***Official*** India in England 2014

[Furball]

Loving Zombie Broad on the highlights. Looks hilarious.

 

[Captain_Cook]

It's true, we've been really ****ed over by Cook not scoring tons in the last two home Ashes

I'd say that his piss poor series in 2009 and 2013 didn't help matters. Thankfully, Strauss (2009), Bell and Pietersen (2013) rather papered over the fact he's rubbish vs quality fast bowling in England (his hundred in the Amla test is the exception). If he is to lead the team to success he needs to lead front the front to hurt the Aussies with big opening stands and hundreds.

It's the same technique which he's used to cobble together, well, more Test hundreds than any of the other 664 men who've played Tests for England. More than Gooch, Gower, or Grace; more than Hobbs, Hutton or Hammond. He's been out of form and playing poorly. He's now back in form and playing better, against what I reckon (and perhaps I'm in a minority here) is a decent Indian pace attack in often helpful conditions. I think that's a good thing. The alternative which as I understand it you favour is that he fails abysmally, gets dropped from the team, miraculously reshapes his technique (at age 30), and returns to the team as a transformed player to win the Ashes. With all due respect, I think that's unrealistic. It's better for him and for the team for him simply to end his bad trot and to get back to the productive vein which has served him pretty well over the last 100 odd Tests.

Cook is a brilliant player of spin bowling. It has been about survival and not getting out vs pace. At the moment, I think he'll be rolled over by the Aussies and South Africans for very little next year.

I wouldn't suggest that he's recovered his form at all. His 70* vs India was the best I've seen him play (unfortunately, I got into cricket at the same time he scored his 130 vs New Zealand). The adjustments that he's made such as taking a stride forward is positive but he's still edgy and against Johnson he's going to get out a lot.

 

[Furball]

On Woakes, PEWS has summed it up nicely with his post earlier, I'd say he bowls like you'd expect a top order batsman who's a handy bowler to bowl. He's accurate, keeps it tight but doesn't really look like taking huge amounts of wickets.

 

[Furball]

My god, a reviewed catch where they've gone with the fielder. Now I've seen everything.

 

[zaremba]

Cook's scored plenty of runs against pace over the years. The 2010/11 Ashes showed that it's not simply a question of him surviving and not getting out against pace. There, it was a question of him ritually disembowelling a highly-regarded Australian pace attack (Mitch Johnson included) on Australian pitches for day after day after day.

 

[Captain_Cook]

Cook's scored plenty of runs against pace over the years. The 2010/11 Ashes showed that it's not simply a question of him surviving and not getting out against pace. There, it was a question of him ritually disembowelling a highly-regarded Australian pace attack (Mitch Johnson included) on Australian pitches for day after day after day.

The way that the same attack disembowelled him in 2013 shows either than Cook left outside off fantastically in 2010/11, or the Aussie bowling was piss poor against Cook in 2010/11. The discipline the Aussie bowlers showed in 2013/14 made me think that Cook was merely capitalising on bad bowling. He'd hardly scored a run against the Aussies before and after that series...

 

[social]

Aside from one series, Cook has been largely poor against Australia so another moderate series would hardly be a surprise

However, the same could be said of Mitch

Anyway, it's a long way off and our paper mache fast bowlers have a lot of overs to get through before even boarding the plane

 

[zaremba]

The way that the same attack disembowelled him in 2013 shows either than Cook left outside off fantastically in 2010/11, or the Aussie bowling was piss poor against Cook in 2010/11. The discipline the Aussie bowlers showed in 2013/14 made me think that Cook was merely capitalising on bad bowling. He'd hardly scored a run against the Aussies before and after that series...

Essentially, I think, it's about one team getting on top of another, grinding them down and breaking their spirit. That's what England did to Australia in 10/11, and the roles were reversed in 13/14.

And to return to the point, Cook failing now and being dropped over the winter seems to me to be a fairly poor way for him (or the side he captains) to prepare for an Ashes series.

 

[Pothas]

You got to love that this guy is called Captain_Cook.

 

[social]

Essentially, I think, it's about one team getting on top of another, grinding them down and breaking their spirit. That's what England did to Australia in 10/11, and the roles were reversed in 13/14.

And to return to the point, Cook failing now and being dropped over the winter seems to me to be a fairly poor way for him (or the side he captains) to prepare for an Ashes series.

Given that England don't play another test until WI in April next year, I think it's a moot point

If he's referring to dropping him for ODIs then I fail to see the relevance to the Ashes

 

[zaremba]

You're kidding. It'd be enormously disruptive and undermining for player, captain and team for him to fail and be dropped.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

It did look outside leg at first.

Was sat at my dads as it happened and said only thing that saves him is it pitched outside leg as it hitting middle.

Poor decision but who cares.

 

[Jono]

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's message to the Indian cricket team.

 

[social]

You're kidding. It'd be enormously disruptive and undermining for player, captain and team for him to fail and be dropped.

He's been failing forever and the ODI team is a separate entity (and largely rubbish)

Might actually do him good to sit out the inevitable hammering in the WC

 

[Daemon]

**** this ****

There was probably more spine in the squid that this calamari I'm eating came from. (It's delicious ftr, smothered with lots of cheese just how PEWS likes it)

 

[G.I.Joe]

Preach, Daemon. That official 2 Test series we won was exciting, but this second 3 JAMT series (refer JAMODI) we've tacked on at the end just to make the ECB more money is what's wrong with the cricketing world.

 

[YorksLanka]

Guys quick question as I am in SL so have only seen the scorecards- was the wicket THAT bad or was it excellent bowling and/or poor batting??

 

[Prince EWS]

Absolutely nothing amiss with the pitch at all.

 

[Howe_zat]

Nothing wrong with it but I don't think that implies it wasn't favouring the bowler. England were pretty fortunate not to lose two wickets.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

We bowled well, they didn't bat well other than Dhoni. Not seen much of our innings apart from Cook was very lucky with an lbw.