*Official* First Test at Lord's

[Cruxdude]

Pretty even at this stage, although India should have ideally sent Trott back to the hut. Need to get him early, his calmness is irritating and it kind of seems he is going to make a big ton.

Would have said that India have no chance in this series without their best bowler (Zaheer) a few years earlier but not now.

 

[silentstriker]

Didn't bother you when India toured here in 2004, I'll wager

Well the series was more competitive because Australia were missing some key players. This series will be less competitive if India are.

However, it actually did bother me because I always like to see McGrath play.

 

[marc71178]

So, if tomorrow morning Kumar's warned for running on the pitch twice more, who takes the new ball with Ishant?

 

[silentstriker]

Dhoni.

 

[silentstriker]

Pace attack of Ishant, Dhoni and Tendulkar. Not much worse than if a pace attack consisted of Ishant, Sreesanth, Munaf.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Speaking of Munaf, why isn't he playing?

 

[silentstriker]

Because he sucks?

 

[Burgey]

Thread has been so disappointingly cordial so far.

FFS. Aim up.

 

[silentstriker]

Haha plenty of bait has been thrown out by a few people...somewhat surprising there hasn't been much biting.

 

[Tom Halsey]

McGrath had the benefit of 10 years experience and being six feet one thousand tall.

And of being Glenn McGrath. He's a better bowler now than Praveen Kumar.

Of course he is, that's not my point. It was that it doesn't matter what the hell you bowl as long as you consistently get wickets. I was just using McGrath as an example as he was the first name that came into my head, there are probably better examples anyway.

 

[Spark]

Listen to Trott's post-day interview on TMSpecial. This bit is quite funny.

"What was your gameplan, doing out there"
(with a hint of "duh") "To try and score as many runs as possible..."
"Indeed, but given the conditions, with the ball hooping around and going around corners etc"
"To... play... as straight as I can"

 

[vcs]

flintoff11 andrew flintoff
It seems Fletcher has had a re think about pace bowlers @VaughanCricket he's got Ganguly opening the bowling !

Ganguly did pretty well with the ball last time we toured England. Had an excellent trip in general.

 

[tooextracool]

Praveen is an incredibly skilled bowler who swings the ball both ways at will. However, one gets the feeling that he is bowling too much within himself and I know he has it in him to bowl 3-4 mph faster that would make him seriously dangerous. At the moment, good test match batsmen, and that does not include Pietersen who is a terrible player of swing bowling, will have no problem playing him late and adjusting to cope with the swing he gets. The other problem for him is that edges will not carry at his pace, especially on slower decks like the one we're seeing at Lords.

 

[Bun]

Lol, just 14-15 overs and people have already started writing him off

Wonder how many actually watched the match, never seen an Indian bowler beat the outside edge so many times recently...

 

[Spark]

Seen an Australian bowler beat the outside edge as much recently though.

Ben Hilfenhaus.

PK bowled well and probably was mildly unlucky not to at least pick up a genuine edge or two but...

 

[Jono]

Genuinely surprised at the criticism Praveen has gotten in this thread. At the ground I felt he bowled quite well, but there you go.

 

[tooextracool]

Well quite obviously you haven't, because its not like India have played in conditions where the ball has been doing 180s around corners every day.

One thing that we can all agree upon is that India didnt bowl well today. Ishant never hit the right lengths, Praveen was somewhat wayward and along with Zaheer they were both well below their top speeds.

 

[TumTum]

PK doesn't have the pace for Test cricket, he can swing it as much as he wants, but it isn't going to work if the batsman can see it easily.

 

[Xuhaib]

Praveen is unlucky that he gets to bowl to England who are best use to this kind of bowling in theses conditions would back him to get a bagful even against Aus in these conditions, any bowler who hoops it this much be it early or late has my my respect, he will never be a Waqar or Steyn but he's pretty useful imo.

 

[Spark]

Praveen is unlucky that he gets to bowl to England who are best use to this kind of bowling in theses conditions would back him to get a bagful even against Aus in these conditions, any bowler who hoops it this much be it early or late has my my respect, he will never be a Waqar or Steyn but he's pretty useful imo.

Oh in these conditions he'd probably run through us like a knife through hot butter, no doubt about it.