*Official* India Tour of England 2018

[Burgey]

Probably been mentioned in here already, but apparently Rashid was the first English test player in years to neither bowl, bat nor take a catch in a test match.

 

[social]

At least Rashid didn’t do anything wrong

Yadav batted twice and bowled for a pair & no wickets

Don’t know whether he dropped a catch

At least he got a go, I suppose

 

[quincywagstaff]

By my count, in the last 4 Tests India have played in England only 6 individual innings (Kohli, Dhoni & Ashwin twice) have managed to reach 35.

 

[Burgey]

At least Rashid didn’t do anything wrong

Yadav batted twice and bowled for a pair & no wickets

Don’t know whether he dropped a catch

At least he got a go, I suppose

It's a fair effort by Rashid to literally have to do nothing in a test match and still not be the least auspicious performer.

 

[morgieb]

The standard of Test cricket seems to be at an all-time low. Pretty much every tour at this point can be determined by "who is playing at home".

 

[stephen]

This trend of the leading Test nations being nearly invincible at home and absolutely abysmal away is extremely tedious.

To increase competitiveness, I think they should return to the tried and tested but now unfashionable method of playing proper tours with multiple warm up matches against local state/county/province sides to get familiar with the conditions before taking on the full might of a top Test nation in their own conditions. Not gonna happen because money rules these days, but I strongly believe this would lead to more interesting matches in which the balance of power is far more likely to fluctuate over the course of the 5 days.

A better solution would be for us all to recognise that India are minnows, the West Indies to start producing some fast bowlers again and recognise that the game is better when fast bowling rules and the subcontinent (Pakistan excluded) is ignored.

Oh for the good old days of the 90s where Aus/WI/Pak/SA ruled the world.

 

[stephen]

The standard of Test cricket seems to be at an all-time low. Pretty much every tour at this point can be determined by "who is playing at home".

In part this is due to the fact that little separates the sides these days. Every side has bowlers who are deadly in home conditions and batsmen who are attuned to home conditions.

In part this is because the strongest sides in the world have conditions which are dramatically different. Nowhere else in the world produces swing like England and New Zealand. Australia produces bouncy roads, South Africa bouncy roads/ green tops, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and to a lesser extent the West Indies all produce turning tracks.

So England, India, Australia and South Africa all find it hard touring each other (SA/Aus has produced the most fantastic contests over the last few years, sandpaper notwithstanding).

It's very hard for batters used to low bouncing turning tracks to adjust to bouncy tracks or swinging conditions and the same is true in the other direction.

 

[mr_mister]

Who says test cricket is dead?


Me mate.

 

[Prince EWS]

Love that Ashwin top scored in both innings.

 

[_Ed_]

 

[Niall]

What has Shastri brought to Indian cricket that only he could?

 

[smash84]

What has Shastri brought to Indian cricket that only he could?

Shame?

 

[Daemon]

Shame?

oh we've had plenty of people bring that upon us

 

[R!TTER]

oh we've had plenty of people bring that upon us

 

[TheJediBrah]

Real men have curves

 

[Borges]

As far as the future of test cricket goes, I think there is a fair amount of overreaction to what has transpired during this one test;
ironically, immediately after the abundance of paeans that were sung about the glory of test cricket after the first test had concluded.

Agreed that England would have probably won against any visiting team in these conditions, and probably won reasonably comfortably; that is home advantage, which is an integral part of test cricket. But it is hard to imagine any other team, other than Bangladesh or Zimbabwe getting decimated in this completely one-sided manner.

India has a lot to worry about their abysmal performance in this game; but there is no cause for lamenting about the demise of test cricket as a whole.

 

[Burgey]

Many years ago when I was just coming into senior cricket, albeit obviously at a much, much lower level; one of the things coaches used to suggest when the ball was hooping was batting a long way out of your crease to combat it. I haven't watched much of the first two tests, but is that something the Indian batsmen have been trying against Anderson and Curran? I suspect it's not the accepted wisdom any more to do it, but it seems nothing they're doing atm is working, and neither of those blokes is quick enough that the batsmen would struggle with their pace if they gave it a try.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Many years ago when I was just coming into senior cricket, albeit obviously at a much, much lower level; one of the things coaches used to suggest when the ball was hooping was batting a long way out of your crease to combat it. I haven't watched much of the first two tests, but is that something the Indian batsmen have been trying against Anderson and Curran? I suspect it's not the accepted wisdom any more to do it, but it seems nothing they're doing atm is working, and neither of those blokes is quick enough that the batsmen would struggle with their pace if they gave it a try.

They have. Kohli, Rahane, Karthik especially have been doing it a lot.

The problem with it is that when they're batting out of the crease and lunging out to counter the swing, it results in the shorter deliveries that Anderson bowls from time to time becoming dangerous. I'm pretty convinced this is one of the reasons the English bowlers have been so unplayable (the other bigger reason obviously being that they've bowled great). They've bowled their fair share of deliveries short of a length but the emphasis on getting forward is so great that the shorter deliveries which should be harmless are becoming very uncomfortable to face.

 

[Burgey]

Ah well, never mind. Guess they're ****ed then.

 

[R!TTER]

Ah well, never mind. Guess they're ****ed then.

There's also DRS, I doubt home umpires even give LBW these days at lower levels.