India's tour of England

[KM]

Starts in the next two weeks.

Got absolutely no hope of this team. Our bowling is woeful and our captain is more defensive than yours. Fully expect Anderson and Cook to return to their best and a breakout batting star to emerge from you lot only to fail against good decent bowling.

We'll lose 2-0.

 

[The Man Himself]

This is one of the worst England team in long time and one which is down on confidence too. I see India winning this time.

 

[kotha]

Cook must be thanking his lucky stars.. If there is any team to play for an out of form batsman I think that would be us sadly..

Want to see how Pujara plays against Anderson.. Can anyone tell me what team they expect from India's side? I haven't been following much of cricket recently..

 

[DOTA]

This is one of the worst England team in long time and one which is down on confidence too. I see India winning this time.

Our football team and Wimbledon hope both failing miserably has taken a lot of the pressure off, so we shouldn't be beaten before the series even starts. I think India will have to play quite well to win.

 

[MDFC Manager]

We don't have a bowling attack to even take 20 English wickets

 

[DOTA]

Who is your spinner, these days? Ashwin?

 

[The Man Himself]

Who is your spinner, these days? Ashwin?

Ya. Jadeja might get chance though as he played few tests earlier this year outside India.

 

[DOTA]

Ya. Jadeja might get chance though as he played few tests earlier this year outside India.

Between them, that sounds quite good. Hell of a lot better than Moeen Ali and Root, at least.

Green pitches, please...

 

[The Man Himself]

Between them, that sounds quite good. Hell of a lot better than Moeen Ali and Root, at least.

Green pitches, please...

Dobell I think, recently wrote an article on Cricinfo about high chances of pitches being batting friendly because many grounds in England are in debt and they want matches to last 5 days.

 

[DOTA]

Dobell I think, recently wrote an article on Cricinfo about high chances of pitches being batting friendly because many grounds in England are in debt and they want matches to last 5 days.

That sounds frustratingly likely.

 

[NinjaFletch]

Dobell I think, recently wrote an article on Cricinfo about high chances of pitches being batting friendly because many grounds in England are in debt and they want matches to last 5 days.

Which is pointless, as the last series showed if you served up dour cricket people aren't going to come for the 4th and 5th days, regardless of whether its at Lords or not.

Anyway, I expect England to flog India for 90% of the series but struggle to get over the line 2 or 3-0. Maybe I'm reading too much into the warm up matches, but I think India will struggle to win a test the way they're bowling.

 

[KM]

Cook must be thanking his lucky stars.. If there is any team to play for an out of form batsman I think that would be us sadly..

Want to see how Pujara plays against Anderson.. Can anyone tell me what team they expect from India's side? I haven't been following much of cricket recently..

Vijay/Gambhir
Dhawan
Pujara
Kohli
Rohit
Rahane
Dhoni
Jadeja
Bhuvi
Shami
Ishant/Aaron/Pankaj Singh

Though I've a horrible feeling that they're going to drop Rohit and play Binny as he can bowl a lot.

 

[KM]

Playing Flat Pitches is the way to go against India. Our bowling lineup can even the odds with bowler friendly wicket but they don't have quality for magic moments needed on the flat pitches.

Have to say England's team have weakened and our team have gotten strong since we last met in England. The loss of Swann is huge.

 

[kotha]

Thanks for that KM..

Well Binny playing isn't a great endorsement for our team, but hopefully the determined Rohit Sharma shows up and not the lazy one.. Even Ashwin should concentrate more on spinning the ball rather than his variations unlike t20..

 

[harshad]

Playing India at home is the best thing for a team that is low on confidence.

Hope the middle order clicks and Pujara, Kohli, Rajane and Sharma can score some runs.

 

[NinjaFletch]

Indian fans on here, what do you rate higher Sri Lankas or your batting line up?

I was trying to work this out earlier, their openers Karunaratne and Silva seemed decent enough at keeping out the new ball but not much else.

Sangakkara at 3 and Jayawardene at 4 vs Pujara and Kohli is probably very close, but you'd say Sangakkara edges Pujara. Jayawardene edging Kohli at this stage still as well? Or would Kohli make it in?

Thirimanne at 5 was utter dogshite, so Rohit (presuming he plays) would beat him comfortably. Mathews at 6 is better than Rahane and then Chandimal vs Dhoni in English conditions surely is a tighter call than would be assumed?

What do people reckon? Its a strength on both teams, but on reflection I think SLs gun players (Sanga, Jayawardene, Mathews) edge out a younger Indian team whos best years are ahead of them.

 

[JulesWinnfield]

England have lost all ability to win in just about all forms of the game, just a complete lack of belief running through the side. There's been an increasingly concerning problem with this England team in that when things go bad over this past year, there just seems to be no hope of reversing it. Just about the only saving grace is all of the "new" batsmen got themselves a good innings against Sri Lanka. The first test should really be a last chance for Cook, if he gets out cheaply again he desperately needs to sit out a game or two. His batting has actually got even worse, he doesn't look like getting over 30 anymore.

All in all i'll go for a 2-1 series win for India.

From the 13 man squad named for the game I suspect we'll see: Cook, Robson, Ballance, Bell, Root, Ali, Prior, Stokes, Broad, Plunkett, Anderson.

Not sure going without a full time spinner is particularly wise, and i'm not sure the 4 pace bowlers have enough consistency in them to take the bulk of the wickets. Ali is at least somewhat better than just a part timer though, but England didn't seem to want to trust him against Sri Lanka.

 

[Mani]

I had no idea why Buvi is in this test squad,we always lacked quality quickies.

 

[zing]

Indian fans on here, what do you rate higher Sri Lankas or your batting line up?

I was trying to work this out earlier, their openers Karunaratne and Silva seemed decent enough at keeping out the new ball but not much else.

Sangakkara at 3 and Jayawardene at 4 vs Pujara and Kohli is probably very close, but you'd say Sangakkara edges Pujara. Jayawardene edging Kohli at this stage still as well? Or would Kohli make it in?

Thirimanne at 5 was utter dogshite, so Rohit (presuming he plays) would beat him comfortably. Mathews at 6 is better than Rahane and then Chandimal vs Dhoni in English conditions surely is a tighter call than would be assumed?

What do people reckon? Its a strength on both teams, but on reflection I think SLs gun players (Sanga, Jayawardene, Mathews) edge out a younger Indian team whos best years are ahead of them.

Rahane is easily better than Mathews. That's just not a comparison. I am aware Mathews has made runs since being captain, but Rahane's just better in every aspect. You'll see that in this tour. Chandimal's better than Dhoni.

I havent been following cricket much recently but Vijay would be better than at least one of their openers. Dhawan, in recent times, has done well as well.

 

[zing]

And KM spot on in the opening post.

I have lost interest in cricket recently but will watch this.

 

[Nighteyes]

Indian fans on here, what do you rate higher Sri Lankas or your batting line up?

I was trying to work this out earlier, their openers Karunaratne and Silva seemed decent enough at keeping out the new ball but not much else.

Sangakkara at 3 and Jayawardene at 4 vs Pujara and Kohli is probably very close, but you'd say Sangakkara edges Pujara. Jayawardene edging Kohli at this stage still as well? Or would Kohli make it in?

Thirimanne at 5 was utter dogshite, so Rohit (presuming he plays) would beat him comfortably. Mathews at 6 is better than Rahane and then Chandimal vs Dhoni in English conditions surely is a tighter call than would be assumed?

What do people reckon? Its a strength on both teams, but on reflection I think SLs gun players (Sanga, Jayawardene, Mathews) edge out a younger Indian team whos best years are ahead of them.

On the face of it Srilanka are much better but I don't think any of our top 6 has ever played test cricket in England before so it's a bit hard to say how they will do. We'll need good performances from Kohli and Pujara if we are to get anything out of the series. I don't hold out much hope for the rest and the less ssid about the bowling the better. Apparently, the bowling has been rubbish in the tour games as well.

Rahane is easily better than Mathews. That's just not a comparison. I am aware Mathews has made runs since being captain, but Rahane's just better in every aspect. You'll see that in this tour. Chandimal's better than Dhoni.

I havent been following cricket much recently but Vijay would be better than at least one of their openers. Dhawan, in recent times, has done well as well.

Rahane has to do a lot more to be ranked ahead of Matthews.

 

[eddiebb]

We don't have a bowling attack to even take 20 English wickets

Many said the same about Sri Lanka...

 

[The Taurean]

Been a long time since both Indian and English fans are pessimistic.

 

[eddiebb]

Well I do think there's the makings of a really good side for England, but there are 2 really obvious problems - the captain and the spinner. If we could find a solution to both those problems (and I don't mean find the next Warne and Brearley - the next Strauss and Giles would do just fine), then I think it could be very strong. But they need to just get a win and then I think things will start to look better.

 

[crappycraperson]

I would open with Gambhir ahead of Vijay

 

[rimaldo]

I would open with Gambhir ahead of Vijay

i'd just prop a bat up in front of the stumps and sightsee around london for a few days if i were india. probably come back to find 500 on the board and everyone on the boundary.

 

[eddiebb]

Why is Dhoni so bad in Tests? His captaincy is almost always excellent whenever I watch India in ODIs, but in Tests he seems to let things drift way too long.

 

[crappycraperson]

Why is Dhoni so bad in Tests? His captaincy is almost always excellent whenever I watch India in ODIs, but in Tests he seems to let things drift way too long.

Too defensive at times

 

[KM]

Why is Dhoni so bad in Tests? His captaincy is almost always excellent whenever I watch India in ODIs, but in Tests he seems to let things drift way too long.

His captaincy is one days is also overrated. We've got an excellent one day team. Not a surprise he looks average whenever we go to away trips cos that's our team weakness.

 

[TheGame]

Well I do think there's the makings of a really good side for England, but there are 2 really obvious problems - the captain and the spinner. If we could find a solution to both those problems (and I don't mean find the next Warne and Brearley - the next Strauss and Giles would do just fine), then I think it could be very strong. But they need to just get a win and then I think things will start to look better.

There's a couple of young spinners on the county circuit e.g Borthwick, Riley, Kerrigan but the general feeling seems to be that they are not ready for tests matches.

 

[NinjaFletch]

KP is really starting to do my head in.

Swann made Andrew Strauss’s captaincy look good and he made Cook’s look good, too, by making crucial breakthroughs when the opposition were threatening to take the game away. It was down to Swann’s genius, and not tactical masterstrokes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cr...they-are-hugely-talented-and-very-hungry.html

He said he wrote this before 'cuntgate' so therefore the snide attacks at Strauss are just him being petty. I wouldn't mind it so much if KP had proven an inspiring captain in his own right but he really hasn't. Other than that, its a pretty balanced article.

 

[KM]

Stuart Binny will most likely debut tomorrow. We're fecked.

He's like Paul Collingwood except Collingwood was a handy bat and excellent fielder. Binny is neither, and is probably equal to Collingwood in bowling.

Fecks sake.

 

[Nighteyes]

Who will he replace? Rahane? Sharma? Or is he playing as a bowler?

 

[KM]

Rohit Sharma.

 

[Nighteyes]

Ah well

Playing him as a bowler might have made sense but not instead of Rohit

 

[FromTheBench]

How the hell does Stuart fecking Binny get into the team ?

 

[ChrisNelson]

So the big day has arrived, how does everyone think we will get on in the series with India? I fancy England to come back fighting and win 2-1. As a lot of the experts are saying, it's difficult to imagine all 5, or even 4 of the Tests having positive results as both captains are under pressure and likely to be on the negative side, even if subconciously.

 

[Zen]

Stuart Binny, you had me scared here guys.....sounds as English as it comes. I was like "WHO?!"

 

[FromTheBench]

Ishant Playing too. Sigh.

This is ridiculous.

 

[Zen]

Pretty sure if England don't win this. I'm outta here, only so many losses I can take this summer, Hamilton home GP win aside.