***Official England in India***

[R_D]

So unreal.... was so chuffed after the Australian series but chasing 387 is quite unreal

Just awesome.... Sachin's century caps it off. It does feel great.

 

[Zinzan]

A gutsy performance by England in making it a competitive test, albeit winning an important toss. With the greatest respect, they are clearly an inferior side to India in tests or ODIs these days if you look at the lineups. I mean hypothetically how many English players would actually make the Indian test side, only Pietersen & Flintoff would be dead-certs IMO & possibly Strauss.

Anyways, great test non-the-less & fantastic to see Tendulkar get his hundred.

 

[Woodster]

MSP, well, as I said early in his career, anyone who expected him to get much better was going to be disappointed. He was just an unusually developed 24-year-old. There was always precious little he had remaining to do and those who overestimated his potential are now paying the price.

There are plenty of areas MSP could improve upon, yet he hasn't. The subtle changes of pace, trajectory in his delivery and the angle of which he bowls on the crease. These are not as difficult skills as perfecting a doosra, but there appears very little variety in his bowling. A good long coaching session with one Daniel Vettori would not go amiss.

 

[biased indian]

There are plenty of areas MSP could improve upon, yet he hasn't. The subtle changes of pace, trajectory in his delivery and the angle of which he bowls on the crease. These are not as difficult skills as perfecting a doosra, but there appears very little variety in his bowling. A good long coaching session with one Daniel Vettori would not go amiss.

he would find bedi some where near mohali stadium if he want

 

[Richard]

Do you still think Vaas>Zaheer atm?

Vaas hasn't played for months, so I don't really know.

 

[Precambrian]

TBF, 3 of them were lucky timing - he happened to be standing-in in a match that India won.

This was the first time he's actually been captain and captained to victory, as it were. Nonetheless, to have your first match as captain as one like this is not bad, at all.

Whatever, he can't be lucky all this time without some effort from himself.

 

[Richard]

A gutsy performance by England in making it a competitive test, albeit winning an important toss. With the greatest respect, they are clearly an inferior side to India in tests or ODIs these days if you look at the lineups. I mean hypothetically how many English players would actually make the Indian test side, only Pietersen & Flintoff would be dead-certs IMO & possibly Strauss.

Anyways, great test non-the-less & fantastic to see Tendulkar get his hundred.

A composite XI currently would be something like this:
Strauss
Sehwag
Pietersen
Tendulkar
Laxman
Collingwood
Dhoni
Flintoff
Zaheer Khan
Harbhajan Singh
Ishant Sharma

 

[Woodster]

he would find bedi some where near mohali stadium if he want

I'm sure he does. The worrying aspect is you hear of the hours he spends with people like Vettori talking about spin bowling, yet there is no improvement made. His pace is the same wherever he bowls, the commentators were suggesting that he naturally bowls the ball a little quicker than most spinners, that is fair enough, but it does not mean to say he can't experiment with the odd one or two tossed up.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

but despite some saying Anderson has improved, I honestly don't think he's up to it when things get tough - like a 10 kph slower version of Lee in India.

All well and good if you ignore the fact that he was sensational last time England were in India.

 

[Richard]

There are plenty of areas MSP could improve upon, yet he hasn't. The subtle changes of pace, trajectory in his delivery and the angle of which he bowls on the crease. These are not as difficult skills as perfecting a doosra, but there appears very little variety in his bowling. A good long coaching session with one Daniel Vettori would not go amiss.

All of this would certainly help him on pitches like this, but Harbhajan Singh (who is perfectly good in all those areas) still did not-that-much on it.

What's more, none of the above improvements would help him much on surfaces that turn less than this one did.

 

[Richard]

All well and good if you ignore the fact that he was sensational last time England were in India.

For a whole 1 Test?

 

[duffer]

A composite XI currently would be something like this:
Strauss
Sehwag
Pietersen
Tendulkar
Laxman
Collingwood
Dhoni
Flintoff
Zaheer Khan
Harbhajan Singh
Ishant Sharma

Harsh on Gambhir but probably correct nonetheless.

 

[Precambrian]

A gutsy performance by England in making it a competitive test, albeit winning an important toss. With the greatest respect, they are clearly an inferior side to India in tests or ODIs these days if you look at the lineups. I mean hypothetically how many English players would actually make the Indian test side, only Pietersen & Flintoff would be dead-certs IMO & possibly Strauss.

Anyways, great test non-the-less & fantastic to see Tendulkar get his hundred.

TBH, I don't think Pietersen is a surety in the Indian team, given India play atleast 60% of her matches in subcontinent.

 

[Zinzan]

A composite XI currently would be something like this:
Strauss
Sehwag
Pietersen
Tendulkar
Laxman
Collingwood
Dhoni
Flintoff
Zaheer Khan
Harbhajan Singh
Ishant Sharma

Yup, I'd buy that, but certainly no more than 4 of them

 

[Woodster]

When it came down to it, India despite not playing there best cricket for the first few days, hung in the game, battled to not allow England to put the game out of their reach. When offered a glimmer of hope to win the Test, it is clear they took it decisively with both hands. England are lacking the belief to win a Test from the position India were in, and also the skill to acknowledge big stages in a Test match when it is crucial they impose themsleves on the opposition and grasp the opportunity.

 

[Precambrian]

A composite XI currently would be something like this:
Strauss
Sehwag
Gambhir
Tendulkar
Laxman
Collingwood
Dhoni
Flintoff
Zaheer Khan
Harbhajan Singh
Ishant Sharma

Corrected.

 

[Richard]

Harsh on Gambhir but probably correct nonetheless.

Strauss > Gambhir IMO. No question about that.

 

[duffer]

Strauss > Gambhir IMO. No question about that.

Possibly, but I think Gautam has a lot upside yet. Will be interesting to see in a few years time what they've done.

 

[Richard]

Corrected.

Dreadful as Pietersen was in this current game, I don't think he's done enough of late to fall below Gambhir, who has still only established himself as a Test player very recently.

 

[Woodster]

All of this would certainly help him on pitches like this, but Harbhajan Singh (who is perfectly good in all those areas) still did not-that-much on it.

What's more, none of the above improvements would help him much on surfaces that turn less than this one did.

Disagree with that. It is even more important to have variety on pitches that are not offering as much spin. To use Vettori as an example once more, his deception in flight is vital when he is not the biggest turner of the ball, and the ability to bowl a ball 10kph quicker without any discernible change in action is a skill that would benefit MSP on any track.