Who is popular today?

Spectators are back for the first Test at Edgbaston as Joe Root leads a side that is experimental by design
England have not yet fully emerged from the team environment previously known as the bubble but the start of a bumper international summer nevertheless feels like a fresh page being turned. After a previous chapter spent befuddled by the spin of Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel on India’s baked soil, they return to home comforts and the familiarity of pace on the ball.
The marketing folk would probably describe it as a soft launch, with new players being explored and spectators returning in reduced numbers. But the two-match series against New Zealand – one of cricket’s friendliest rivalries – still provides plenty of the good stuff that Test cricket lovers feast upon and administrators should keep in mind the next time they talk down the format’s future. Continue reading...