Yes fair point, but you should all be sad bastards like me and get up at 4am. Not like there is anything else to do.
England in India 2021
- Thread starter TheGame
- Start date
It's hard tbh . I love cricket but I work from 9 so can't get up too early because the rest of the day is brutal then . You have to also remember that somehow this test match has coincided with the coldest temperature of the year in the northwest which makes it even harder
They do half an hour highlights every day, don't they? I watched one a couple days ago.
Archer bowled beautifully in India's first innings when the pitch was still fairly benign. I would keep him in and bring in Broad for Anderson. We need Jimmy fresh for the pink ball test.
Archer played well and does not deserve to be dropped. Broad needless to say is an England great. But, given we are underdogs with a 1-0 lead, I would prefer to keep the pressure on India and worry about the 3rd and 4th tests later.
I think this England team is far better than I give it credit for and Root is a good captain. I expect India to win the series still but I am very impressed by the maturity of England's cricket under Silverwood.
Not much to add with respect to Anderson, what a bowler and what an over.
Not much to add with respect to Anderson, what a bowler and what an over.
Archer will miss the next test due to elbow injury. Does that mean it’ll be both Anderson and Broad or will Woakes come in and we still rest Anderson?
Other option is to play Olly Stone to stick with the one veteran, one quick policy.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/...kely-to-take-fast-turn-in-second-test-1251395
England might have to go 3 spinners then.
Gone the opposite way and dropped Bess for Ali.
Is this England padding the batting lineup to play for a draw? Or will England drop one of the batsmen, bring in Ali and Woakes so 6 bowling options? I don't think the latter makes sense. I imagine India will target Mooen, try to knock his confidence from the start.
It should be.
Burns
Sibley
Lawrence
Root
Ben Stokes
Pope
Foakes
Moeen
Leach
Broad
Stone
Burns
Sibley
Lawrence
Root
Ben Stokes
Pope
Foakes
Moeen
Leach
Broad
Stone
I guess the hope is Moeen tends to better when he isn't considered the frontline spinner so maybe he will do better that way. I am concerned though as he hasn't been in any form for England for about 2 years.
It's because Bess is bowling too many long-hops and full tosses, basically. Fair enough really: he's a long-term project and it's to be expected that he hasn't quite developed his accuracy yet.
Will be interesting to see how Moeen goes, let's hope he's put the Australia mauling behind him. He certainly takes wickets.
I'd like to see us go with Stone rather than Woakes for the extra pace, but can see the merits in both arguments.
England right to rest Anderson with the day-nighter coming up. They'd be kicking themselves if he missed that one.
It’s probably from being a Worcester boy but I love Moeen Ali an unhealthy amount despite his form sometimes
Bess has been very reliable with the bat lately so dropping him while also losing Buttler could give us a much more fragile batting line up.
Something about you giving Stokes his full name is really tickling me, but yes I'd hope they go with that too.
Can see the argument with going for Woakes and extending the batting depth, but I reckon they might be thinking of him for the day/night game.
I copied and pasted it from a first test teamsheet and decided it'd be easier to delete the first names than fill in full names for the replacements. I missed our Ben, apparently, but I'm quite happy to argue he deserves his full name.
I'm struggling to find 20 wickets in this squad for the second test. And the batting is potentially lighter.
Need to win the toss again. Root 150 minimum please mate.
Need to win the toss again. Root 150 minimum please mate.
That England squad takes “bat deep” to a whole new level.
Although there is bound to be some issues around match sharpness I am liking the rotation policy (in the context of how many tests England will play this year!). Bairstow, Crawley, Buttler, Curran, Wood, Archer, Anderson, Bess + the twelve involved with this test is an impressive level of depth.
It's good to see England being proactive with Archer and Bess too. Last time Archer complained of elbow soreness they played him into a stress fracture and whilst Bess's numbers are good, the signs were concerning at the end of the last test and it's better to protect his confidence rather than risk India getting after him.
Everything is going a bit too well so I'm expecting a thrashing in this test.
It's good to see England being proactive with Archer and Bess too. Last time Archer complained of elbow soreness they played him into a stress fracture and whilst Bess's numbers are good, the signs were concerning at the end of the last test and it's better to protect his confidence rather than risk India getting after him.
Everything is going a bit too well so I'm expecting a thrashing in this test.
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Who am I supposed to be cheering here as a Saffer? (Ignore us having our arses handed to us in Pak, that’s beside the point 
)
)The toss will likely dictate the winner as long as the whoever starts the first innings keeps it solid to start with.
I struggle to turn a door handle but still think even I can get decent turn out of that day 5 pitch.
I struggle to turn a door handle but still think even I can get decent turn out of that day 5 pitch.
Playing on a different wicket at the same venue.
It's India, so winning the toss and batting first is never a bad idea - but it could play differently to some extent.
In which case if we don't win the toss there's no need to watch it.All the noises are that the pitch for this test will turn on Day 1
To be honest I don’t ever remember a test series in India where day 5 was a good day to bat. A couple of times maybe. Can’t wait for this series win, rub my BIL’s nose right in it this time. It’s been a fun week
Moeen was batting at 4 and smashing 146 last time he played at Chennai. I fear he will be easy meat for Ashwin but he did extraordinarily well last time. Foakes also has a higher Test and First Class average than Buttler and I think he is better suited at batting at 7 (think that is too low for Jos as he doesn't seem great at batting with the tail).
India win toss and bat first. Washington Sundar, Nadeem and Bumrah out and Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Siraj come in for them. So basically the spin trio that Kohli wanted to pick for the first test. Lets see how this goes.
Edit - So many people not wearing masks. Ugh!
Edit - So many people not wearing masks. Ugh!
Gill gone early and England quicks looking good. I thought this would be a hard series and nothing to change my mind so far
Mo you beauty
Review
Wow, thats a jaffa.
This is going to be a 3 day test match.
I can see us collapsing unless Rohit hits a big 100 here.
Did it really count as a review?Review
I think 250-300 looks enough on this pitch.
Nah.
Can't judge it until Ashwin bowls on it tbh. If it is as spin friendly as it looks, we might be in business. If it's just our batsmen not being great (IMO they aren't - our bowling is world class but our batting isn't anymore) then this will be a tough one.
Rohit is playing a match winning hand here, I think. Would rarely say such a thing in a first innings - such a strange scorecard.
I'd put money on him getting out quickly after lunch. Never struck me as somebody with great concentration for tests tbh