*Official* India Tour of England 2018

[91Jmay]

Oli Pope doing bits again, such a serious talent.

 

[Gnske]

Interesting that Gubbins is in the A side at 3. Must be a shoot out between him and Burns for who gets to join the wheel when Jennings has his next inevitable faux pas.

 

[Xuhaib]

It's just gambhiring mate. Everyone knows India have a very good to chance to win or draw this series. The Indian Test side is the strongest it has been in years, arguably stronger than the 2009-10 side with a stronger, fitter seam attack.

It quite close. The bowling is infinitely superior both pace and spin that line up was too dependent on Zaheer and Bhajji rest they were hoping for random good spells from RP,Sreeshanth, Ishant etc. That batting line up though as good as any in history also that team had a peak Dhoni who is much superior to Saha, Karthicks etc.

Overall I will give that side the slight edge due to an ATG batting line up but bowling wins you test matches.

 

[Black_Warrior]

I see this series as being very similar to the 2002 one. England were largely a weak side in 2002 and that Indian side under Ganguly were just about reaching their peak with Dravid on the start of his peak.

Anderson and Broad are not the force they once were. Now before the fanboys here get triggered, not saying they are bad, or average, but just not at their peak now. Woakes only takes wickets against Pakistan. Yes India's last two tours of England have been disastrous but the 2011 side was England's greatest side and the 2014 side had a better Anderson and Broad.


The only reason I'm not straight out calling a 2-1 India win is because Bhuvi is out. But India took 20 wickets in South Africa even without Bhuvi. And this time they have their own version of Ben Stokes and playing 5 bowlers is a luxury the past sides never had. The seamers will remain fresh.

Now as far as the batting is concerned, yeah don't expect anything from Pujara or Dhawan but Rahul and Rahane should get runs.

Did I forget anyone?

Oh yeah the guy who averages 13 in England. He is going to go big this time.

The other major thing going in India's favour is the timing. August is late summer and the best time for visiting teams to bat.

India have a good chance to win, but even if a lot of the above don't go exactly like that, don't see why they can't draw like Pakistan.

Yeah 2016 Pakistan was a great side but have a look at the 2018 side. The Ireland team had more FC experience than that Pakistan side.

 

[Mr Miyagi]

I see this series as being very similar to the 2002 one. England were largely a weak side in 2002 and that Indian side under Ganguly were just about reaching their peak with Dravid on the start of his peak.

Anderson and Broad are not the force they once were. Now before the fanboys here get triggered, not saying they are bad, or average, but just not at their peak now. Woakes only takes wickets against Pakistan. Yes India's last two tours of England have been disastrous but the 2011 side was England's greatest side and the 2014 side had a better Anderson and Broad.


The only reason I'm not straight out calling a 2-1 India win is because Bhuvi is out. But India took 20 wickets in South Africa even without Bhuvi. And this time they have their own version of Ben Stokes and playing 5 bowlers is a luxury the past sides never had. The seamers will remain fresh.

Now as far as the batting is concerned, yeah don't expect anything from Pujara or Dhawan but Rahul and Rahane should get runs.

Did I forget anyone?

Oh yeah the guy who averages 13 in England. He is going to go big this time.

The other major thing going in India's favour is the timing. August is late summer and the best time for visiting teams to bat.

India have a good chance to win, but even if a lot of the above don't go exactly like that, don't see why they can't draw like Pakistan.

Yeah 2016 Pakistan was a great side but have a look at the 2018 side. The Ireland team had more FC experience than that Pakistan side.

Yeah, it's not soccer. Or even rugby for that matter. There's a reason most of the ODI crowds in England were Indian supporters this series.

 

[Shri]

Pant is likely to play too, given his recent FC fifties in England. Would prefer Karthik but wouldn't be surprised if Pant plays.

 

[Singh767]

Yeah, it's not soccer. Or even rugby for that matter. There's a reason most of the ODI crowds in England were Indian supporters this series.

Football*

 

[R!TTER]

I hope he's picked for his keeping abilities, not the dashing strokeplay. With DK we wouldn't be missing much, bother are significantly better than Saha as batters.

 

[Shri]

My XI for the first test:

M Vijay
KL Rahul
C Pujara (should be replaced depending on how bad he fails. Rahul to #3 for the second test in that case while Dhawan comes in)
V Kohli
A Rahane
D Karthik
H Pandya
R Jadeja (keeps one end tight, which would let Kuldeep attack from the other end. if he fails, Ashwin in for the next test)
K Yadav
M Shami / U Yadav
I Sharma

 

[Shri]

Given the last two games though, Dhoni should have been brought in to replace Saha.

 

[garylyon]

Not really excited about Karthik. Bhuvi gone isn't good for India but its not as big of a blow as it seemingly is made out to be - it definitely aggravates the depth issue but I'm not too convinced Bhuvi is going to be remarkably more successful than any of the other three seamers especially with his current form and fitness. Pujara and Rahul both must play. Dhawan can **** off. But I don't mind bringing him in if Vijay fails miserably. No point playing Pandya if we're going in with 3 frontline seamers.

Vijay
Rahul
Pujara
Kohli*
Rahane
Pant+
Ashwin
Kuldeep
Yadav
Shami
Ishant

The tail is obviously too long so if its a flat pitch we should drop one seamer and introduce an extra bat in Dhawan and get him to open with Vijay imo. Which would push Rahul to #3 and Kohli to #5.

 

[BSM]

I see this series as being very similar to the 2002 one. England were largely a weak side in 2002 and that Indian side under Ganguly were just about reaching their peak with Dravid on the start of his peak.

Anderson and Broad are not the force they once were. Now before the fanboys here get triggered, not saying they are bad, or average, but just not at their peak now. Woakes only takes wickets against Pakistan. Yes India's last two tours of England have been disastrous but the 2011 side was England's greatest side and the 2014 side had a better Anderson and Broad.


The only reason I'm not straight out calling a 2-1 India win is because Bhuvi is out. But India took 20 wickets in South Africa even without Bhuvi. And this time they have their own version of Ben Stokes and playing 5 bowlers is a luxury the past sides never had. The seamers will remain fresh.

Now as far as the batting is concerned, yeah don't expect anything from Pujara or Dhawan but Rahul and Rahane should get runs.

Did I forget anyone?

Oh yeah the guy who averages 13 in England. He is going to go big this time.

The other major thing going in India's favour is the timing. August is late summer and the best time for visiting teams to bat.

India have a good chance to win, but even if a lot of the above don't go exactly like that, don't see why they can't draw like Pakistan.

Yeah 2016 Pakistan was a great side but have a look at the 2018 side. The Ireland team had more FC experience than that Pakistan side.

India have a decent chance I agree, but not everything you've stated here is right in my opinion.

Firstly, I'd argue Anderson is bowling the best he ever has done in his career. He's ageing and is coming back straight from injury, but he'll know how to bowl and I think will continue to be incredibly successful against the Indian batsmen, especially so if the ball moves about. Braod hasn't been as great, however, there are a few signs that he is coming back to his best, having worked on his action after the winter, and bowling pretty decently in the Pak series. Overall, I don't think Broad/Anderson will be any less threatening in English conditions than they have ever been. Woakes is also great in English conditions so I wouldn't underestimate him in this series.

I also don't necessarily think the pak/eng 2018 series result reflects the quality of the sides either. The problem with going off the Eng/Pak series that just happened, is that it was only two matches. Granted Pakistan did really well to draw the series and win a game with their inexperienced team, and we were dreadful. But it might be that England's performance in that match was just a one off, which is evidenced by the way they played in the next game and won by an innings. I imagine if it were a five match series we would have gone on to win the next three (you never know though). Using the argument that even Pakistan managed to draw is slightly irrelevant I think, since this is a five match series.

 

[weldone]

Unfortunately they'll start with Pandya, but my team will have an extra batsman.

Rahul
Vijay
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Nair
Karthik
Ashwin
Umesh
Shami
Ishant

 

[Daemon]

I hate that Buttler is playing the Tests as well. Sick of that ****. He's going to do a Prior all the time imo with annoying 50s just when you think you have the upper hand.

Bhuvi is the single biggest blow possible. I'd rather Kohli be out than him. It's not only his bowling but with a tail like ours his more than handy batting has been so valuable over the years.

 

[cnerd123]

Think with Bhuvi's bowling is that he's a lot more reliable that Ishant/Umesh/Shami to keep it tight and bowl dry when there is no swing/reverse on offer.

Ishant done that role well too, but he's quite back of a length, Bhuvi is that touch fuller where he can lure the batsman into driving at a wide one out of frustration and nicking it. He's the closest parallel to Anderson that we've got.

 

[harsh.ag]

Bhuvi injured cause of LOs? Dock Kohli and Shastri's pay, I say.

 

[Borges]

Bhuvi injured cause of LOs? Dock Kohli and Shastri's pay, I say.

Bhuvi has been carrying this dormant injury for a long time; I remember talks about his back even as he was playing in the IPL.
My hunch is that even if he had sat out for the last ODI, he may have broken down in the middle of the first test.

Tip: It would be a good idea to blame Kane Williamson for all our misfortunes; and get Miyagi's goat.

 

[Pratters]

I will give Karun Nair a practice game and play him instead of Pujara if Pujara is not playing well in the nets.

 

[Pratters]

Re Bhuvi, was looking forward to this being a series where he performs really well. His bowling has improved over the years.

This was bound to happen. Just ten days or so back In posted on the Indian Cricket lounge thread about how it sucks that we don't have a policy where we keep players for specific formats. Every one plays all 12 months if selected. It sucks. They are fast bowlers, you ****s. Even batsmen can't play all 12 months.

 

[Pratters]

I would rather player Bumrah than Shami. The chance of him lasting 5 days, let alone 5 tests is negligible. I don't want a situation where he starts and gets injured during a test to **** up the whole test. He has also been summoned by the Kolkata police in the near future, so I am not sure he would be in the best state of mind.

Bring in a Gubrani or some one else from the A team to the squad maybe, while we are speaking of faster bowlers.