticed the mental and physical fatigue that a long hard summer where all five test matches went to five days against India. Yeah, I think that was a good.
Decision because I would see, I would give the partnership B plus, I would give Crawley a B minus and I'd give Duckett an A minus. Do you know what I mean?
Happy, pretty happy with that. And just going back to Crawley, specifically him averaging 32 against India. I'll go back to the point of if he have, if he averages 32 in the Ashes, England can win the Ashes and England would take. England would take that performance and carbs his point of the opener setting the tone in the Ashes while in the last away Ashes Rory Burns was bowled by the first board the series and you could said the result was almost confirmed at that point. And England's approach to the Ashes was set by Zach Crawley from the first ball of the last home series when.
He hit it for 4 through s recover.
And I think to win in Australia you have to take the game to Australia. And in 1011 clearly the styles of players were different but the way that we played the game and the way that we went about warm up and the intensity about it and everything that came with it was geared towards winning and puffing your chest out and not taking a backward step in different manners to the way that these guys will do it. But yeah, I see that partnership and the way that they all Play their cricket as potentially putting Australia on the back foot, which I think very few teams go to Australia and do that.
Okay, so I'm going to come to you, Carbs, because you've got stronger views on these, the matters of openings and opening batters. I made a. I made a rather woolly proposal, which I quite liked, which was an A mine.
Of course you liked. It came out your mouth.
Well, that's. That's not always the case. Oscar Wilde did famously say, how do I know what I think until I hear what I say?
I also feel that Carbs is like our moderator as well.
I do. He's the most.
The voice of reason. Yeah.
He's the most sage of a lot of us. I think he's gray hairs. It's wisdom. Yeah. So what are you going to get? What. What are you going to give Ducket and Cor? Let's have your mark for each of them.
I'll start with the partnership. I. I agree with what you guys say. I think, look, in terms of the aura they've created, I think that's something rare, that England's not really had an opening partnership, that people think, what is a safe score to be chased down? And I think once you have that, it's very powerful. So from that side of things, I'm going to mark them a little higher. I'm going to say, yeah, B minus. Just allowing for the fact that it's not always the most consistent of approaches or outcomes. Should I say the approach is consistent, but then you're asking me to grade. I think Duck it through the Seat through the summer has been pretty good. Overall, I think of the two, he's been a lot more consistent. So I'll give Duckett an A minus. Crawley for me, I'm gonna give him a B minus.
Yeah, I think that's.
I'd give Duckett a solid A. He averaged over 50 in that series against India and against those bowlers, I think is deserving of a solid A. But again, aligned with what Steph says, I think there are players who will deserve higher marks than Ben Duckett, even though he averaged 15.
Looking forward to them. Crumbs.
Well, it's obvious who it is.
I wonder. I wonder. Let's not ruin it.
Suspense.
Okay.
Who else could there be?
I think we've. I think we've locked those in. Okay, well, that's very good because we got rid of Duckett and Crawley in one fell swoop. There.
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Valid through 9 17. Selection varies by location while supplies last. Loyalty programs subject to terms and conditions. See lowe's.com terms for details. Subject to change this is the story of the one as head of maintenance at a concert hall, he knows the show must always go on. That's why he works behind the scenes, ensuring every the H Vac is humming and his facility shines with Grainger's supplies and solutions for every challenge he faces. Plus 24. 7 customer support his venue never misses a beat. Call quickgranger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Okay, so now let's go to a contentious area in the side. Showa Bashir. Contentious perhaps because he's so young, but he broke a record this year. Broke Finney's record as the youngest man to take 50 test match wickets. His average is still extremely modest, but you know, Ashley Giles made a very fine career with a bowling average of 40 and starred in a very famous 2005 bat at 8 though, didn't he? He did bat at 8 and caught in the gully. He showed great bravery. Show of Bashir in bowling with and fielding, most importantly, not so much the ball bowling, but field. He came out of field. The game was getting a little bit twitchy at Lords and he pulled off a couple of stops on the boundary with his with one hand absolutely knackered and his right hand still working. And of course maybe a bit fortuitously, but doesn't matter. He took the winning wicket. He's obviously beloved by the setup. They love his height, they love his potential and they love, evidently his competitive spirits. They Stefan. He's a. He's a favorite with the management but really, how has his summer gone? These only test matches we talk about with Bashir, so it's quite, it's quite a simple one because he didn't play that many because he then got injured.
Show it. Bashir was the benefit of one of those old cricketing adages of you become a better player when you're out of the side. And he definitely looked a better bowler for England when he was out of the side because they were able to take a look at the other option and the option that a lot of people have been asking for in Liam Dawson and rather like Ollie Pope and Zach Crawley. Liam Dawson turned out to be exactly what we thought he would be. You know, a steady, a steady left arm spinner who could contribute useful runs down the order, but not necessarily someone who's going to win a test match with the ball. One thing that England love about Bashir is, is his temperament in that he fits in very well with the way that England want their bowlers to attack and therefore as the offspinner in that team you could really leak runs. And that doesn't seem to phase Bashir too much. Let's not forget the performance here against Zimbabwe. When he sort of talked to us a little bit about the, the technical tweaks that he'd gone through in his action, he was getting a little bit closer to the stumps. He wasn't drifting down leg side quite so much. The problem that Bashir had in the start of the, the India series is he didn't look massively effective in that. Unless the India batters were trying to get after him. He didn't look like taking a wicket. I think his eight wickets in the first two test matches were all sort of caught in the deep or a weird caught and bowled or.
Yeah, they were, they were aggressive shots, weren't they? Yeah.
And it was a shame from Bashir's point of view. Actually he looked to be bowling at his best against India. He just got K Rahul caught at slit with quite a nice dipping off break before he suffered that, that finger injury. And his impact to take the wicket of Siraj, the last ball of the Lord's Test was immense. That is ultimately what made sure that England didn't lose the series. That's. That put them two one up. You're going to ask me for a grade, aren't you?
No. Well, I'm not going to ask you for it yet. I'm going to ask Finney next because I think he's actually a really hard guy to, to assess and to give a grade to because he might well be the best option England have got. I mean, Jack Leach would also spring to mind, but, you know, Somerset haven't used him. He went off to play for Glamorgan and pulled up no trees there. So when he then came into the international setup, that appears to be his happy place. And he appears to take instruction very, very well. But he doesn't set the heart racing Vinny, does he? And yet is he. Is he doing as good a job as England need he can do. How are we to assess Shoah Bashir?
I would deem myself considered and I listen to people when they talk about players. And Ricky Ponting, when he was working on the Test matches, was asked about show Bashir and he said he would 100% play the test matches in Australia if I was captain or coach.
Be sure that Ricky's not working well.
It could well be, but, you know, I thought he was being sincere. I thought he was being sincere and say that going into the Ashes that he probably is the person in line to be that spinner. And yeah, when we're talking about assessing him, I think you have to bear in mind that India are excellent players of spin and even better players of spin on pitches that aren't spinning that much. If you were to put.
There's a very real prospect he won't play in the first Test, I think as well.
What you think they'll play Bethel as. As a spin option and then four seamers.
Whether or not they play Bethel at number three or Ollie Pope, I think is entirely separate.
No, I think Bethel at lower down. No.
But then you have to lose someone else.
Yeah.
You can't play 12.
Yeah. You have to rely on. On Ben Stokes.
But I think it's a real. I think that will be given some serious consideration, especially if your pace attack is. Does have wood in it. Who would be coming back from. It'd be his first Test match in 18 months. A Joffer Archer that you might want to look after a little bit. And not knowing how much Ben Stokes can bowl in that Test match, I would not be surprised at all if England play four frontline seamers in Perth.
They might do. But let's not get too far ahead of us ourselves. We're trying to find a grade for show A grade.
Grade.
Sorry, before you. Before you give it, I want Michael Carberry's assessment because you haven't had a chance to talk about Shah Bashir. Yeah.
The thing that I'll be asking myself is if you're not going to take Shai Bashir to the Ashes, who jumps out at the moment as being the next best option.
And it's a punt, isn't it? It's Rayan Ahmed or something like that.
And Ray and Ahmed has played pretty much the same amount as Shaya Bashir. So Shay Bashir is a project. He wasn't picked as someone off the back of 50 first class games having taken 51 wickets. He was picked because, again, rightly or wrongly, Ben Stokes like what he saw. He liked his height.
He bowled one good ball on Twitter.
On Tick Tock or something like that. And that was, you know. Yeah, right, look rightly, wrongly. So for me it seems very odd then to suddenly, oh, we get. And this is what I think England have to get, right? Going to the Ashes is making sure that in here they are secure in what team they're going to pick, right? What bowl, pick your best bowlers. If Shai Bashir is your project, then for me his learning curve has to be in the Ashes.
So we're going to grade him on his learnings, aren't we?
Well, I think if we're talking about Pope and Crawley having the sort of summers that we would have expected and maybe not answering questions that we had at the start of the summer, Bashir not there as well, so he's a bit of a B minus.
I mean, this is amazing, isn't it? Because we've had what we think is been an amazing series, two all against India. Oh. And it turns out we've learned absolutely nothing. All of this, 25 days, two all.
Would suggest that England at. Round about where they were at the beginning of the summer.
Absolutely.
I guess it might do.
I agree with that. I mean it wasn't. Sorry to cut in this, but it, you know, no one really, Joe Root aside, no one's had a great summer. I mean there's, there, there's been good performances, sure, there's been, been match winning performance, but it hasn't been that consistent, you know, that England, the England Test team. You're not looking at that now going, yeah, that's, that's the team.
Would you, Sorry. Would you be grading this differently though? If England had managed to find seven more runs in the Oval Test or they didn't, or if, if Chris Wilkes hadn't dislocated a shoulder.
I'm dealing with what's there.
He played that Test match with 10 men. I mean, it does seem slightly unfair.
Teammates that could catch. I'd average under 30, 30 and Test cricket.
Oh, yeah, almost certainly true. Yeah.
Boom.
Yeah, but if you'd had DRS, you'd be averaging nearer 40.
I played my whole career with DRS. Thank you. Yeah, I, I don't know. I. But then you look at Bashir in the India series he took 10 wickets at 54.
Yeah. It doesn't feel. Doesn't. They're not exciting numbers, are they?
But I would say 10 wickets at 54 is not as good a return as 100 and that impacted a win and an average of.
He played two and a half test matches and those two first two test matches were run filled. When India spinners didn't have much of an impact either. He.
At Thea he looked more effective than Jadeja.
Absolutely. At the point he came out of the series he had more wickets than Ravi Jadeja.
It's very hard this, isn't it?
That's why I'm sticking with my B minus. I think he's pretty much where he was at the start.
B minus is the proposal. We'll go to Fiddy first and then we'll get the moderator.
Yes, I would agree with that.
Yeah.
Moderator. B minus. Stick it on the card. Stick it on the card. Let's move on. Right now I want to go to one of the. Well, he was an unequivocal success story of this campaign. But a little bit like in a way what happened to Joffre Archer. Jamie Smith summer was stellar and magnificent.
But until it wasn't.
Well, until a man who does not keep wicket for his county played five, five day test matches and was out there much longer than his opponents because India scored at a slower rate. So he was out there keeping for an awful lot longer. He scored an enormous number of runs. He was part of a record breaking summer for wicket keepers from both sides. Rishabh Pant and himself. Himself. And then by the end of it by that oval test match when England just needed another seven runs. I have never seen a man as good as Jamie Smith look so completely frazzled in that last innings. His feet went nowhere, his hands were wafting at a ball. It was like he could hardly see it anymore. He was. A lot of the players were broken by that series. It was a long hard series. A load of people walking out with arms in slings and legs in boots and hands in plaster and heaven knows what else. He was sort of pulling part of the attritional nature of that. But England have chosen to take a top order batter who can keep wicket and make him a number seven who keeps wicket for a side that fields for a Hell of a long time because of the way they play their cricket and they've kind of reaped what they've sewn there a little bit.
He's a bit better than can keep wicket, isn't he?
As a wicket keeper, I'd say he's been an excellent wicket. I, I would say he's been very impressive as a wicket keeper.
But to your point, on the Saturday of the Oval Test and I think actually you and I, Finney were talking outside watching Jamie Smith keep wicket on that day and he could barely move his feet to take the ball behind the stumps. He was sort of flopping onto the ball. He looked absolutely shattered and he's got.
Like a six or seven month old baby. Yes, but that takes out you as well, trust me.
How's that?
Sleep average 62 with the bats against across the series against India. But a healthy percentage of his 434 runs came from 184 not out. I think Smith is going to be a huge talking point during the Ashes and that is actually quite a key battle, Smith versus Carey. Because if Smith has struggled and his performances have tailed off across an India series, the first time he's been asked to keep wicket in a five test series, then the same thing is coming again.
Yeah, and the heat obviously the, the, the long attritional days that you can find yourself having in Australia. The, the only thing that I think will help him is that the carry in the bounce. Cuz he's quite a big guy. Yeah, he, he's tall for a wicket keeper and an imposing figure as a batter at the crease. I think the carrier, not having to catch the slots around his ankles or deal with a wobbling ball behind the stumps I think could help him out physically when it comes to that. But you have to factor in the fact that you're going to have a few days where you're chasing a lot of leather and it's going to be 40 degrees.
There's absolutely no case at all for.
Bed folks coming back.
No, no, no, no, no. Sharing it, sharing it with Ollie Pope. Ollie Pope's been made to do this job before and if. Well, I mean, I've always wondered why they didn't do that when Bear Stone and Butler were in the side. I didn't quite understand why they didn't do that then.
Well, because you have a synergy with your slip.
I know you do. I know, but, but I'm sort of thinking here actually, if you rest and rotate fast bowlers, there might be A case for halfway through the series, Pope does the third test and Smith still bats. Smith bats at three and Pope moves to seven.
Funny beast wicketkeepers though. They want to know what you know, what they're doing and who's taking the gloves. And it can be a bit of an affront to you if I, I.
Don'T get that impression from Smith though. I would say he doesn't think that deeply.
I'm surprised no one's tried that yet. With the amount of the way that the game has moved on and the amount of keeper batters that there are naturally knocking around, I'm surprised that no one has tried that as a tactic yet.
I think it's radical obviously and as a result cricketers will poo poo it, but certainly radical. But it makes sense to me because, because what we witnessed at the end of that series was exactly that. I mean there is no denying it that Jamie Smith was a totally different batter at the oval from the man he was at Headingley in his county career. He didn't keep wicket a great deal and so to get him to do high intensity matches that last five days in the, the most heavily bowled series in 50, 60 years, you just might want to think about it. That's all I'm saying.
I suppose the thing to say say is the way that Australian pitches have been playing, we might not have many.
Five day test, they might be a.
Bites and again, I'll go back, I.
Can'T see him producing. I, I think they'll want to produce not as spicy decks.
But look, let's, let's get back to Smith because look, I think we all agree he's a stellar prospect. He had some brilliant interventions, had some crazy moments like when he got out trying to hit his third six in and over off the very last ball before a new ball was, was due which felt kind of didn't really read the moment awfully well. But you know that is Baz ball. We are, we are not there to judge that methodology unfortunately. He's playing within the system and he's playing to the system and he's played.
It very well and did well in white ball cricket.
I want to propose an A for Jamie Smith. Notwithstanding that his last memory of the Test series won't have been great and maybe I have to take him down a notch in a minus because he still hasn't quite mastered 50 over cricket. He's been put in at the top of the order. They hope that that would be a solution. He's not quite finding his feet in one day cricket yet. So I might propose an A minus. But he's such an impactful player and he's, he's scoring these runs at number seven, for heaven's sake. Right.
I think you see a move on.
I had a B in my mind.
B. Yeah.
For Smith.
Yeah.
For someone who average 62, I've just.
Said, though much of that average came from 1184 not out, which was a very important innings. But in the clutch moment of the final test of the series when England could have won it 3:1, which by.
Your own admittance was a man dead on his feet.
Well, that's test cricket, isn't it? That is the point.
That's also a fair point. Well, you're going B, he's going A Carbs. You're the moderator.
I quite like Jamie Smith personally. I like, I like the collective package. I think he gives us, he gives us a dynamic feel coming in where he does. I think I agree with Finney. I think he does a more than decent job as a keeper for someone who doesn't keep for his county. I think he does a decent job like you don't often. We're not often sitting there talking about Jamie Smith's keeping. I think when you're, when you're in that position as a, as a fan, that's usually signs that the guy's doing a pretty good job. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna sit on the side of an A minus.
A minus. Yeah. I'm gonna take that and move on. Harry Brooke is our next one. A stellar player for England. We're all very, very excited by him. Towards the back end of the summer, having played every single game that England has played, he too has started to look like he's. I don't know whether he's lost 5 fluency perhaps, but just searching a little bit more. And I think this is possibly a result of playing every single game. So I'm going to kind of park how I feel about the very back end of the summer and try and get back more to the meat of the summer because he's part of this powerhouse batting lineup. We're all very, very excited by Harry Brook. Let's start with you Carbs as the batter. What do you, what do you reckon we're gonna. Have we learned anything about Harry Brooks least? Because it seems to me that we've learned almost nothing about anybody except possibly Jamie Smith so far this summer.
Harry Brook, I think he's. I mean, look, he plays some very eye catching Shots, some eye catching innings at times. I think. Is there a case in point to suggest that maybe people have started to work him out a little bit? He's not known for patience.
No.
Sometimes taking the best off options.
I mean, he got out at a very, very annoying moment for England in that oval test match because they had basically won the game and he took a very aggressive option at that point, but he was on a roll. So I don't know how you assess.
That, but like Stefan said, that's. That's the art of test cricket. You know, you've got, you've got to read situations. I think going to Australia, I think for me, I think that the one area for me he has to conquer is the ball, the short ball. Right. Bigger grounds, bouncier wickets. I don't think just relying on, oh, I'm going to clear the fielder. I think he's got to work that, that side of things out a little bit better. You know what I like about him? He takes the game on. I think he again has that, he holds that little bit of fear factor to be able to knock the likes of Hazel woods off his lengths, which is not many people in the world can do. If I had to give him a grade A minus, you asked Dan, what.
Have we learned about Harry Brooke this summer? Because we might have had a few players that we haven't learned much about. Well, what we have learned is England made the right decision in making him the white ball captain. Because if you think there was all that debate at the start of the summer is who is going to become the white ball captain. Once Josh Butler resigned, there was some chat of whether or not it was going to be Ben Stokes and a lot of people, probably quite rightly in the end were saying that would just be too much. And I think actually he's grown into the role. I think his tactics are good. I think the way he carries himself are great.
Quite funky to watch, isn't it?
Yeah.
Very different shapes of.
I love his very straight mid on.
Yeah, me too.
Great position. I think as a journalist he's going to give us some great copy because he's very, very honest. And I think what we've also learned without a shadow of doubt is he is England's next Test captain.
Wow.
I think he is.
Big call. So not. Not the vice captain?
No, I don't think it will be Ollie.
So why isn't he vice captain?
Because Ollie Pope was vice captain before Harry Brook came into the team. I think as one thing, some people make very good Vice captains and Ollie Pope might be one of those. And there is also a scenario where Harry Brook captain's in the Ashes. It could be. Could be where Ollie Pope might not be in the team where Ben Stokes. Ben Stokes hasn't completed any of his last four Test series playing for England.
Interesting.
So England might need a captain at some point. And Harry Brooke, I think after Ben Stokes is England's arguably second most important player across the winter as a whole. When you think they're going into an away Ashes series and then there's a T20 World cup of which he is captain, he's certainly going to be England's busiest cricketer again after he's been England's busiest cricketer this summer.
Vinnie, quickly, because I think we, we might be moving on shortly. Give it, give us a grade. Unless you've got something different to tell us about Harry Brook.
Yeah, F I I would give Harry Brooke an him.
I I I'm feeling that too. Right. We got two big names to look at a start. Move on. Joe Root. There's almost nothing to say about Joe root. He's got 39 Test centuries now. He's the second leading run scorer of all time. He's only 2, 400 runs away from Sachin Tendulka.
3 ODI 1 hundreds in the summer as well.
3 ODI 1 hundreds. It's brilliant having him back in the England setup, isn't it? For odi he was out of it for a little while. Didn't play in 2024, did he? Not sure. He played no DI in 2024.
He went a very long time.
They look a much more solid outfit. Everything that's been said about Joe Root doesn't need repeating, does it? Except that he just feels like he's playing not as well as ever. Better than ever. He seems to be more in control of his game than ever before. He knows exactly what it is he's doing. And if he keeps scoring runs at the rate he scored in the last year and a half, he will go past Sachin tendorka in the fifth lashes test match at the Oval in 2027, which will send this country completely berserk. I'm proposing an A star. Has anybody got anything they would wish to add to Joe Root? Is there a category above A, Above a star?
Was it Matthew Hayden said the other day, if Joe Root doesn't get a hundred during this Ashes, he's going to.
Walk around the MCG naked.
It's a tricky one because I'd quite like to see that.
I really would. Just this happened Just the hat. Just that massive great hat, yeah. Do we all agree with this?
Yes, unequivocally.
So let's finish off with the skipper. Well, I say finish off before we get to Skipper, very briefly, have we got any mentions? Because we haven't done well. Exactly.
It's been very batter, like everything, like broadcasting. Like it's very batter broadcasting.
He says the man who. The man who commentates, summarizes rights. We've talked about Archer. We. We've talked about Archer and we've got talked about Schobashir, but we haven't discussed the wider bowling group. That's because it's been a bit messy this summer. Brighton Cars would be the man that I think has been most regular and of course, Chris Woakes. So you've got Cars and Wokes who are important to report on, I would say. Then at the back end you've also got Josh Tongue, who was in and out the side, took a lot of wickets. Got a nickname. When you get a nickname in an England team, that's pretty good. He was the hoover, wasn't he?
The mop.
The mop for picking up all the rabbit stew. Rabbit stew, exactly. You love a bit of rabbit stew, Vinnie. I've heard you talk about how much you cared for rabbit stew. So how are we going to assess these bowlers? I think rather than a report card necessarily in great depth, try and rank for me. The bowlers, the fast bowling coterie, Wokes, Tongue, cars. Am I missing anyone?
Atkinson.
Atkinson. Atkinson came in quite late. So how do we. Have we learned anything about those four? We seem to have learned something about Jamie Overton, which. He doesn't want to play Red Bull cricket anymore.
No, to be honest, because it was a very batter friendly summer, wasn't it? Chris Wilkes, it was great that he played all five test matches. His returns weren't amazing, weren't easy pitches to bowl. Exactly. So it's very, very difficult to sit here and it's hard to learn when.
You'Re watching them play an edge bastard on those feather beds and that. What, what, what can you do? What can you learn? I don't really know.
I think. I think what we can say is, is as a unit, England have got lots of different pace bowling weapons and I think if you asked every one of us to say, pick England's best three frontline seamers for a particular test match, we would all potentially come up with different answers. Which says quite a lot, actually about the quality of bowlers at their disposal and what all those bowlers are capable of at different times. I think what we're all just hoping, fingers crossed that when, I don't know, that game of musical chairs ends when the music stops, that everyone is on the plane to the ashes.
Fit and fit and rare. What an amazing situation that would be.
Yeah. And all fit and raring to go on the 21st of November in Perth because for so long that just hasn't been the case.
The nip smacking prospect of watching my words Atkinson cars, targ. All available.
All available. And being able fit for selection would be great.
We've talked about all the bowlers there. The man who had the most successful summer with the ball in his life is actually the captain now by the end of it, he, along with actually most of the teams, most of the Indians and most of the English team were broken by a 25 day series. But. So he didn't make it quite to the finish line. But I'm going to propose an A. I'm going to prose an A for tactics, for contribution, for seeing that bowling back, for the, the passion, the intensity. I mean it's hard not to give him an A star, really.
I want a star for Ben Stokes.
I also agree with that. I think it highlighted this summer, highlighted the importance of him as a fully fledged all rounder for the team, as a talisman, as a leader for his output with the ball. The fact that he was bowling quicker than he has done in 10 years, I think is his next quickest year with the ball was 10 years ago. So, yeah, happy with a star.
And I'm just going to check with the moderator who's now at the back of the room. He agrees with the A star for Ben Stokes. Oh, he's thinking, oh, oh, he might be giving it an A. He might just be giving it an A. Oh, he's sitting on the fence, I think. Well, I'm giving him an A star and I'm allowed to because I've got the microphone. So basically it's a pretty good report card for all concerned. And I think if they get those kind of reports at the back end of the Ashes, England may well have regained them, which would be something else, wouldn't it? That's it for this episode of the TMS podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on BBC Sound so you never miss an episode, including the latest no Balls with Kate Cross and Alex Hartley. And you can keep up to date with all things cricket by following BCT and bccrigricket on Instagram. Thanks for listening. We'll speak to you next time.
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