***Official*** India in England 2014

[Cabinet96]

My gut feel is that Cook's batting is going the same way as Mark Taylor's did i.e. prolific > prolonged slump > inconsistent to the end of his career

There are just too many technical flaws that everyone in world cricket is aware of and a couple of test wins hasn't changed that

That's not really how Cook's career path has gone though. He didn't reach what you probably consider to be the prolific stage until 2010 Ashes. And as I seemingly say to someone everyday, Cook's technical problems were obvious as early as the 06/07 Ashes.

 

[Cabinet96]

Cook's career path probably goes;

prolific - 2006 - New to the game and people bowl to his strengths regularly. Generally scores runs and is a very successful top order batsman.
Inconsistently average - 2007-2010 - People find him out and he starts to struggle, notably against certain teams who might be better equipped to deal with him, but still gets regular scores and maintains a 40+ average.
Prolific - 2010 - 2012 - Scores buckets of runs as he enters his prime and exploits a few poor bowling lineups.
Poor - 2013-2014 - Australia bowl really well against him and he's out of nick against SL and at the start of the India series.

Could be a repeat of any of those last three IMO.

 

[viriya]

How did Dhoni actually bat in the 1st dig. Only saw highlights but unless he got pretty lucky would've thought it would've ranked pretty highly among his innings. Probably the earliest he's ever come in?

At least 2-3 edges flew safely off his bat. ftr I rate it as his second best innings (admittedly distant after his double hundred) considering the situation etc.

 

[Jono]

How did Dhoni actually bat in the 1st dig. Only saw highlights but unless he got pretty lucky would've thought it would've ranked pretty highly among his innings. Probably the earliest he's ever come in?

It was gun and I'm usually critical of him. Sure he had some luck, but you literally had to have some luck to face such bowling in such conditions and survive.

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah, second best Test innings I've ever seen him play. Genuinely good.

 

[Contra]

Dhoni's probably gonna retire in a year or two anyways so I'm not sure what will be achieved by taking the captaincy away from him. I'm seriously dissapointed by Kohli, Pujara and our batting in general, I always thought it was gonna be our bowling that would let us down on this tour but our batting, particularly in the last two tests has been terrible which is a real shame. And this is after the fact that we performed both in SA and NZ batting wise. You can only blame Dhoni so much until you realize that his team has let him down on the few occasions that they had the upper hand.

Having said that, this batting line up is rather inexperienced so hopefully they will grow over time, and even though England are 2-1 up, I'm not convinced they will win too many more games against other oppositions considering the drop in quality between Anderson/Broad and the rest of their bowlers. Better sides will expose England's weaknesses than India have in this tour.

 

[Jono]

Yep, least culpable Dhoni has been from a captaincy point of view for a (soon-to-be) series loss for a long time. Even at Lord's the lower order papered over our top order's crapness.

 

[Teja.]

Rahane to score an unbeaten double ton in the fifth test and claim his rightful place as India's future captain and more importantly India's number three going forward.

 

[harsh.ag]

I don't think our batting going to dramatically improve in the next test. But I do expect to see a fifty from Kohli, a gritty one.

It has been a good tour, really. Our batting will develop. Murali Vijay's performance was a huge plus. And I don't think many teams would mind seeing a tussle between the likes of Dhawan and Gambhir for the other opening position.

Our 3-5 will be good, so it's okay.

Our bowling has been quite good, in all honesty. Can't expect much better. Aaron has been discovered to some extent. And that is a bonus. Shami, on the other hand, was a different kind of surprise.

Fielding is so bad, it's sickening. Jadeja and Kohli, two of our good fielders, have done the team massive disservice. Jadeja's drop let Cook back into form, which was/will be so costly. And it also let Pankaj have a much harder time than he should have had.

Jadeja needs to be kicked off the team. He really does. That's the only thing I feel really strongly about.

 

[91Jmay]

How on earth has it been a good tour? They've been murdered twice by an England team with a crisis of confidence not seen for decades and lost 19 wickets to apparently a part time spinner.

India have to expect more than that, surely?

 

[Jono]

I think we'll lose the 5th test, but tour's not over yet peeps. Cool your jets.

 

[91Jmay]

Well if India win the 5th test, it has been a good tour. England's batting still pretty fragile so if India put up 450/500 then they have a great chance to win. Wouldn't say its a forgone conclusion.

 

[harsh.ag]

How on earth has it been a good tour? They've been murdered twice by an England team with a crisis of confidence not seen for decades and lost 19 wickets to apparently a part time spinner.

India have to expect more than that, surely?

It's a young team touring England for the first time with no (literally none) experienced players to help them along. You need to have some perspective.

And puh-lease about the English crisis of confidence. You had such fits every year from 1985 to 2005. KP, Swann, and Anderson gave you the mojo since then to be calm and stable. Now that 2 are gone, you lot are back to your whinging.

 

[ridhima]

India will gonna rock in England.This series will rock whole world.I love to see cricket match.I really like to see it very much.it is my favorite game.I love to see players of India on crease.

 

[Jono]

India will gonna rock in England.This series will rock whole world.I love to see cricket match.I really like to see it very much.it is my favorite game.I love to see players of India on crease.

One of the best lines from a bot yet.

 

[91Jmay]

It's a young team touring England for the first time with no (literally none) experienced players to help them along. You need to have some perspective.

And puh-lease about the English crisis of confidence. You had such fits every year from 1985 to 2005. KP, Swann, and Anderson gave you the mojo since then to be calm and stable. Now that 2 are gone, you lot are back to your whinging.

That's what I said you ****ing dope, this is the English side with the most ?s and least confidence since 2003. Learn what a decade is then get back to me. Whinging? Nothing you have said makes any sense.

Oh, and the word literally doesn't mean what you think it does. Have a look at the bloke captaining the team.

 

[OverratedSanity]

That's what I said you ****ing dope, this is the English side with the most ?s and least confidence since 2003. Learn what a decade is then get back to me. Whinging? Nothing you have said makes any sense.

Oh, and the word literally doesn't mean what you think it does. Have a look at the bloke captaining the team.

Nah, you said "decades", not "a decade". Big difference.

I don't agree it's been a good tour, it's been a disappointment that we've let the lead slip by batting so poorly, but winning a test overseas is a huge achievement, regardless of how low England were on confidence. It's not an excuse anyway, since our blokes' confidence can't have been sky high after letting slip golden opportunities in SA and NZ.

Still a game to go, though it's seems obvious there's no coming back from this, but you never know.

 

[harsh.ag]

That's what I said you ****ing dope, this is the English side with the most ?s and least confidence since 2003. Learn what a decade is then get back to me. Whinging? Nothing you have said makes any sense.

Oh, and the word literally doesn't mean what you think it does. Have a look at the bloke captaining the team.

You said " by an England team with a crisis of confidence not seen for decades" dope!

Dhoni is an idiot when it comes to things like these, a fact that you have not fallen short of emphasizing at every opportune moment. And even if he wasn't, how is a keeper with suspect batting technique supposed to guide top order batsmen?

 

[King Pietersen]

Just read that Moeen is the quickest England spinner to 20 Test wickets in terms of days. WAG.

 

[harsh.ag]

Moeen to become the greatest English all-rounder since Tony Greig