***Official*** England in India 2016/17

[honestbharani]

You go take the dog for a walk, I'm going to have a shower, and between us we should take a couple of wickets

Kohli
Ash
Jaddu
Giant
Bhuvi

to go through. Good luck England.

Good calls, both

lol India getting rooted

But England getting Kohli'd harder..

Ashwin hanging around for no reason

Nah.. Umps were not sure. And Jennings bent low so he might not have been clear if it had grazed the helmet grill a bit. But yeah, he was pretty much standing and hoping. Initially he stood there coz he cannot believe that it was taken, as he had timed it so sweetly and it is just such an impossible or at least improbable catch. England has unearthed a couple of gems here AFAIC in Hameed and Jennings. Not just as top order batters but also close in fielders. I am sure the Indian spinners would love to have blokes like Jennings at bat-pad than Karun Nair, who just seems to be the same as a young Gambhir. Amazed to see a youngster making it big in India who seems to field and run worse than Ashwin.

That worked well.

Actually, It kinda did...

Nasser moaning that we played with 10 men in last game and are here well we would anyway if we picked the 3rd spinner or played Duckett or Ballance as they'd have done naff all and Root wouldn't have bowled and got those wickets.

Yeah, as if India are not repaying the goodness of England playing some passegers by playing 2 every test themselves. Rahane and Gambhir (should actually add Mishra too) in the first test, Rahane, Rahul at Vizag, Rahane, Nair at Mohali and Nair and Parthiv here .

That's true, but I don't see us getting anywhere near a 50+ lead, if that. Will require something special from Kohli and the lower-order, let's see.

Yep..

Root-a!! Can't take the lad out of the game. If he ain't scoring runs he'll chip in with wicket and/or catches.

And also dropping catches

What's with every 3rd umpire using this "rock and roll it" ****?

Think one of the umpires said it at first and to me it sounded like he said "Lock and roll it" as in lock that portion of the video and roll it over and over so he can make the decision. Trust Dharmasena to start calling it "Rock and Roll" and then the junior Indian umpire working as an understudy suddenly having to take over is just repeating what he thinks is some kinda code the TV director will magically understand.

Rooted indeed, Howe.

Kohli: "Review it."

Lol.

He actually said "Review Nahin" to Jayant and was smiling. He used that review gesture as Jayant was basically at the other end and may not have heard him that well. Think he just told him you are lucky as they dont have reviews but glad it ended up looking like this. Just like the time he sledged out The Pretending Chump and everyone thought he was making fun of him being miked up, when he was actually just giving it back for the **** sledging Pandya on his debut game.

 

[indiaholic]

Self parody.. Nice..

 

[honestbharani]

Gotta say one of the more fascinating days of test cricket I have ever seen and one of the most satisfying. Loved how much crow some of the posters here, almost all the crapinfo commentators, (esp. the biased English one who was crowing at the end of day 1), so many English commentators and media personnel have to eat after having been proven wrong. Ash was right on about the track from his comments on day 1 presser. It should start doing more for the bowlers from tomorrow, mostly the second session but so far it is a wonderful test wicket. Bounce and pace and turn off the wicket means bowlers are always in the business. English and Indian seamers definitely got swing but it was off the hand and kept going instead of coming in with the angle and then seaming and/or swinging away late after pitching. Plus the bounce seems to be helping players handle the movement better. So while new batsmen will always find it hard, once you get yourself in, this is a belter of a wicket to play your shots, as long as you can tune out those instances where you get beaten all ends up, coz this is a pitch where that will happen every now and then, sometimes from nowhere.


Also very interested in seeing how some of the partnerships in this Indian batting line up are turning out. Vijay-Pujara, Vijay-Kohli, Pujara-Kohli, Kohli-Rahane often seem to get big runs and then usually Ashwin+Saha+Jadeja+seamers are pretty good too at least in home conditions but it is funny how I cannot recall any big Rahane-Vijay partnerships or Pujara-Rahane partnerships. And Vijay-Rahul have actually not been that flash either inspite of them getting good scores individually now and then. Vijay-Dhawan much more productive, I think. So interesting days ahead as this team continues to take shape.


And lastly, on Cook's captaincy, it is definitely telling how much he has bowled the spinners and also how listless the team were looking until he went off and Root brought himself on. Root seems to want to annoy or irritate the opposition at every possible opportunity, not very unlike Parthiv. In the long term, I feel it will bring him down as a player and he will suffer coz of it but at least in the short term, he will make a very interesting captain. And if Cook is not sure if he wants to lead during the Ashes, post this series would be a perfect time for him to give it up. Root will get to do it for a home season and he wont be exhausted or burnt out by it immediately as he will still have Morgan leading the LO sides. And I guess eventually over time, it will help England once again reunite these formats' captaincies.


And just a word and I do not mean this as a cheap shot on Anderson but there is no way even the densest captain in the world would have kept Steyn off the attack for as long as Cook did with Anderson. That is the difference between ATG level and the tier just below it, for me.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Evidence?

 

[honestbharani]

Your posts

 

[honestbharani]

Self parody.. Nice..

Typed out a long post but lost it due to browser issues. Could not afford to go and find all the posts I wanted to quote again, no?

 

[harsh.ag]

KL's place might be in review if he doesn't perform in the next test.

 

[artvandalay]

Going to Wankhede tomorrow, would love to see a double ton from Kohli. Also an opportunity to watch Cook bat from close.

I will be there too. Hope we can bat the 1st session and get a lead of 150.

 

[Pothas]

Not seen a much of this Test but it feels a lot less frustrating than the last one, being beaten up by a very good side and a great player. Most people thought we would be thrashed in this series, don't think it has really gone any worse than expected and some genuinely good things have come out of it.

 

[Shri]

https://twitter.com/CasualSaturdays/status/807553186470985728/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

 

[Shri]

 

[Shri]

 

[Shri]

 

[Shri]

 

[GIMH]

I look forwards to being pleasantly surprised by the score I awake to, a promising afternoon session and then all hope being sapped from me in the final session

 

[Groundking]

Gotta say one of the more fascinating days of test cricket I have ever seen and one of the most satisfying. Loved how much crow some of the posters here, almost all the crapinfo commentators, (esp. the biased English one who was crowing at the end of day 1), so many English commentators and media personnel have to eat after having been proven wrong. Ash was right on about the track from his comments on day 1 presser. It should start doing more for the bowlers from tomorrow, mostly the second session but so far it is a wonderful test wicket. Bounce and pace and turn off the wicket means bowlers are always in the business. English and Indian seamers definitely got swing but it was off the hand and kept going instead of coming in with the angle and then seaming and/or swinging away late after pitching. Plus the bounce seems to be helping players handle the movement better. So while new batsmen will always find it hard, once you get yourself in, this is a belter of a wicket to play your shots, as long as you can tune out those instances where you get beaten all ends up, coz this is a pitch where that will happen every now and then, sometimes from nowhere.


Also very interested in seeing how some of the partnerships in this Indian batting line up are turning out. Vijay-Pujara, Vijay-Kohli, Pujara-Kohli, Kohli-Rahane often seem to get big runs and then usually Ashwin+Saha+Jadeja+seamers are pretty good too at least in home conditions but it is funny how I cannot recall any big Rahane-Vijay partnerships or Pujara-Rahane partnerships. And Vijay-Rahul have actually not been that flash either inspite of them getting good scores individually now and then. Vijay-Dhawan much more productive, I think. So interesting days ahead as this team continues to take shape.


And lastly, on Cook's captaincy, it is definitely telling how much he has bowled the spinners and also how listless the team were looking until he went off and Root brought himself on. Root seems to want to annoy or irritate the opposition at every possible opportunity, not very unlike Parthiv. In the long term, I feel it will bring him down as a player and he will suffer coz of it but at least in the short term, he will make a very interesting captain. And if Cook is not sure if he wants to lead during the Ashes, post this series would be a perfect time for him to give it up. Root will get to do it for a home season and he wont be exhausted or burnt out by it immediately as he will still have Morgan leading the LO sides. And I guess eventually over time, it will help England once again reunite these formats' captaincies.


And just a word and I do not mean this as a cheap shot on Anderson but there is no way even the densest captain in the world would have kept Steyn off the attack for as long as Cook did with Anderson. That is the difference between ATG level and the tier just below it, for me.

Or Cook just having a complete ****ing mare as captain?

 

[honestbharani]

Maybe.. but even he wont have done that to Steyn, which is the point.

 

[Bijed]

Or Cook just having a complete ****ing mare as captain?

Yeah, Anderson may not be an ATG but he's our best bowler and Cook took far too long to turn to him and when he finally did Jimmy almost immediately made the breakthrough but for Root's dropping the catch.

 

[honestbharani]

I dont disagree with this bit at all, actually. Just meant that seeing Cook do that to Jimmy and imagining if he would have done that if he had Steyn there, helps me realize, even more, what an awesome bowler Steyn is.

 

[Pothas]

Such a nothing point.