***Official England in India***

[four_or_six]

Fred

Looking forward to this series now.

 

[silentstriker]

Wake me up when the Tests begin.

 

[Durham_CCC]

Patel and Panesar to start the first test ?

I really do hope so.

 

[GIMH]

I don't think Patel is in the Test squad

 

[Richard]

Good to see Flintoff hitting a ton regardless of the status of the match, think it's the first time he's tonned up at all, be it international, domestic, second XI etc, since August 2005

Dunno, I reckon he might've done in his back yard at some point.

 

[GIMH]

Well, I said it because he said it so...

 

[Richard]

Haha, really? Sheesh.

 

[Turbinator]

England are about to get their asses kicked

 

[GIMH]

But after that we're gonna play some cricket...

 

[Neil Pickup]

Take your head out of your backside about 12 a side cricket, Richard. All County age group cricket in this country is played 12 a side.

 

[Richard]

Up to what age?

12-a-side games of cricket are non-entities. The laws of cricket quite clearly state that cricket is played between two teams of 11 players. Any game not done so is completely devoid of any real relevance, and use for practice only.

BTW, having seen you'd posted I was fairly sure my post about the 12-a-side matter would be the subject. Lo-and-behold...

 

[HMas]

Eng XI

Prior
Bell
Shah
Pieterson
Collingwood
Flintoff
Patel
Broad
Anderson
Swan
Harmison

 

[social]

Having "succesfully" backed India to beat Australia, I'll now back England to emerge triumphant fron this series.

Quite simply, they have a much better bowling attack and are fresher.

India are also faced with losing Kumble, Ganguly and possibly Dravid and the quality of their replacements is debatable.

 

[tooextracool]

I think this series has the make up for being more competitive than the Australia-India series but it depends on a lot of factors, not least injuries to key players and the quality of pitches. I am disappointed that Panesar wont be playing club cricket in SL as he really could have used it. I am extremely high on the England pace attack which I strongly believe has the potential to be the best in the world, but I am still fairly concerned about the quality of our batting which can be described as fragile, with not much potential. I remain to be convinced about many of the batters and I fear that Mishra, Ishant, Zaheer and Harbhajan are likely to tear them apart.

 

[Richard]

Eng XI

Prior
Bell
Shah
Pieterson
Collingwood
Flintoff
Patel
Broad
Anderson
Swan
Harmison

Bell and Prior will bat the other way around, Pietersen is Pietersen not Pieterson, Swann has two "n"s, Swann is also a better batsman than Broad and a far, far, far, far better batsman than Anderson so will certainly bat above the latter and probably the former - if he plays, which I'm not certain he will. Also, Patel at seven is essentially a waste, though I'd not rule-out him batting there at all. Flintoff possibly might bat above Collingwood too.

In short, I reckon they're most likely to go in with for the opening ODI:
Bell
Prior
Shah
Pietersen
Flintoff
Collingwood
Patel
Wright or Swann
Broad
Anderson
Harmison

Hoping Harmison and Anderson get some early tap and drop-out of the side before the series is out.

 

[Goughy]

Take your head out of your backside about 12 a side cricket, Richard. All County age group cricket in this country is played 12 a side.

Is it really?

 

[Prince EWS]

I can't believe I haven't made a post in this thread yet.

 

[Precambrian]

Having "succesfully" backed India to beat Australia, I'll now back England to emerge triumphant fron this series.

Quite simply, they have a much better bowling attack and are fresher.

India are also faced with losing Kumble, Ganguly and possibly Dravid and the quality of their replacements is debatable.

Good point.
However Kumble can be erased from that considering he could never be expected to perform anything more than what Mishy is doing now.

As for Dravid, I don't think he'll be dropped, those are huge boots to fill. So he will go to domestic, and get a century or two and come back primed for the series.

Only worry is who will do in for Ganguly. Ideally would want a southpaw at that number. And Yuvraj is nowhere near Ganguly despite the latter's obvious problems.

 

[Salamuddin]

Quite simply, they have a much better bowling attack and are fresher.

.

Yeah but there is no doubt in my mind Australia's batting is far superior to England's.

England are lucky in a way they are only playing 2 tests - gives them a better chance of forcing a surprise result.
If they had played a 4 test series, their chances of winning IMO would be even less than Australia's.

 

[Richard]

Two-Test series' always leave the possibility of a smash-and-grab.

All it can take is one good performance and one road. I certainly wouldn't rule-out one of these two Tests being drawn, which effectively makes the series a one-off Test.