Are England sneaky good in Tests now?
Covid, injuries, Baz, a batting order of Gordon Greenidges, it's all helping England.
There is a rule in journalism that if you ask a question in the headline the answer is no. That rule was made by boring old men who thought that journalism should be a voice of god (theirs) and not a conversation about the topics. They wanted to give you answers, but life is full of questions.
That said, England is probably not sneaky good now. I mean, caveats abound their last two Tests, and nothing can erase what happened before.
This is two matches at home. And while it is nominally against the world Test champion, you'd have to argue that whoever this New Zealand team is, they aren't quite the Kiwi side of a year ago.
This new New Zealand is kinda shit. They battled in India, then drew with Bangladesh and South Africa at home. Considering they built this modern legacy on being good in New Zealand, that's awful. And they had the kind of summer I survived years ago where I had to drive across town to work an an archaic dangerous factory full of huntsman spiders that was run by a cult.

This English summer hasn't been much better for them. One big difference in the series doesn't seem to be the talent, but Covid. New Zealand are Testing for it, and Ben Stokes basically said you don't have it if you don't Test. Looking at the two nations, this seems to sit really well with how both of them look at Covid. But for New Zealand it means that Henry Nicholls didn't play in the first Test, and in the second, it was Kane Williamson.
It's not just the global lurgy. New Zealand have lost a bowler mid-Test twice. Now they do have five-men attacks, so losing a player isn't as important. But conditions were favouring Colin de Grandhomme at Lord's. And they could have used Kyle Jamieson at Trent Bridge. Hell, they could have used anyone in big boy pants in Nottingham. That's not even including the baffling bowling selections they have chosen in this series. Ajaz over Henry, Henry over Wagner. Their top order hasn't really turned up. And they somehow lost after scoring 500 runs, with one of the most confused third innings when setting a total you will ever see. Special shout out to their two run outs.
So New Zealand hasn't been good, whole or washing their hands vigorously, and so that does play into England looking great.
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