Fizzle of Shoaib Bashir’s algorithmic magic echoes wider decline of Test spin | Jonathan Liew

The Guardian

Left out of squad to tour South Africa, spin bowler’s exclusion points to a sport reshaped by the needs of T20 and hard data During the summer, Sky Sports would frequently run an advert for one of English cricket’s blue-chip financial sponsors. I forget its exact name – something like WXYZ Tradify or Crypto Max 301 or Wealth Centaur would be my guess. But I remember there was a mind-shreddingly banal male voiceover (“diversify your forex contingents and start making your money bleed today”), to which England players like Harry Brook and Jacob Bethell were depicted engaging in various feats of…