8th July, 2020 The day we all had been waiting for since almost a month. Thanks to England and West Indies cricket boards who agreed to schedule a test series amidst Covid-19 pandemic. And special thanks to England Cricket board and the government of UK for professional cricket to return. After a wait of 117 days, international cricket has returned in the best format – the Test cricket.
Normalcy Returns in Multiple ways
For nearly four months, we all have waited for the normalcy of international cricket to return. And thank god, it returned in not just one but multiple ways:
Normalcy 1: Hosted in England, rain delayed the start of the test match as usual
Normalcy 2: England continued their opening troubles, as Dom Sibley went without scoring
Normalcy 3: Bilal claimed the wicket with his usual jinx tweet 🙂 🙂
International Cricket: BLM Campaign Support
Since the death of George Floyd , the “Black Lives Matter” campaign has gathered the momentum, and rightly so. To show the strength of support, West Indies and England cricketers, along with umpires knee down before the start of the game. We at Cricket Bloggers, strongly support the BLM campaign.
England’s Approach
In the form of stand-in captains, Ben Stokes became the first man in England cricket history to lead the international side without captaining at first-class level (Tests, One-day or T20 games). However, their selection and opening conundrum remained as it is.
They left out Stuart Broad in the favor of England’s fast bowler duo of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. Given the history of injuries to both the fast bowlers, England took a risk which may see them a bowler short if it doesn’t come off.
Even though the stadiums are empty -due to Covid-19 – and some cricketing laws have changed, let us all cheer the return of international cricket on this historic day.
Stats credit: Kaustubh
