Features
Great minds link alike: Guerilla Cricket teams up with leading Indian website
The Guerillas 17th August 2018
Today, we mark the beginning of what we hope will be a long and fruitful partnership with , a website based in India. Their site will carry our commentary and we hope to interact with their readers/viewers on Twitter and Facebook and get a real perspective from India on how this series is being viewed – not to mention series in the future such as the World Cup next year. The site, like Guerilla Cricket, is the result of the passion and commitment of its creators, who are Syed Sujjad, the chief executive, Ankit Mishra, the editor-in-chief, and Sai Kishore, the social media manager, and a worldwide team of more than 150 writers.
Opening questions: Cook, his brief, and the swipe over cover
Hendo 17th August 2018
argues that England might benefit from a change of approach from at least one batsman at the top of their order. Stable top: Cook's stickability would allow another opener to go hell for leather.
Spellbound by a withered arm, and the dream of a lifetime: two memories of an Indian summer
Tony Bishop 31st July 2018
Guerilla Cricket's own Tony Bishop, and Divya Rao, an Indian cricket enthusiast now based in Denmark, are two different generations of cricket lover whose paths crossed in their day jobs. Here they share their recollections of series past. Shirting his responsibility: Ganguly left it to Mohammad Kaif to see India home in 2002. (England v India, 3rd Test, The Oval, 1971). In 1971 I was 12. Already playing and acquiring my lifelong love of the game, a touring side from India seemed extremely exotic, lent an additional soupcon of mysticism by the tongue-twisting unfamiliarity of their names but more importantly by the deadly variety of their spin attack.
Adil Rashid could still become top Test spinner if he plays his cards right
Hendo 31st July 2018
Nigel Henderson talks to the Indian woman who is applying an ancient technique to predicting the results of cricket matches. Deal with The Devil? No, Rashid is looking more to the King of Swords. In his mystical best-selling work written in a frenzy of inspiration over a fortnight in 1987, the author Paulo Coelho has one character tell Santiago, his hero: "When you really want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire so that your wish comes true.".
Chennai-hilation revisited: England have little chance of revenge for winter of discontent
The Guerillas 31st July 2018
Finally, a series that knows how to build dramatic tension. T20s then ODIs then Tests is the way it should be – we've had the Kuldeep narrative, the birth of a potential rivalry between Joe Root and Hardik Pandya (if Pandya was deliberately bowling wides to deny Root a hundred at Headingley, that's pretty classless). And now a five-Test series. Here, in the second of two articles, the Guerilla experts give you the lowdown on how it will (*might) go.
Che faces the axe as stats reveal India would do better with Jake Ball at No 3
Che goodbye: Pujara was struggling to cement his place in the side. After a summer in which cricket has taken a back-seat role to the World Cup, it returns to centre stage in August with one of the most eagerly anticipated clashes in years: five Tests between England and India in a series that rests on a knife-edge. India are the best Test side in the world at the moment according to the ICC rankings: in the last three years, their record is an impressive P34 W23 D7 L4, with batsmen averaging 39 in that time. In contrast, England have lost more than they've won (P41 W15 D6 L10) in that time, with their batsmen averaging just 32.
Innie, outtie, innie, greentop: England's shrinks go to work on Kohli despite heatwave
The Guerillas 30th July 2018
Finally, a series that knows how to build dramatic tension. T20s then ODIs then Tests is the way it should be – we've had the Kuldeep narrative, the birth of a potential rivalry between Joe Root and Hardik Pandya (if Pandya was deliberately bowling wides to deny Root a hundred at Headingley, that's pretty classless). And now a five-Test series. Here, in the first of two articles, the Guerilla experts give you the lowdown on how it will go.
Searching for a hero: Is Hardik Pandya the real new Kapil Dev?
Nakul Pande 30th July 2018
The 80s-nostalgia-soaked search for the next great seaming all-rounder is not uniquely an English one. While many "new Bothams" have come and gone, with only Andrew Flintoff and latterly Ben Stokes making a serious impression, India have been searching for the next Kapil Dev since before Kapil Dev retired, with even less success.
The Adil conundrum: never in the field of cricket conflict has one ball meant so much to so many
Hendo 27th July 2018
The condemnation of England's recalled leg spinner has the whiff of hypocrisy, argues Nigel Henderson. His darkest hour: I want two spinners – and make one of them Rashid. The weeks between a one-day series and a Test series are a long time in cricket, it would appear. No sooner had the original narrative – the one simmering since 2014 about whether Virat Kohli could find a way to get runs in England's green and pleasant land and prove once and for all that he is a class act in all conditions – been overtaken by one in which an almost unprecedented hot and dry spell would magically turn all England pitches into a spinner's paradise, than Ed Smith provided us with yet another one.
O’Grubby’s Guide To Filthy Lucre
Paul Howarth 10th May 2018
Begorrah, be-Jaysus, top o' the mornin' to ya. Well Jeeesus, Mary and Joseph, who woulda thought dis day would ever come? Da first ever Test match played by Oirland. [Enough of the casual stereotypes, ya little bollix – ed. And Ed, who as you can tell by his strident English tones, is half-Irish.]. Just as historic is the news that Guerilla Cricket is the official radio broadcaster for the game against Pakistan, sticking it to the mainstream media in the grand manner. We're as pleased as Punch. If only we were as good-looking.
