England Should Beat Zimbabwe But Need The Sound Of The Crowd

England kick off a huge six months in their Test match calendar this Thursday when they welcome Zimbabwe to Trent Bridge for a four-day red-ball game. The last time the Chevrons came to play the long format in the United Kingdom, Jimmy Anderson took five wickets on debut as a callow 20-year-old with peroxide streaks. Twenty-two years later, Anderson is still plugging away for Lancashire.

English cricket has only just moved on from the days when Anderson opened the bowling after his retirement at Lord’s last year. The 42-year-old’s sidekick was Nottingham’s favorite seam sheriff, Stuart Broad, who quit after his self-scripted swan song at the 2023 Oval Ashes Test. Test cricket’s older generation is succumbing to Father Time. Both were loved by the public and the travelling Barmy Army. Now English fans are having to relearn how to appreciate the new breed led by Gus Atkinson and company.

The big body blow for the ECB, BCCI and cricket’s global appeal has already been delivered with the consecutive retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli earlier in the month. India’s visit is the big summer festival, but the theater of Test cricket has been punctured as the most Googled cricketer in the world won’t adorn the stage. Brand Kohli means eyeballs and guaranteed clicks. June 20’s opener at Headingley feels greyer already.

After winning low-key series against the West Indians and Sri Lankans last season at home, England start their preparation for November’s huge Ashes opener in Perth against a team that isn’t even included in the World Test Championship. Australia may well have retained the mace by the time Ben Stokes’s squad arrive down under.

The Zimbabweans are coming with a spring in their step and a hectic schedule of their own. The country has come a long way since becoming the first Full Member of the ICC to be suspended in July 2019, having its funding frozen and being in debt to the tune of $27 million. They are playing more Tests in 2025 than their hosts, although they arrive ranked tenth and bottom of the Test rankings below Bangladesh.

How long they remain competitive in the middle at Nottingham is less certain. The weather may have a say in the game, but the team is a rain or shine mix of raw talent and grizzled veterans. The squad is led by 39-year-old Craig Ervine, who has played 25 Tests over 14 years, while another almost fortysomething, all-rounder Sikandar Raza, has also been recalled. Raza is third in the ICC’s one-day international rankings for all-rounders and seventh in T20Is. He has played only one Test in the last four years.

Exiting teenage paceman Newman Nyamhuri is included, but it is the 6-foot-8-inch frame of Blessing Muzarabani that could provide the Heath Streak wow factor. Muzarabani has claimed 26 wickets in his last four matches and was signed up by Royal Challengers Bengaluru as a temporary replacement for Lungi Ngidi in the IPL. Ngidi is joining up with South Africa in preparation for the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord’s on June 11.

As for England, Brendon McCullum is in charge of Test and white-ball missions now and, if anything, he has upped the lexicon of pre-cooked positive power phrases, declaring that his side should “shoot for the stars.” McCullum’s remarks about winning the big series under the bright lights against the best feel a little out of place given the current opposition in front of England right here, right now.

At least McCullum didn’t say that his pacemen bowl “absolute rockets” as that didn’t help them progress in the Champions Trophy. The XI for Trent Bridge includes a debut for 27-year-old Essex seamer Sam Cook, whose deliveries will never be clocked for speeding. Cook is all about accuracy rather than pace, an Angus Fraser without the hangdog expression. Josh Tongue memorably bowled David Warner in an erratic Ashes debut at Lord’s in 2023 and might get the pulse racing on the speed gun.

England have won 22 Tests out of 35 since McCullum teamed up with skipper Stokes in 2022. After a rapier start of ten wins out of 11, the results have tailed off. India beat them 4-1 and Australia crucially took the first two Tests of the Ashes series in 2023 to retain the urn. England’s left field selections are bold but difficult to rely on in extremis and they were slow to tweak the stand-and-deliver style of Bazball with a bit more strategic thinking.

Stokes want to carry the hopes of a nation and bring the spectators with him on a journey that includes entertainment and winning. Maybe in that order. Parts of their Bazball lexicon has caused consternation with the likes of Ben Duckett suggesting that the team should take credit for showing how it should be done. The coach has called for more humility among the ranks “so that we don’t lose touch with the English people.”

There’s a historical precedent for this. In 2013, English cricket had fallen from grace after being the No. 1 team in the world just a year earlier. As ESPNcricinfo wrote: “There was something about England’s cricket team, even when winning….that did not entirely connect with the public mood.”

That was in some part more to do with the intensity and micro-management of Andy Flower, and the rather methodical plod of a team that was past its sell-by date. McCullum and Stokes want cricket to be a show without result-driven data blocking freedom for players to express themselves. Fans don’t like the players doubling down on methodology with bravado when things go wrong. Even managing director Rob Key called for a halt to talking “rubbish.”

While McCullum baulks at talk of being ruthless, he waxes lyrical about Stokes’s relentless drive. Where does entertainment stop when the results don’t take care of themselves? Twenty years ago, England’s Ashes heroes were cheered by tens of thousands in the streets of London on top of a double decker bus with the nation enjoying the cricket zeitgeist for a wild ride.

This team still needs to reel in supporters through words and deeds to feel half the love that Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and company felt in that magical summer.

England’s cricketers are about to play the other members of the Big Three. If they fail to take Australia and India down this time, then the fans will question whether the bold words are enough without the big wins. Being the best isn’t always about thrilling the crowds.