***Official*** England in India

[uvelocity]

oh and more evidence of class act kohli tbh, fibbertyflopperty

 

[Cabinet96]

I will be unpopular for saying this, but this English team is the most overrated team in recent times. Apart from beating an Australian side beleaguered with problems and an injury hit Indian side (who are traditionally crap travellers anyway), what have they done? Lost to WI in early 2009 (WI!), lost to a bottom ranked Pakistan side 3-0 and even managed to lose a test to Sri Lanka post Murali. We are definitely a much more deserving number 1 and our tussle with the crims should be make for much better viewing. Aside from the horrible Ashes loss, Australia haven't lagged behind anywhere/ On the contrary, they beat SL in SL on rank turners and demolished a full strength Indian side at home.

So surely that makes England's thrashing of them a greater achievement than you earlier portrayed it to be?

And the Indian injury issues are very overplayed IMO. None of the players who were injured that tour have shown me anything since to make me feel that they would have changed the scoreline of the series, and the players who did play some of the series, but missed other parts such as Sehwag, Harbhajan and Gambhir did terribly when they played.

Also no one ever seems to mention that India's best bowler in the India series missed the Australian one through injury.

 

[Scaly piscine]

If England actually beat India I'm not sure which I'd enjoy most, England winning or India losing.

Somewhat unlikely obviously, but you have to dare to dream.

 

[Cabinet96]

The latter obvious.

 

[Spark]

Lol at Kohli thinking the pitches in England were greentops. Expect Dhoni told him that so he didn't get too depressed

From what I recall they were fairly sporting, even flat decks for England. Virat's never played on a 'greentop'

Look clearly they were those dastardly kind of pitches you see around these days which flattened out when England were batting and unflattened for the Indians.

 

[Teja.]

Great to see our star player not pulling any punches ahead of this series

Sigh. Affront to intelligence tbh.

Not the wisest move to troll the opposition bowlers when you've done SFA in your test career as well, but then again it's Kohli.

Hope this does not turn into "We intend to make them grovel" mark II.

 

[shankar]

Hope this does not turn into "We intend to make them grovel" mark II.

He hasn't said anything like that though.

 

[Teja.]

He hasn't said anything like that though.

Oh yeah,I did not mean to compare it from a cultural POV obviously. Just from a cricketing sense, where a boast of 'we will absolutely smash them' might go completely egg-on-face.

 

[vic_orthdox]

So surely that makes England's thrashing of them a greater achievement than you earlier portrayed it to be?

And the Indian injury issues are very overplayed IMO. None of the players who were injured that tour have shown me anything since to make me feel that they would have changed the scoreline of the series, and the players who did play some of the series, but missed other parts such as Sehwag, Harbhajan and Gambhir did terribly when they played.

Also no one ever seems to mention that India's best bowler in the India series missed the Australian one through injury.

Uh, Zaheer was looking pretty threatening in his few overs before he pulled up lame.

Was always going to be more effective in England than Australia too. Praveen might've played in Australia and probably been better than those players picked, but would hardly have been surprising if Fletcher didn't pick him in Australia, with his fetish for pace. The fact he hasn't come close to the side even after being fit indicates as much.

 

[Jono]

I can't quite put a finger on why but it is an amazing feeling to love a much-hated cricket team.

Haha yep.

Personified most by:

Haha a day or two after I make this post Kohli comes out and makes these comments.

WAG.

 

[Teja.]

Will post an enlarged version of that picture with:

"I am become death; the destroyer of worlds" Verse 2, Chapter 11, The Bhagvad Gita

the numerous times Kohli shall ton up in this series.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

oh and more evidence of class act kohli tbh, fibbertyflopperty

I was on about as a batsman in the middle novelocity but you can twist it how you like, just shows a lack of intelligence.

 

[Daemon]

Sigh. Kinda sucks being an Indian fan atm. Our board is ****ing ********, 75% of our players are absolute douchebags, we're represented in the commentators box by complete ***** and to top it all off we have the infamous fanboys.

C'd?

C'd.

 

[lockton2skipper]

englands main problem is lack of balance, if they play 5 bowlers the tail is too long, 3 seamers and one spinner not really an option plus i dont like anderson and broad plus 2 spinners. samit patel is not a test standard player and should not be there.so perhaps anderson finn swann and panesar would be my pick, shame broads batting hasn't developed as the best attack would include him plus the four above with prior batting 6.

 

[Kohli_fan]

Look a big deal has been made of this hasnt it? The fact is England are a B grade team against quality spin in Asia.

This is not a case of us being analysts or looking over our shoulder and comparing apples as it were. This series is all about us, as long as we execute our skills and play to our best, then it does not matter which 11 England put on the park, we will win.

 

[uvelocity]

hey its haddin's indian cousin

 

[Cabinet96]

Uh, Zaheer was looking pretty threatening in his few overs before he pulled up lame.

Was always going to be more effective in England than Australia too. Praveen might've played in Australia and probably been better than those players picked, but would hardly have been surprising if Fletcher didn't pick him in Australia, with his fetish for pace. The fact he hasn't come close to the side even after being fit indicates as much.

He also bowled in arguably the most favourable conditions for bowling in the series. Don't get me wrong, I think he would have done reasonably well, but considering the margins of victory and the poor performance of India's batting and spin bowling, I don't think it would have effected the series scoreline.

Look a big deal has been made of this hasnt it? The fact is England are a B grade team against quality spin in Asia.

This is not a case of us being analysts or looking over our shoulder and comparing apples as it were. This series is all about us, as long as we execute our skills and play to our best, then it does not matter which 11 England put on the park, we will win.

The fact is, that's irrelevant. What has England's quality against spin got to do with wether the pitches in England and Australia were "green tops" or not?

 

[Spark]

Besides, it's not as if "Zaheer getting injured" is exactly a rare, out-of-the-blue occurrence.

 

[Prince EWS]

He also bowled in arguably the most favourable conditions for bowling in the series. Don't get me wrong, I think he would have done reasonably well, but considering the margins of victory and the poor performance of India's batting and spin bowling, I don't think it would have effected the series scoreline.

The crux of the matter for me, and I've said it before, is that it doesn't matter. Zaheer getting injured wasn't a freak occurrence, totally out of character unlikely to repeat itself. He gets injured all the time because he's unfit and the wrong side of 30. In fact, him only playing one Test is something I (and some others) specifically predicted. His fitness or lack thereof is a factor in determining how useful a cricketer he really is and therefore how good India are. If he didn't get injured you would have had to say England were unlucky.

 

[Prince EWS]

Besides, it's not as if "Zaheer getting injured" is exactly a rare, out-of-the-blue occurrence.

GAGF Spark.