Drinks time and England have got through the first hour without any alarm. They aren’t cracking along at the usual Bazball pace but instead being smart about seeing off the new ball and the opening bowlers.
It will get easier with a change of bowling and when the shine goes off the Duke ball but this is a nice start for the home side. In particular for Zak Crawley, who has had a torrid time in first innings in county cricket this summer and his last Test series was just a total working over by Matt Henry, where he averaged just eight for the series.
But in reality England and the selectors aren’t going to really take a lot of notice of what happens in this match – they’ve already got their plans in place for the India series which will only be derailed by injury probably.
Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager.
Enable cookiesAllow cookies onceBad news for Zimb: it should get worse
Steve James, at Trent Bridge
The big worry for Zimbabwe will be that England, by their standards, have actually been quite cautious. There were 11 consecutive dot balls at one stage, but Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett have both looked in fine touch on a flat pitch.
Both of Zimbabwe’s opening bowlers, Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava are tall men and the bounce they achieved has helped Crawley, who can be such a leg-before candidate on slow county pitches that do not bounce.
He played one exquisite extra-cover drive for four off Muzarabani and will be looking for the sort of score that makes him impossible to drop once Jacob Bethell comes in for the next Test against India, as Ben Stokes has said he will.
After ten overs, England stand on 47-0 and it looks as if it is going to be a very tough day for Zimbabwe. Zak Crawley, 22 runs from 32 balls, and Ben Duckett, 25 from 28, are hitting ODI numbers. Maybe even T20. Shortly into the next over and Duckett spanks another four, and England are fifty up. Oh, another four from Duckett with the next ball. Easy pickings.
We spoke about our man Blessing earlier, well his team-mate Tanaka Chivanga is a tank. You wouldn’t fit him. He has muscles in places where most mere mortals don’t even have places. With a lovely thick beard and a great tapered fade, it’s now his turn to a have a go at Crawley and Duckett. Oh, he’s got a lovely smile, too.
Ben Duckett is having fun early on here. The 30-year-old smokes Muzarabani twice for four in that past over, once through cover and the next towards the Larwood & Voce. He is just short (not a dig at him being 5ft 7in) of a third boundary in the same over after slapping the ball towards the leg side. Amidst that over, he was teased by Muzarabani with a short beauty. Duckett was tempted to go for it but pulled out at the last second. He has 20 runs from 25 deliveries at the end of the over.
Dangerous day to be a hoodie
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
It is absolutely freezing at Trent Bridge. I have just nipped down to the merchandise shop where they’ve had to bring out extra stock of hoodies and fleeces because they are doing a roaring trade as half the crowd have seriously underclubbed on their clothing. The temperature in Nottingham is about ten degrees colder than yesterday.
Meanwhile on the pitch, England are going along at a steady pace, both openers being mindful of the extra bounce from Muzarabani and there’s a bit of lateral movement from both ends. Duckett has just hit another four to move England to 30-0.
Blessing Muzarabani – a sensational name, quite frankly – is an absolute giant, standing at 6ft 8in. Good thing there is no roof at Trent Bridge as he’d be constantly hunched over. He is the size of a surfboard and hopes to ride the wave of momentum he has going to some more wickets today. Andy Farrell could do with him for the British & Irish Lions this summer. Maro Itoje is only 6ft 5in. He wears 40 on his back, which is presumably the number of Ben Duckett’s you would have to line up in order to match Blessing’s height.
Anyway, cricket, England are 13-0 after four overs, with Crawley getting his first boundary of the day, spinning to meet a bouncer and hitting it to deep square leg..
No disguise for the giant Blessing
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Blessing Muzarabani from the Radcliffe Road end – the 6ft 8in seamer is Zimbabwe’s best bowler although this is only his 13th Test – he’s taken 51 wickets at 21.84. He’s off to the IPL straight after this Test match whereas the rest of the team are staying in the UK to play a tour match against South Africa at Arundel in a warm-up match for the World Test Championship.
Duckett heats up chilly Trent Bridge
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Anthems done and we’re underway. It’s really very cold, all the Zimbabwe players have their hands in their pockets and their flannels are flapping in the wind.
Richard Ngarava starting from the Pavilion End – left-arm 27-year-old – this is only his tenth Test – has taken 20 wickets @42.85. There are runs to be had today, and Duckett gets off the mark by hitting his second ball of the day – a short and wide delivery – for four.
The coin has been tossed, the players are out, the anthems have been sung; the summer is officially here! That beautiful English summer where the sky is grey and miserable pulling up the curtain on a summer of Test cricket and England’s first match in the format for five months. A reminder that Zimbabwe chose to bowl, so Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett have whacked their helmets on and are heading into battle. The fans will be battling the chill this morning, although some of the Zimbabwe merch is beautiful. One Zimb fan is sporting a lovely burgundy hoodie, with green sleeves and then topping it off with a yellow bucket hat. You look great, chap. Richard Ngarava will start us off from the Stuart Broad end.
Despite what the cricket world thinks of Zimbabwe’s change, their captain, Craig Ervine, has no doubt that his boys will put in a good showing.
“You want to test yourself against the best,” he said. “And England’s right up there with the best.
“So to have this opportunity, you really want to put Zimbabwe on the map. You want to come in with the right mindset that you’re coming in to win. You’re not just coming to fulfil a fixture. I think you want to turn up here and hopefully cause an upset.”
We’ll be hearing from our very own Mike Atherton later on, but he is out and about at Trent Bridge this morning. Lovely light suit with an open collar in May, nothing says English cricket more than that. Go on, Athers.
The face you make when waiting to receive The Times’ verdict on your work attire
PA
The face you make when receiving a fashion compliment from The Times
PA
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Stuart Broad has presented Sam Cook with his England cap – number 719 – with his mum, dad and siblings in the huddle on the pitch while Harry Brook was given a memento to mark his 25th Test.
Around 11,000 tickets have been sold for today – so around 75 per cent capacity. There are a bit more tomorrow, with just over 12,000.
Broad spoke to the England players before the game
PA
Zimbabwe win the toss and opt to bowl
First blood goes to the tourists — they have at least won more than Manchester United this week. Perhaps after having a look at the lovely English clouds, Craig Ervine decides that Zimbabwe will have a go with the ball first.
“Due to the overhead conditions, hopefully we can utilise the first session and get a little bit out of the ball. We’ve got one spinner in Sikandar Raza and we’re going with four seamers,” he says. “It’s a special occasion today. The guys are really excited to get going and be part of this Test match. The Test in 2003, my brother was involved, and he’s watching today. It’s a momentous occasion for all of us and it will only sink in later down the line.”
Atherton: Should be an easy England win
Mike Atherton, at Trent Bridge
Winning should be a formality against Zimbabwe. It was concerning to watch them being given the runaround by a bunch of kids in their four-day warm-up match at Grace Road, Leicestershire, where they went down by 138 runs. It was only a warm-up, but it was played competitively and the First-Class Counties XI won the match on merit after conceding a first-innings lead. Put bluntly, that puts into context the scale of the challenge for Craig Ervine’s team.
England enter huge era looking to reconnect with fans
Mike Atherton, at Trent Bridge
What a curious relationship English cricket has had with Zimbabwe. It is a country that has provided England with two fine batsmen — Gary Ballance and Graeme Hick; two exceptional coaches — Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower; and gave one England captain, Nasser Hussain, the most anxious moments of his career in the World Cup of 2003, the year since which the two countries have been estranged from each other in Test cricket, a gap of 22 years.
You have to go back to Jimmy Anderson’s debut series, and an England team that included the managing director, Rob Key, and other leading present coaching lights of the county game, Richard Johnson and Anthony McGrath, for when Zimbabwe last played Test cricket here. Hussain was in charge and six England captains and six prime ministers have come and gone since then.
● Read in full: England enter huge era in good health and looking to reconnect with fans
New Trent Bridge route for the England players
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Good morning from Trent Bridge. I am in my position in the corner of the press box which, for this Test match, is right next to the players’ dressing-rooms because the Pavilion is being rebuilt. So the Radcliffe Road end of the ground is where they are changing and eating for this match. It means that on the television you’ll see the players taking a slightly odd route to the crease, coming down some stairs at the end of the Radcliffe Road stand.
It also means that my usual window I can look out of at the spectators has been blocked off by the Trent Bridge authorities so we can’t see along the row of hospitality boxes where the players will be sitting. Seems a bit over the top to me!
It’s overcast and chilly in Nottingham today and the forecast for the weekend is a bit grim. Players are out in the middle warming up and the pitch looks straw coloured and should be a good one but the cloud will please the seamers.
Don’t scoff — still no Jof
England’s plans for the return of Jofra Archer to the Test team have been dealt a blow after the fast bowler was ruled out of the one-day international series against West Indies — which starts next week — with ligament damage to his right thumb. He will be reassessed over the next fortnight but there is no set date for his return to action. The injury could rule him out of playing for England Lions against India A in mid-June, which had been part of the plan for the 30-year-old to begin his return to red-ball cricket for the first time since February 2021.
England had planned to try to get Archer back into the Test arena in Australia and they were hoping he would play a part at the end of the India series in July, but the latest injury makes that less likely. There are limited opportunities for Archer to play first-class cricket for Sussex because the County Championship takes a break next week for the T20 Blast, although he could still feature for them in September if England decide they would prefer him to play in the County Championship rather than the limited-overs series against South Africa.
Why are Zimbabwe here? Contracts, that’s why
Simon Wilde, at Trent Bridge
It is chilly, the sun is straining to come out from behind the clouds and Ollie Pope is currently the only England batsman on the Trent Bridge square having a net. This feels like a big game for Pope after Ben Stokes’ pre-match comments about Jacob Bethell being lined up to play against India. But will any amount of runs against a very modestly resourced Zimbabwe team actually make any difference? Frankly it is hard to think when England last faced weaker Test opposition than this – even the early Sri Lanka Test XIs of the 1980s and the Pakistan sides of the 1950s possessed some exceptional cricketers and were capable of giving England a game. Ireland in 2019 and 2023 were stronger. Let’s be honest, Zimbabwe are here because the ECB has a broadcasting contract to stage six Tests this summer and, given that we are still in the IPL window, who else was available to put out a team?
Ben Stokes confirmed that he is back to full fitness after surgery on his left hamstring in January. Having not played a match this year, however, Stokes will carefully manage how much he bowls in the four-day Test against Zimbabwe.
“I’ve obviously been training a lot over the past two months. I’ve got myself back as close as I possibly can to match intensity but understandably this will be my first game in a while,” Stokes said. “There is a big gap in intensity between training and matches. Getting back out into the battle of playing and that kind of stuff is something I have to be mindful of.
“I’ve done everything I can to bowl overs, but I’ve got to be mindful of where I am and build myself back up to proper match workload for later on in the summer.”
Jacob Bethell will regain his place in the Test team when England play India starting next month, Ben Stokes has confirmed.
The Warwickshire all-rounder will miss the one-off Test against Zimbabwe having been given permission by England to play in the IPL instead. But after making a strong start to his Test career during the series against New Zealand last December, he will come straight back into the side, meaning one of the present top order is likely to lose their place.
● Read in full: Jacob Bethell will regain England spot for India Tests after IPL stint
Cook’s little black book
Sam Cook will make his England Test debut against Zimbabwe, hoping to add more batsmen to the little black book of scalps he has kept since early in his career.
Cook, 27, has been named in England’s team for the four-day Test match at Trent Bridge starting on Thursday — a debut he has had to wait a long time for despite his 227 County Championship wickets being the most of any seamer in the past five years, with his 321 first-class wickets for Essex coming at an average of only 19.85. He is joined in the pace attack by Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue, who will play his first Test since the 2023 Ashes.
● Read in full: Sam Cook: My black book of scalps will be in my bag for England debut
Who’s in the England squad?
Good morning and welcome to The Times’ coverage of the first and final Test between England and Zimbabwe. This one-off clash between the two is at Trent Bridge and should be a bunch of fun. Here is a reminder of the team:
England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Ben Stokes (capt), 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Sam Cook, 10 Josh Tongue, 11 Shoaib Bashir
Zimbabwe: 1 Brian Bennett, 2 Ben Curran, 3 Nick Welch, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Craig Ervine (capt), 6 Wessly Madhevere, 7 Tafadzwa Tsiga (wk), 8 Clive Madande, 9 Wellington Masakadza, 10 Richard Ngarava, 11 Blessing Muzarabani.