📊 Rudransh Khurana dives deep into Joe Root’s career since 2021, explaining how the Englishman has taken a step forward as the rest of his Fab Four compatriots have started showing their age. It’s quite a brilliant data story.
There’s not really a single section that I can quote here, or a single graph to add. It’s maybe the best cricket story I’ve ever seen, with what looks like 30+ graphs and 50+ different points he makes along the way. It’s a dissection of a player’s playing style in a way that most analysts would be in awe of.
It’s like a good book but it only takes 20-odd minutes to finish. Go read it if you haven’t already. Read it again if you have.
✍️ Vithushan Ehantharajah on ENG running out of their own Kool-Aid.
“[Ben Stokes’] final act on the field was to stand and direct traffic at slip. A right adductor injury prevented him from revisiting his most productive role on this tour, as a seamer with 15 dismissals at 25.13. He has been found wanting with the bat (18.4) and perhaps most gallingly as a tactician. His opposite number, Steven Smith, thanked him and his team for the memories. Memories England truly thought could have been theirs.”
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“Gautam Gambhir is learning the flip side of power”
✍️ Sidharth Monga comments on Gautam Gambhir’s flawed leadership of IND, and how needs to learn that power comes with responsibility.
đź“Š Tarutr Malhotra analyses 1,349 articles from 114 writers in 20 publications to answer 3 questions; how did the media cover the Women’s WC, were they better than amateurs on Substack, & what are the gaps in coverage?
“Each article got a 0-to-5 ranking on three parameters; (a) who it was written for, (b) the depth of analysis/writing1, & (3) the level of context provided. The three scores are combined and averaged to give every story an “Article Score” between 0 and 5.
Jarrod Kimber’s fantastic analysis of Nat Sciver-Brunt’s batting brilliance is rated at 4.33 (the highest Article Score any story got), while all the context-less, 150-word, SEO-driven write ups on whether India and Pakistan would shake hands before their group game were rated at 0.672 (the lowest Article Score any story got).”
REPORT: How did the media cover the Women’s World Cup?
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“Jemimah Rodrigues | Breakfast with Champions”
📽️ Gaurav Kapoor hosts Jemimah Rodrigues to discuss India’s World Cup win and the troubles that lay before it. [YouTube] -
“Yuvraj On Facing The Possibility Of Death”
📽️ Kevin Pietersen hosts Yuvraj to discuss pie-chucking, the six 6s, and dealing with cancer. [YouTube] -
“Do West Indies Care?”
📽️ Beard Before Wicket host Dwayne Bravo to talk about his career, playing under Brian Lara and with Sachin Tendulkar, why he feels West Indies abandoned him, and his future Bollywood plans. [YouTube] -
“Cricket Media: Past, present, future”
📽️ Jarrod Kimber, Robin Uthappa & Deepak Goyal launch their new media venture, Comm Box, with a chat about their favourite cricket stories growing up, their favourite books, games and more, and how they plan to change the face of the cricket media. [YouTube]