*Official* England in India

[greekscavenger]

In fairness though, I think the selectors have gotten a bit muddled up. First of all, drop Kieswetter as he is neither a good enough Batsman or a wicketkeeper. Put Prior back into the team as starters. I know he has failed in ODI's in the past but thats because he was put higher up in the order which he doesn't really play at. Put it at 6, which is his natural position and he'll do just fine. Trott does NOT need to be dropped Imo as the entire batting seems to be structured around his stability. Finally depending on the pitch, please drop Dernbach aswell, hes not good enough yet. Yes, he has variation to his bowling but theres taking it to the top and he far does it too often. Not to mention his control isn't great meaning alot of wides/no balls.

A team of:

Cook, Pieterson, Trott, Bell, Morgan, Prior, Broad, Bresnan, Swann, Anderson, Finn would be good enough for ODI's, atleast to compete successfully at the very top level. Pieterson as an opener is not a fully completed experiement and i think it could work as simply put, KP is far too good a batsman to consistently fail. Trott to hold things together whilst *hopefully* Bell gets his acts together as, again, his strokeplay and batting techniques are far too good to consistently fail. Morgan is a genius at ODI's and I think Prior, if used correctly, will be successfully aswell.

Broad and Bresnan are genuine all rounders whilst Swann can hold his own in the bat. That would be a team who can score quickly, (KP, Morgan, Bell, Bresnan), be stable (Trott, Cook), good all round batsman (Broad), a fantastic pace attack (Anderson, Bresnan, Broad, Finn) and the best spinner in the world. In flat conditions drop Finn for Panesar as I genuinely dislike Patel for whatever reason that I don't even know.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

No you can't pick Prior in ODI's. He isn't up to it, just leave him as test keeper and be done with it. Bedwetter has to go as he isn't either so you have to give Bairstow a run with the gloves or bring in Davies (who has done nothing wrong) to open.

 

[greekscavenger]

But has prior ever been played in his natural position in ODI's? You are not going to get the best out of him playing as an opener or a higher middle order though are you. Bairstow is for the future possibly but Davies is just missing that tiny bit extra imo. If you look at the openers for various nations, including Cook, they all average between 40-50 whilst Davies averages just over 30.

 

[G.I.Joe]

I have never understood one bit of the deserving/non deserving ranking business. The ranking formula is pre determined by the ICC and equally applicable to all teams. If you are at the top, that means you deserve it on the basis of performances in the past. If you are unable to sustain the performance, you will eventually be knocked over the top by some other team. If all round domination is the only criteria to "deserve" a ranking then no one else except Windies and Aussies have ever deserved it.

Fans who cannot digest some other team being at the top or winning usually manufacture some excuse to make themselves feel better.

AWTA. It's unfortunate that this needs to be repeated ever so often.

 

[Jacknife]

I have never understood one bit of the deserving/non deserving ranking business. The ranking formula is pre determined by the ICC and equally applicable to all teams. If you are at the top, that means you deserve it on the basis of performances in the past. If you are unable to sustain the performance, you will eventually be knocked over the top by some other team. If all round domination is the only criteria to "deserve" a ranking then no one else except Windies and Aussies have ever deserved it.

Fans who cannot digest some other team being at the top or winning usually manufacture some excuse to make themselves feel better.

Good post and that's the difference between being the No1 ranked side and being an all time great side. It's almost as if some people only think you deserve to be No1 if you have dominated for 5 or 6 years, sorry but like you say that's not what rankings are about.

 

[Cruxdude]

Cricket loser in today’s Eden ODI, only 5,758 tickets sold

Must be the record lowest attendance for an India ODI.

 

[Spark]

I have never understood one bit of the deserving/non deserving ranking business. The ranking formula is pre determined by the ICC and equally applicable to all teams. If you are at the top, that means you deserve it on the basis of performances in the past. If you are unable to sustain the performance, you will eventually be knocked over the top by some other team. If all round domination is the only criteria to "deserve" a ranking then no one else except Windies and Aussies have ever deserved it.

Fans who cannot digest some other team being at the top or winning usually manufacture some excuse to make themselves feel better.

This. India deserved to be #1 before the series.

They don't now.

 

[Furball]

Cricket loser in today’s Eden ODI, only 5,758 tickets sold

Must be the record lowest attendance for an India ODI.

Cheapest tickets are Rs 500, which according to xe.com is £6.27.

Obviously that looks cheap as chips to me - how cheap/expensive is Rs 500 to your average Indian?

 

[Kohli_fan]

Cheapest tickets are Rs 500, which according to xe.com is £6.27.

Obviously that looks cheap as chips to me - how cheap/expensive is Rs 500 to your average Indian?

It is very hard to say GB with the rich poor divide, for the rich and middle class, that is as cheap as roti too! but for the poorer folk Rs is a decent amount relatively speaking

 

[Furball]

AWTA. It's unfortunate that this needs to be repeated ever so often.

I think a lot of the reason it needs to be repeated is that there are some people who just can't believe that England, and India before them, could possibly be the best side in the world.

People also compare whoever's at number 1 to the Australian team of the first half of the decade, conclude that "Team X isn't as good as they were" and rubbish their rating on that basis - when all the number 1 ranking really means is that England are better than everyone else right now.

 

[Kohli_fan]

5-0 it will be in a few hours time! be a wonderful early Diwali gift :-)

 

[Cruxdude]

There are multiple possible reasons for this massive decrease in the number of people coming for these matches. Earlier there used to be 1 or 2 India matches at a city in a year, the only chance to see the big stars. Now there are so many IPL games a year + the India games. An average Indian would not be in a position to spend too much on cricket every year.

Also considering it is the festive season in India, the big stars are missing and the series has not been exciting we can make some excuses for the low turnout. But still it is a hug surprise for me. I never thought I would see a day when an Indian ODI game would see such a pathetic turnout.

 

[Cruxdude]

5-0 it will be in a few hours time! be a wonderful early Diwali gift :-)

You must have enjoyed our 4-0 loss last month a lot.

 

[Kohli_fan]

You must have enjoyed our 4-0 loss last month a lot.

Why would I enjoy that? I am an Indian fan! Obviously I enjoyed April 2nd though!

I am happy with how we have played in this revenge series and am pumped for 5-0 what is so wrong with that?

 

[Cruxdude]

Why would I enjoy that? I am an Indian fan! Obviously I enjoyed April 2nd though!

I am happy with how we have played in this revenge series and am pumped for 5-0 what is so wrong with that?

Just felt like premature gloating and seemed out of place considering the thrashing we were handed.

 

[Kohli_fan]

Just felt like premature gloating and seemed out of place considering the thrashing we were handed.

I think after a summer like that is even more reason to appreciate a great series win like this one and its probably going to get even better after tomorrow!

Sure it by no means make up for this summer and we need to win the Test Series next year!

But any series win I enjoy and this is the revenge series so 5-0 will of course be even sweeter

 

[FBU]

England need a 5th specialist bowler. Patel and Bopara don't make up a 5th bowler. Between them they have bowled 32.1 overs for 1 wicket. at 125.00. India's 5th bowler Jadeja 32.0 overs 7 wickets at 22.00.

 

[Contra]

There are multiple possible reasons for this massive decrease in the number of people coming for these matches. Earlier there used to be 1 or 2 India matches at a city in a year, the only chance to see the big stars. Now there are so many IPL games a year + the India games. An average Indian would not be in a position to spend too much on cricket every year.

Also considering it is the festive season in India, the big stars are missing and the series has not been exciting we can make some excuses for the low turnout. But still it is a hug surprise for me. I never thought I would see a day when an Indian ODI game would see such a pathetic turnout.

To add to that, there's quite a few hyped up B-wood movies to be released soon, so people are, in all probability, saving up for them. Sounds a bit odd, but Ra.One's all the rage in India right now, and it's not even released yet. Besides, who the hell is gonna come for matches around Diwali, I mean seriously lol.

 

[Spark]

I don't understand how this could possibly be a revenge series when the two chief orchestrators of 4-0 - Broad and Anderson - aren't playing.

No more than the 6-1 thrashings we dealt England post-the-last-two-Ashes was a "revenge" series (which of course it wasn't).

EDIT: Christ. How much sleep have I missed over the last week? Angerson... wow.

 

[vic_orthdox]

England need a 5th specialist bowler. Patel and Bopara don't make up a 5th bowler. Between them they have bowled 32.1 overs for 1 wicket. at 125.00. India's 5th bowler Jadeja 32.0 overs 7 wickets at 22.00.

I guess India can afford to because their top 6 is so good, especially (in this series) the guys between 3-6. England can't use Bresnan (for example) at 7 because they don't have a bankable enough top order.