*Official* India Tour of England 2018

[Mr Miyagi]

Think it's more likely that their batting fails than their bowlers succeeding.

Plunkett is tricky on slow pitches- and Woakes is their best seamer - but youre prolly right imo

 

[Mr Miyagi]

moeen destroyed us in the last test series in 2014, and destroyed a strong sa side last year. I'm going to hold on for now before dancing on his grave.

trj and philander getting ill (in tests anyway).

 

[Burner]

Like I said before, England are not going to win anything with that bowling attack.

Their deficiencies against spin is a fixable problem but that bowling line up isn't.

 

[FBU]

Wood's bowling average keeps climbing, now 47.90 s/r 51.5.
England keep playing him because he bowls fast. Really only a couple of balls are at 90mph and the Indian batsmen have no problem facing fast bowling.
Pity Tom Curran is injured s/r 30.8

 

[Daemon]

If Rohit keeps doing this he'll play ahead of Pujara or something

 

[Mr Miyagi]

You probably have the same thinking about the balance of the bowling attack? Wood, Plunkett and Willey are going to look very average against India's batting (most likely. Even if they pick up wickets I expect them to be expensive).

Woakes in for Wood would be ideal. But there's an argument still to pick Hales over a seamer at that point. 5 front-line bowlers, plus Stokes as the 6th bowler and Root as the 7th just feels like too much bowling for me (as I already mentioned ).

I agree that Wood is just not kicking his career on at all but on the contrary, I think England needs the 6 bowling options with this current team and style and wouldn't go to 5 until Woakes is back at least (and possibly a different bowling option for Ali).

Ali vs India this series was an expected headache for me, and I think there has been some underestimation of the Indian batting power in British media.

I think the EWCB should really look at Joffra Archer for the WC. http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/player/669855.html

The attack needs him and what he's shown thus far has been high class. WIth Plunkett, Woakes and Archer, then 5 bowlers is doable (even then I see England playing Stokes, Rashid and even Ali a lot - but at this point Hales could take Ali's spot and Root and Stokes bowl 10).

Willey is still very limited in death bowling experience - he's barely bowled out in the past. But he then becomes the reserve instead of the likes of Jake Ball or Mark Wood. (Willey does seem to be improving though).

Morgan has said that Archer wouldn't be in the World Cup team even if the EWCB qualifies him for EWCB selection, but I'm not convinced that would still be the case right now after watching Virat, Rahul, Dhawan and Rohit feasting out.

 

[Borges]

They need pitches that have something in them for the quick bowlers.
If not, though they will be able to bully Australia, good teams like Scotland will make them pay.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

They need pitches that have something in them for the quick bowlers.
If not, though they will be able to bully Australia, good teams like Scotland will make them pay.

The problem England has is Roy, Hales, Morgan are flat track bullies, and Bairstow - while quality on tricky surfaces - is playing as he is because of flat pitches.

If England juice up the decks, they weaken their strength. I think Woakes and Archer will add more to the England attack (and the lower batting too ironically) and make England an even better team.

 

[ankitj]

Kuldeep flummoxed the vaunted England batting in his first ODI in England, registering the fourth-best figures for India in ODIs - 6 for 25 - to keep the hosts down to 268 at a venue where the last two completed ODIs featured scores of 481 and 444.

Didn't realize this. Wow.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Kuldeep really gives that ball a rip doesn't he? Even his flatter deliveries seem to have a lot of revs on them. If you look at his action, it's very similar to Warne's in the way he winds up before release and puts his back into it.

 

[Shri]

Kuldeep really gives that ball a rip doesn't he? Even his flatter deliveries seem to have a lot of revs on them. If you look at his action, it's very similar to Warne's in the way he winds up before release and puts his back into it.

The difference between him and other leggies is his control more than anything I think. Bowls loose balls less frequently than other leggies for now. Things might change if he faces a dip in form though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

The difference between him and other leggies is his control more than anything I think. Bowls loose balls less frequently than other leggies for now. Things might change if he faces a dip in form though.

The challenge will be to retain control over long test match spells.

 

[Shri]

The challenge will be to retain control over long test match spells.

Could become ineffective quickly if batsmen begin reading him correctly and decide to play him out without risk. Like India did to Rashid Khan in the test match.

 

[cnerd123]

Yea Kuldeep is just a very good orthodox legspinner. Hides his googly very well. Nothing too weird or mysterious about him, he's just very very good, and very confident right now. Long test match spells + a dip in form will be the biggest hurdles he will have to overcome at some point. But I hope he can. He's such a good talent.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Could become ineffective quickly if batsmen begin reading him correctly and decide to play him out without risk. Like India did to Rashid Khan in the test match.

Batsmen are going to start picking himeventually, just a matter of when. But as long as he's accurate he'll still be a good bowler because he does rip it.

 

[Daemon]

Could become ineffective quickly if batsmen begin reading him correctly and decide to play him out without risk. Like India did to Rashid Khan in the test match.

Eh, India were struggling to read him at times. Thing is you don't need to read full tosses and half trackers.

They also didn't 'play him out without risk'.

So no, not at all like Khan v India.

 

[Shri]

I mean in tests.

 

[Daemon]

So did I?

 

[garylyon]

Yeah Rashid Khan was pretty rubbish with his length in that match. Didn't even matter if he wasn't worked out as barely landed the ball right in the first place. Either it was nerves or he just stuck with what he knew from the ODIs I think - varying the length constantly and bowling a lot of googlies. His leg spinner also barely turns if at all so there's that too. If his LO bowling is any indication Kuldeep seems to be far more capable to consistently pick up wickets and also be more economical in tests. And as ***** said, there's very little mystery element about him, so even if he's figured out he's probably still going to pick up wickets (though maybe not as much) since he gives so many revs on the ball and gets more air drift than what you usually see nowadays, turns on almost any track and lands at that full to good length.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Could become ineffective quickly if batsmen begin reading him correctly and decide to play him out without risk. Like India did to Rashid Khan in the test match.

Two slightly different cases. Rashid just lacked FC experience and overs under his belt and just bowled inconsistently as a result rather than India 'figuring' him out.

Batsmen are going to start picking himeventually, just a matter of when. But as long as he's accurate he'll still be a good bowler because he does rip it.

There are wickets that he gets due to his action being hard to pick and wickets that he takes just by bowling great deliveries. Batsmen will eventually pick his action and not find it awkward but if he continues to bowl the great deliveries that he does, he will continue to take wickets. He isn't the mystery spinner like Ajanta Mendis. He is just a good leg break bowler who also bowls good mystery balls.

Ultimately every spinner has to keep working on new tricks (I mean Ashwin is now trying leg spin) and Kuldeep will have to do the same so that he isn't over reliant on the 'mystery' ball.