I'd argue he's more appreciated outside of India actually.
England in India 2021
- Thread starter TheGame
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Harsh on Bess that
Wow. Didn't expect such a bizarre second day. Lots of questions about the batsmen's application as well as the pitch.
2 days is not a good advertising.
India have a got such a balanced squad that we would be solid in most of the pitches. Hope 4th match has bit of more time for on the field performances.
2 days is not a good advertising.
India have a got such a balanced squad that we would be solid in most of the pitches. Hope 4th match has bit of more time for on the field performances.
All over in 2 days 
Watching the batting again and I am disgusted by England. Pitch being bad is one thing but I swear this team can get bowled out for less than 100 on any Indian pitch against this attack
While Ashwin has improved his limited overs bowling in the IPL, I feel he's still way too prone to go for a lot of runs on wickets that offer no support for spin. Someone like Axar (surprising in that I never thought he would be needed for test cricket) is way better in limited overs as he can at least provide some control in tough conditions.
In summary, have seen Ashwin bowl too much crap to trust him with 4 or 10 over responsibilities at the international level moving forward.
I suppose he's doing something right to have international recognition.Would it be fair to say that the players lack of experience with the pink ball is more to blame than the pink ball itself?
Let’s be honest here, that test was more like watching 20/20 cricket. I’m not making excuses for England, I mean the pitch was so bad it almost back fired on India. But was that pitch appropriate for test match cricket??? Anyway, what’s the bet they’ll produce an absolute road for the final test!
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Thanks. Wasn't aware.
The performance of batters seem to suggest this was played in the mind rather than the pitch conditions. Most wickets were straight deliveries. The pitch was hardly dangerous for points to be docked.
It felt like some of the English players were blaming the pitch/pink ball before they had even faced a ball. Mentally knew they had an excuse for getting out.
When England beat India back in 2012, the likes of KP, Cook and Trott used a variety of different methods to negate the spin. KP was aggressive and used the sweep to good effect more often than not. Cook and Trott whilst more defensive used their strides to take the LBW out of the equation.
I said it before but there were hardly any dismissals because of a ball turning square. Look at Crawley's dismissal - missed a straight ball first up. For a batsman of his height, he should be able to get forward easily as well as outside of the line - instead he leaves a massive gap and gets bowled. Simpler said than done but England knew what was coming this series.
That said, unlike the first test where the advantage goes to the winner of the toss, this match offered both teams an equal chance of a victory. We also chased 50 with ease - on a pitch described as such, surely England could have applied a little pressure during our 2nd innings.
It is a shame that this match lasted under 2 days. The pitch offered a lot of assistance to spinners but I still fully believe both teams were awful in their shot selection. 200 was possible on this wicket with better application though I guess we'll never know.
And there I was being smart ass thinking I’ll take three days off, it ain’t gonna last more than three days. Booked in back to work tomorrow.
Fair play for your motivation to do that. I’d have just kept the Friday as a day off.
Gosh are the English sore losers at any sport they play? Totally bizarre, they seem to be the only country in the Western world with such a loser mentality.
Jeez there are literally so many pieces from English journos saying England weren't good enough . Does that mean the English are gracious losers
I don't know, too often there seems to be blame laid at the feet of outside factors such as R&R, the wicket, etc. It just seems like ridiculous entitlement and lack of grit to even bring these points up at all. If I were an English fan I would just be fed up and demand better from the team, after all both teams batted twice in the same conditions and England even won the toss.
Heck one could even bring these points up in passing but not have to go as far as trying to punish the other team, especially considering the above context. Really cringeworthy stuff.
Unfortunately, the quality needed to play test cricket in different conditions is very quickly diminishing. The money now available playing the shorter format of the game trumps test cricket. I have sympathy for the players. They go with a different mentality and are coached differently whilst with franchises and then again differently with their national teams for test cricket. Difficult to make alterations between these formats in such a short time. You can probably name just 2 batsmen in any national team who you would say are still capable of playing test cricket at a high level.
Is it any wonder there are now voices trying to promote 4-day tests simply due to the quality of players in this format?
Can't agree with the the last page or so laying the blame with the batsmen / modern day temperament.
Plenty of very good players of spin looked all at sea during this Test Match. The wicket was 100% not fit for purpose which is a real shame in a test series as eagerly watched as this one.
I disagreed when it was muted after the 2nd test, I think that was a little bit of sour grapes in the English media. Not this time though.
The petty digs at 'sore losers' (England) and 'clearly doctored pitches' (India) are pretty tedious. Give it a rest.
Plenty of very good players of spin looked all at sea during this Test Match. The wicket was 100% not fit for purpose which is a real shame in a test series as eagerly watched as this one.
I disagreed when it was muted after the 2nd test, I think that was a little bit of sour grapes in the English media. Not this time though.
The petty digs at 'sore losers' (England) and 'clearly doctored pitches' (India) are pretty tedious. Give it a rest.
Apparently ICC cant dock points for the pitch.. they can ban grounds for being rubbish..
Yes please.. Awful pitch.. an embarrassment. ICC must act.
Yes please.. Awful pitch.. an embarrassment. ICC must act.
I respect you play cricket to a high standard. However, judging from the sidelines did you not cringe with a lot of the shots which amounted to wickets? Sibley, Pope, Bairstow look completely out of their depth in these conditions and format. Even the brilliant Stokes who bullies bowlers is lost trying to adapt his general style of play to test cricket in these conditions.
You can always pick out poor shots on any wicket to be fair. I think there was a wider context to the panic this time.
Completely agree a few players look out of their depth against the quality of spin bowling India can produce. Bairstow and Pope in this Test in particular.
That said, Root took 5/8 this morning and was basically unplayable just landing the ball consistently on the same spot.
Cook said in the studio he was sat there wondering how he would have survived on that wicket and genuinely had no idea.
Thanks for mentioning my failed Cricket career but I certainly never played on a turner in Asia so I cant claim any expertise!
Had no choice, I’m married, I had to fight for these three days as it was so if there’s no cricket you can get a days work in.... so I was told :-)))
Bit of both I guess. Pitches are definitely curated to favour the bowlers. I think I remember Virat or someone saying something along the lines of "we'll see England in India" after the thrashing they gave us in 2011 and since then it feels as if test cricket has taken a different route (predominantly in the sub-continent). New Zealand are a better team than they ever were (?) which makes touring them incredibly difficult. Australia is always flat but still challenging. SA and England are tailored towards the fast bowlers. India and Sri Lanka (maybe even Pakistan) have completely change the nature of their pitches from flat to spinning from day 1. It's a little ironic given the complaints from the previous era about both being flat track bullies.
That and the fact that we've an abundance of brilliant bowlers - Broad, Anderson (is it a coincidence that they're at their best during the past few years - favourable conditions is a definite factor however small), Starc, Cummins, Hazelwood, Boult, Southee, Wagner, Jamieson, Rabada, Ngidi, Ishant, Shami, Ashwin, Jadeja, Bumrah, Kemar Roach has been brilliant for WI and maybe Abbas for Pakistan and Herath for Sri Lanka - to name a few. Batting is definitely not as easy as it used to be. How many batsmen average 50 in this era? Root, Kohli, Smith and Williamson aside, I can't think of another. Marnus is still very early in his career.
This whole pitch this, pitch that literally only ever comes up in India - Perth is allowed to have a million, trillion cracks and Trent Bridge and Jo'Burg are pretty much played on grass. There is a definite case of "learn how to play against spin" - it's a facet of the game and for some odd reason, England refuse to want to get better.
India took a risky approach in curating such a wicket but it gave England are fair chance to win unlike in 2016, for example, where the wickets didn't induce as much spin and we whitewashed them. Which is better?
Cricket has shifted, for now, but maybe it'll change again? What will never happen, unless the ICC chime in, is pitches in India changing. Unfortunately, it's a matter of get good or get out - It'll be the same when we tour England (where we'll most likely get thrashed).
4 tail enders - a few of whom were looking to be aggressive.
Cook averaged 51 in India - I'm sure he wouldn't have struggled on that pitch.
Poor channel 4 paid money for these rights and now for a variety of reasons including England being incompetent, India being better and the pitch etc they got 2 days with the match ending before the weekend. Pretty big disaster for them
What standard did you play at?
This is hilarious. Channel 4 would have gained an incredible amount of viewers from this series and if you feel so bad for them, why don't you donate some money their way?
How do you know it cost them peanuts ?
Jeez you really need help with your temper issues man . That was a simple comment with no malaise involved to anyone at all .
It's not temper. You literally complain about absolutely everything possible.
How was that a complaint ? It was a statement that I made on what is happening . Some of you should learn to reply to the post & not the poster
A modest one. Was in the county system but didn't make it.
Played alongside Chris Woakes for a good while, he used to bat at 3 and open the bowling. Different level. Very good footballer too.
It costs BT more to show Utd v Sociedad tonight than C4 paid per test.
I read an article on the bidding situation, will try and dig it out.
Found the tweet suggesting the same . I wonder how low the revenue expected must be then considering this went last minute
John Oliver did an episode on him once. Can't believe how bonkers he was.
The Adelaide pink ball test finished in less than 2.5 days but the story of that match was India's batting collapse with the pink ball.
This test finishes in slightly less than 2 days and the story should be rightly about England's inability to pick the straight ball.
Instead of obviously biased reporting based on who is the receiving end on similar events, the real story to me is whether pink ball tests is real test cricket. Way too many batting collapses happen in these even when the conditions are relatively benign (like on this pitch) for it to be.
This test finishes in slightly less than 2 days and the story should be rightly about England's inability to pick the straight ball.
Instead of obviously biased reporting based on who is the receiving end on similar events, the real story to me is whether pink ball tests is real test cricket. Way too many batting collapses happen in these even when the conditions are relatively benign (like on this pitch) for it to be.