***Official*** England in India

[Spark]

in less than a third of the words too

edit: also, by that logic, since zaheer *didn't* get injured on the aus tour, we can safely conclude that the 4-0 scoreline actually flattered india.

 

[benchmark00]

Hope India take England to the cleaners.

I really thrive off grecian being depressed.

 

[uvelocity]

in less than a third of the words too

edit: also, by that logic, since zaheer *didn't* get injured on the aus tour, we can safely conclude that the 4-0 scoreline actually flattered india.

 

[Trichromatic]

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.

It should be Broad, Anderson, Finn and Swann if it's a normal turning track. Monty should play only when pitch is rank turner.

There is no use of playing extra spinner just because match is in India.

 

[BoyBrumby]

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

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.

I'm a huge Zak fan and it's not his fault he has paper and glass where most of us have skin and bone, but he turned up for the tour very obviously overweight which is his fault.

 

[grecian]

Hope India take England to the cleaners.

I really thrive off grecian being depressed.

meh, I actually expect to lose in India, and in general hate the Saffies and you lot more than India. Obviously Kohli and the IPL are evil, but doesn't compare to the soulless destruction of Smith and Kallis, or the general mid-range douchery of your nation.

 

[Cabinet96]

He rocked up to the first test without playing a FC match since the new year test in Cape Town didn't he? Did he miss the West Indies tour through injury, or was he just rested?

Sehwag didn't help himself either. He decided to delay shoulder surgery until after the IPL, meaning he missed the first two tests and played the last two short of practise.

 

[benchmark00]

I actually expect to lose

An Englishman's most common sentence.

 

[Trichromatic]

meh, I actually expect to lose in India, and in general hate the Saffies and you lot more than India. Obviously Kohli and the IPL are evil, but doesn't compare to the soulless destruction of Smith and Kallis, or the general mid-range douchery of your nation.

 

[Prince EWS]

One day the USA will beat England; then we will see what a really depressed grecian looks like.

 

[benchmark00]

George Harrison to make a ton playing for an invitational XI against England in heaven.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Not arguing that (Zaheer was likely to get injured), the 1996 Cab Sav said that their injured players played badly when they were playing (not true WRT Zak) or wouldn't have changed the scoreline.

It's somewhat forgotten now after their nightmare six months, where India's understanding of the term "resilience" was similar to my own of Ancient Greek transcripts, but over the previous eighteen months they'd made a living out of running through a side once away to get themselves an overseas Test match win. The key to that was Zaheer; how much cricket has he missed since FTR?

 

[BoyBrumby]

One day the USA will beat England; then we will see what a really depressed grecian looks like.

Grecian will be old enough to remember this.

You'll note the second Septic goal was scored by the lead singer of The Spin Doctors. Just to show how easy and effortless their mastery over us is.

 

[grecian]

George Harrison to make a ton playing for an invitational XI against England in heaven.

One of my most vivid dreams when I was younger was me opening for England with various dead rock stars at the other end, Morrison and Bolan got out quickly, but Hendrix played some great attacking shots with his axe.

 

[grecian]

Grecian will be old enough to remember this.

You'll note the second Septic goal was scored by the lead singer of The Spin Doctors. Just to show how easy and effortless their mastery over us is.

Yeah, I remember, ****ing Graham Taylor.

 

[benchmark00]

One of my most vivid dreams when I was younger was me opening for England with various dead rock stars at the other end, Morrison and Bolan got out quickly, but Hendrix played some great attacking shots with his axe.

No need to go into your other 'vivid dreams'...

 

[vic_orthdox]

Grecian will be old enough to remember this.

You'll note the second Septic goal was scored by the lead singer of The Spin Doctors. Just to show how easy and effortless their mastery over us is.

Would you say the English defence invited him to go ahead now?

Your post actually got me to go listen to the song again, via youtube.
Spin Doctors - Two Princes - YouTube
The 90s, yum. Always thought the lead singer looked like Rod Quantock, he of Captain Snooze/Australian comedian fame.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Would you say the English defence invited him to go ahead now?

Your post actually got me to go listen to the song again, via youtube.
Spin Doctors - Two Princes - YouTube
The 90s, yum. Always thought the lead singer looked like Rod Quantock, he of Captain Snooze/Australian comedian fame.

Lol. *groan*

 

[shankar]

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.

I understood what you meant. I was making the point that he hasn't said anything like "We'll smash them" in that interview - or even that we'll definitely win the series.

 

[Kohli_fan]

Green tops for England

tactical genius here from the BCCI.

In an attempt to make England feel completely at home, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is going that extra step. First, they decided to have no spinners play in the India ‘A’ team and now it seems that the curators have been instructed to prepare green tops for all the practice games.

Sources in the BCCI told the Indian Express that all the three matches will be played on green tops. Around a week ago, chief curator Daljit Singh was instructed to prepare pacer friendly tracks.

The Cricket club of India, which will host the first game, has always had the reputation of being a track that gives generous assistance to the seamers.
DY Patil stadium, which will host the second warm-up game, will also get the express treatment. Abey Kuruvilla, cricket-in-charge, told the Indian Express, “It will be a good cricketing wicket which will have grass and bounce on it. The pitch will certainly help pacers more but any batsman who manages to stick around can score runs.”

The third warm-up game will be played at Ahmedabad’s Motera B ground against the Board President’s XI.

But the reasoning given by the BCCI for the green tops is that they want to test out their own batsmen in tough conditions.

“England has a quality pace attack and we want to exploit it,” they said.

Exploit it to India’s advantage that is.