***Official*** England in India

[shankar]

Dhoni must go though. Keeping has fallen away badly enough where his value is only the fact no one else is a suitable captain yet.

His keeping was bound to suffer with the ridiculous amount of matches he plays in all formats.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Dhoni must go though. Keeping has fallen away badly enough where his value is only the fact no one else is a suitable captain yet.

Being serious would it be Gambhir who may get the captaincy next or would Sehwag get it as basically the rest aren't established test players yet so you couldn't thrust the job on them. I suppose the ideal scenario is Dhoni clings on with a few home series wins for a year or so and you wait for whichever new player is right for the job be it Kohli, Pujara or someone else.

 

[Prince EWS]

Being serious would it be Gambhir who may get the captaincy next or would Sehwag get it as basically the rest aren't established test players yet so you couldn't thrust the job on them. I suppose the ideal scenario is Dhoni clings on with a few home series wins for a year or so and you wait for whichever new player is right for the job be it Kohli, Pujara or someone else.

If they actually had the balls to drop Dhoni from Tests I reckon they'd give Kohli the captaincy. Neither has a snowball's though.

 

[Howe_zat]

Colly and Dravid are great.

When asked if England will take the game into a 5th day: "I have a flight booked tonight"

Rahul WAFG

Suck it Rahul

 

[wpdavid]

Suck it Rahul

I know that you're not 100% serious, but Rahul's such a gent I can forgive him anything.

As for Colly, there's another guy out out there or involved with the team who'd improve us immeasurably even at his current age.

 

[shankar]

If they actually had the balls to drop Dhoni from Tests I reckon they'd give Kohli the captaincy. Neither has a snowball's though.

I don't think they need any great amount of 'balls' to drop Dhoni at this point. He doesn't have anywhere near as much public support as he did say, after the World cup.

 

[howardj]

Cookie Monster epic

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Win or draw tomorrow does anyone think India might change their bowling attack for the next test. Been in the field a long time now and back to back tests doesn't leave much recovery time. Imagine if England won the toss for the 2nd test and were still batting at lunch on day 2, be some very weary bowlers then.

 

[silentstriker]

Cook. WAG. Told you from the first time I saw him - the kid's going to break some records.

 

[Noble One]

Win or draw tomorrow does anyone think India might change their bowling attack for the next test. Been in the field a long time now and back to back tests doesn't leave much recovery time. Imagine if England won the toss for the 2nd test and were still batting at lunch on day 2, be some very weary bowlers then.

Interesting question.

Ojha and Ashwin have bowled an incredible amount of overs without a major break. Ashwin's bowling has lost plenty of zip; suggesting he has fatigued. Being spinners I'd expect them to recover.

The role of Yuvraj needs to be questioned. His recall was based partially on all-round ability, however he has been underbowled and looked poor when given a bowl.

 

[Prince EWS]

Interesting question.

Ojha and Ashwin have bowled an incredible amount of overs without a major break. Ashwin's bowling has lost plenty of zip; suggesting he has fatigued. Being spinners I'd expect them to recover.

The role of Yuvraj needs to be questioned. His recall was based partially on all-round ability, however he has been underbowled and looked poor when given a bowl.

I think Yuvraj was picked because he's just straight up a better batsman than Raina. And he is. His bowling was just a bit of a handy bonus, and he batted well, so he'll hold his place.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Think Dhoni underbowled his part-timers generally, actually.

Zaheer in particular was blowing out his arse at the end.

 

[Daemon]

Regardless of this score that England's racked up, I still think India have bowled really well which says a lot about Cook and Prior as well. It's been a long time since this has happened with a match involving India but I reckon this innings has been of pretty high quality, barring the part timers, umpires and a certain couple of batsmen.

 

[Noble One]

I think Yuvraj was picked because he's just straight up a better batsman than Raina. And he is. His bowling was just a bit of a handy bonus, and he batted well, so he'll hold his place.

I don't disagree; however India will need to better manage the fifth bowling option if they put in long stints with the ball again. Tough to manage as Yuvraj is rubbish when the batsmen aren't attacking him and the remaining group in Sehwag, Tendulkar and Kholi are true part-timers.

 

[Pup Clarke]

I've always thought that Sehwag's genuinely decent (has good basics) - just Dhoni cbf bowling him or Sehwag cbf really.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Sehwag has had a few injuries of late; I dunno if that's a factor.

But yeah, I'd rate him above Yuvi as a bowler in tests, definitely. Bowls proper offies rather than SLA darts, for a start. Probably a bigger turner than Ojha or Ashwin, actually. Not that that's any guarantee of quality as KP is arguably the biggest spinner of the ball in England's test XI too.

Plus, of course, Dhoni & Sehwag are rumoured to "not get on". Nasser & Knight commented on it towards the end of today's play.

 

[Howe_zat]

How long do we think England need to bat for to save the game? I think tea would be clearly home and dry, as they'd have set roughly 200 to get in a session, but I'm not sure how much earlier they could get away with it.

 

[Daemon]

Would also depend on the rate of scoring, since it could potentially be quite high with Broad and co to come, even though they're playing to save the test. Anything requiring even a slight risk in chasing would see Dhoni ***** out of it I reckon.

 

[Noble One]

They need to bat for 50 overs minimum. If they last that long, the natural attacking flair of Prior, Bresnan, Broad and Swann should take the score beyond reach.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Sehwag has had a few injuries of late; I dunno if that's a factor.

Has such an aesthetically-pleasing action as well - should of saved the viewer being warped by Ashwin's interpretation of an offie.