Never mind Bazball, this was Bazbrawl: say goodbye to happy-go-lucky England | Andy Bull
India broke a golden rule in the third Test: don’t try to pick a fight with Ben StokesThere was a large handwritten sign propped against the inside wall of the North Gate of Lord’s,“In affectionate remembrance of Bazball,” it said, the letters drawn in the bacon‑and-egg colours of an MCC tie, “which died at Lord’s on 10 July, 2025,RIP,” The stewards must have taken it off one of the Indian fans who hadn’t read the small print on his fifth-day ticket,Lord’s being the place it is, instead of stuffing it into a bin, they had put it aside and popped an item ticket on the top corner in case the writer wanted to pick it up on his way back out of the ground.
It was still there six hours later, waiting for someone to reclaim it at the end of one of the great Tests,God, but the win was hard work, and a hell of a time coming,At times the fifth day felt more like an elaborate metaphor about the futility of human endeavour, a performance piece in which Ben Stokes bowled an endless succession of bouncers while Ravindra Jadeja steadfastly refused to take any of the many runs on offer in an attempt to protect his batting partners at the other end from having to face him,It’s impossible to imagine how a batter could fight harder for his side than Jadeja did through the afternoon,It was one of the grittiest fourth innings played in a losing cause.
He and Stokes were like two of those old Victorian prizefighters who used to scrap for a hundred rounds.There are a lot of rules at Lord’s.No, you can’t bring in a sign.No, you can’t bring in a flag.Or an instrument.
No, you can’t wear fancy dress.Yes, you do need a tailored jacket, tie or cravat to get into the pavilion.No, jeans, leggings and T-shirts are not appropriate clothing.As ever in England, it’s the unwritten rules that really catch people out – always start with the outside cutlery and, as India just discovered, don’t try to pick a fight with Stokes, a man who once broke his hand punching a locker because it looked at him funny.This really ought to be a golden rule.
Like never start a land war in Asia, or go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.Australia did it back in 2023, when Alex Carey made that underarm throw to run out Jonny Bairstow as he wandered out of his ground.They were lucky to escape with a 43-run victory after Stokes turned berserk and flogged 93 runs, including nine sixes, off his next 88 balls.This week, it was Shubman Gill’s turn.He made 386 good decisions in a row when he scored that faultless double hundred in the second Test at Edgbaston, but he made one glaringly bad one at Lord’s when he decided to poke Zak Crawley in the chest and tell him to “grow some fucking balls” when he kept pulling away from the crease on Saturday evening.
Stokes was never going to let that go.After three days smouldering in the heatwave, the match was set alight.On Sunday, Mohammed Siraj was fined for barging with Ben Duckett during his celebrations after he had dismissed him; on Monday Stokes himself had to step between Jadeja and Brydon Carse when the two of them squared up after they collided with each other in the middle of the pitch, while Jofra Archer shot a few choice words at Rishabh Pant in his follow-through after he bowled him with a nip‑backer in the moment after Pant had skipped down the pitch to belt him for four through long-on.Archer came back into the attack when the match was on the line, and nailed Siraj on the shoulder with a vicious bouncer.He didn’t stop then to check on the batter, but walked back to his station in the outfield.
Never mind Bazball.This was Bazbrawl.Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotionEngland aren’t playing like the happy-go-lucky side who breezed through all those four-day Tests last summer.India are too good to take on that way, the problems they ask demand better answers than scoops, sixes, and silly fields, and England have had to dig right down deep into themselves to find them.There were moments when you wondered whether they ever would.
There was the briefest pause when the last wicket finally fell, as if no one could really believe it had happened after all that trying.Then, as Shoaib Bashir ran madcap across the field, sprinting, skipping, leaping away from the teammates who were chasing him in celebration of the most important wicket he has ever taken, Archer, out on the boundary, collapsed on the ground, exhausted, overcome, and very happy to be back playing Test cricket.He lay face down, overcome with relief, and eventually roused himself, with a big grin, before he trotted off to join the rest of his team who were, by then, busy commiserating with the two defeated Indian batters, who had given everything, and demanded everything of England in return.
Is Reform UK a radical party or a home for ‘disgruntled former Conservatives’, asks James Cleverly
Reform UK might have to choose between presenting itself as a new and radical political party or as a home for “disgruntled former Conservatives” who lost their seats at the election, James Cleverly has said.Cleverly, the former home and foreign secretary, who stood to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader, also argued that Nigel Farage’s party could suffer if the councils it now runs struggle to properly manage key everyday services such as bin collections and social care.Speaking at an event in Westminster organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank, Cleverly discounted the idea that he hoped to replace Kemi Badenoch, saying his party had to “get out of this habit of cycling through leaders in the hope that ditching this one and picking a new one will make life easy for us”.Answering questions following a speech about how mainstream rightwing parties can take on the threat from populism, Cleverly noted the way that Reform had absorbed a series of former Tory MPs, most recently Jake Berry, the former party chair, who whose defection was announced last week.“If their sales pitch is, ‘We’re not like the old political parties,’ but they are mainly populated with people from my political party, it’s going to be really hard for them to reconcile that sales pitch,” he said
Tory benches almost deserted as Philp cops a lesson on small boats | John Crace
It was all a bit of a mystery. Just where were the Tories? Had they just got their dates confused? Thought that recess started this week rather than next? Or had they all bunked off to Lord’s to see England beat India in a tight finish? Or maybe some – caught up in the entente amicale aftermath of Emmanuel Macron’s state visit – had taken the Eurostar to Paris to enjoy steak frites on Bastille Day?You’d have thought the Conservative backbenchers would have wanted to be out in force to hear Yvette Cooper’s statement on the new arrangements for dealing with small boats. After all, this is the stuff that Kemi Badenoch and Chris Philp live and breathe. The reason they get up in the morning. To wage a two-person war on those making the Channel crossing
Resident doctors’ strikes would be gift to Nigel Farage, warns Wes Streeting
Wes Streeting has said resident doctors’ strikes would be “a gift to Nigel Farage” before a meeting with the British Medical Association this week where he will seek to avert industrial action.The health secretary told a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday that ministers were “in the fight for the survival of the NHS” and if Labour failed, Farage would argue for it to be replaced by an insurance-style system.Streeting will meet BMA officials later this week in an attempt to prevent five days of strikes by resident doctors in England, which are due to begin on 25 July.Speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party, he said: “The BMA’s threats are unnecessary, unreasonable, and unfair. More than that, these strikes would be a gift to Nigel Farage, just as we are beginning to cut waiting lists and get the NHS moving in the right direction
UK politics: Tories’ energy policy shows they are ‘anti-science, anti-jobs, anti-future’ Miliband tells MPs – as it happened
Andrew Bowie, a shadow energy minster, responded for the Conseratives – not Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary.He said it was “ridiculous” for Miliband to suggest in his Guardian interview that opponents of net zero were unpatriotic. He went onWe need to bring back a sense of rationality, of proportion to this debate, because … language like this is alienating more and more people from the important cause of ensuring that the planet we pass on to our children.Bowie suggested Miliband was not telling the truth about the impact of net zero policies.Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, intervened, to object, saying MPs should not accuse each other of being dishonest
Reform council leader urges Labour to reconsider curbs on care worker visas
The leader of a Reform-run county council has written to the government to express “grave concern” about a planned tightening of visas for health and care workers, despite the party’s wider commitment to significantly reducing net migration.Linden Kemkaran – the leader of Kent council, which is one of 10 authorities in England run by Nigel Farage’s party since May – said the changes, including an imminent end to the specific visa route for care workers, could have a significant impact on local care homes.Kemkaran and Diane Morton, the council’s cabinet member for social care, said the changes risked seeing an exodus of overseas care staff, as they highlighted the impact on the sector of a rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) in the budget.In a letter to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, and Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, they said that about 20% to 25% of the county’s social care workforce was from overseas and able to work via licensed sponsorships from employers.This route expires on 22 July, part of a wider tightening of migration rules, including on health and care visas, announced by the government in May
Genocide prevention could become legal priority for UK government
Clearer legal obligations on the British government to prevent genocides, and to determine if one is occurring rather than leaving such judgments to international courts, are to be considered by a cross-party group of lawyers, politicians and academics under the chairmanship of Helena Kennedy.The new group, known as the standing group on atrocity crimes, says its genesis does not derive from a specific conflict such as Gaza or Xinjiang, but a wider concern that such crime is spreading as international law loses its purchase.The move will also be seen as part of a wider drive to push back against those trying to downgrade the status of international law in the UK, often using criticism of the attorney general, Richard Hermer, as a lever.The aim is also to encourage the government to make atrocity prevention a clearer priority for the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office has established an atrocity prevention unit but its profile and funding are small
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