*Official* India Tour of England 2018

[R!TTER]

Another drop by Pant, the last one cost us what 100+ runs

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Good job the Indian keeper is crap then.

 

[Black_Warrior]

P.s where is that dude that said Umesh is better than Bumrah

where is that dude that said Cook would go past Tendulkar

 

[Daemon]

That was not an easy catch by any means

 

[harsh.ag]

So the batting starts now

 

[flibbertyjibber]

where is that dude that said Cook would go past Tendulkar

Having a similar run in his mid 30's to be fair.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Two great overs in a row by shami there.

 

[SeamUp]

It feels like the Duke ball never really stops swinging. It's kind of nice, but the theory of "see off the early movement and then cash in later" doesn't really hold, does it?

Definitely not as much as with a Kookaburran ball on harder SA/Australia pitches.

But it's not like it is impossible to score runs in England. Still got to get through that first 20 balls etc

 

[OverratedSanity]

Seeing off early movement has as much to do with seam as swing. It definitely moves less off the pitch as the ball gets softer doesn't it?

 

[Top_Cat]

Said it last Test, saying it again, I know he's 12 years old but Pant's gonna cost India a Test.

 

[Daemon]

Stokes looking pretty solid on the front foot

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Well this might just have been India's session.

Be a miracle to get back in this from here.

 

[vcs]

I have been saying from the beginning of India's away season (before the South Africa series) that India should beat England this year and if they don't they have only themselves to blame. The fact that they are 2 down in this series is a result of their own poor strategies and mismanagement. Proper warm ups and player management (Bhuvi) would have seen better results in the first two Tests.

I guess you could attribute the losses in the first couple of Tests to the batting lineup not having gotten enough practice in these conditions, but I'd disagree with that. They can practise for a year but they'd always need some luck against someone like Anderson. Dhawan/Rahul/Pujara/Rahane can be decent batsmen for us (and even very good in Asia), but they will collapse from time to time in these conditions. And Vijay basically looked well past it.

 

[Jack1]

England logic:

- Drop Pope after batting him two places too high at 4, instead of 6.
- Continue to open with Jennings, who is hopelessly out of his depth at this level with the bat and in the field.
- Continue to open with Cook, who is stone dead done it seems and has I believe hit 4 (maybe 5 can't remember off the top of my head) scores past 50 in his past 41 innings.
- Refuse to pick the best opener in the country, Burns.
- Bat Root a place too high again at 3, instead of 4.
- Bat Bairstow at least one place too high at 4.

Then stubbornly refuse to admit they have got it wrong. No doubt they pick an unchanged top 4 for the next game. It gets funnier and funnier with England and their boys club mentality.

Good start for India. Shame for them and incredibly lucky for Buttler that he's been dropped. Buttler is definitely a lucky cricketer at times, reckon he gets put down more than any other player for England. He even gives regulation chances that get dropped.

- Jennings has failed to hit a fifty now in 9* tests. He has one innings to change this stat. The record for England in test history for an opener is 9 games in a row without a 50. He will threaten the all time record in the 5th test if he's picked again for that (and fails to hit a 50 second inns of this game)

 

[Black_Warrior]

Pant looks like a good fielder rather than a good keeper. Okay for LOs but bring back Saha ffs

 

[Hicheal Michael]

Where are all the Shastri haters now?

Disappeared like a tracer bullet once India started playing well lol

 

[Top_Cat]

Said it last Test, saying it again, I know he's 12 years old but Pant's gonna cost India a Test.

That said, Indian bowlers have absolutely nailed their lines this morning. Look well-drilled too.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Damn it Pant!

for a moment I thought this was Shri live posting his date

 

[Jack1]

Where are all the Shastri haters now?

Disappeared like a tracer bullet once India started playing well lol

India are a good side. Check my post history and you'll see I've been saying it the whole series. Just some muddled selections and thinking at times earlier on in the series.

 

[Black_Warrior]

I guess you could attribute the losses in the first couple of Tests to the batting lineup not having gotten enough practice in these conditions, but I'd disagree with that. They can practise for a year but they'd always need some luck against someone like Anderson. Dhawan/Rahul/Pujara/Rahane can be decent batsmen for us (and even very good in Asia), but they will collapse from time to time in these conditions. And Vijay basically looked well past it.

Every team is susceptible to a collapse.Anywhere. Anytime. India collapsed in West Indies once in 2016 but still won the series.

And yes you need luck.No more on this series than any other series. But think of the first Test, if there was one partnership with Kohli from any other batsman just like there was in the 3rd Test, and India had even a 100 run lead, this could very well have been 2-1 India's way now.