*Official* India Tour of England 2018

[Singh767]

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.
- 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.

But literally any batsman who comes in for England does s h i t e its a guarantee, there is literally 0 good batsman in the reserves. There is nothing to suggest Burns will do better than all the Stonemans Comptons etc.
Might as well just throw in Morgan, Roy - not as if the traditional first class players will do anything.
But saying that England is by far the hardest country to bat in and open in, so it will always be tough for an opener here. Plus, this is a f***in good seam attack india have produced

 

[Starfighter]

If India screw this up they should hang themselves from shame.

 

[Hicheal Michael]

Bell currently 89*

 

[vcs]

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.

Yes the first Test was a big missed chance but what can you do. Any team that ever loses a close Test will say that. If the other batsmen chip in, who knows whether Kohli still gets 150 batting in ODI mode with the tail.

2nd Test was just an awful performance all round across 2 batting innings, that was far more concerning.

 

[Starfighter]

But literally any batsman who comes in for England does s h i t e its a guarantee, there is literally 0 good batsman in the reserves. There is nothing to suggest Burns will do better than all the Stonemans Comptons etc.
Might as well just throw in Morgan, Roy - not as if the traditional first class players will do anything.

That's not a good excuse not to pick him. If you don't pick someone then you'll never know how they are going to go, and in this case it seems silly to not pick the guy who is performing the best out of the potential candidates and instead go with proven failures at test level. I have no sympathy for those saying there are no options when they haven't tried all of them.

Also, the problem with traditional first class players is that there don't seem to be any. There's no gritty Trottish presence at three, it's just strokemakers. The county teams need to pick some grinders.

 

[Jack1]

But literally any batsman who comes in for England does s h i t e its a guarantee, there is literally 0 good batsman in the reserves. There is nothing to suggest Burns will do better than all the Stonemans Comptons etc.
Might as well just throw in Morgan, Roy - not as if the traditional first class players will do anything.
But saying that England is by far the hardest country to bat in and open in, so it will always be tough for an opener here. Plus, this is a f***in good seam attack india have produced

Yes there is. He averages 10 more than Stoneman and Jennings in FC cricket.

You are acting like their FC records are comparable. They aren't at all.

Roy and Morgan aren't openers in FC cricket, nor are they proven in FC cricket in any position in the batting order. Burns has been the shining light in FC cricket with the bat this season. He's captaining his side top of the CC1 and his FC career (and season) stats are far superior to Jennings, Stoneman, Hameed, Gubbins or whoever else you want to mention. If you don't follow the county game I'm surprised you're replying to me with stuff like Roy and Morgan, it makes no sense.

 

[Jack1]

That's not a good excuse not to pick him. If you don't pick someone then you'll never know how they are going to go, and in this case it seems silly to not pick the guy who is performing the best out of the potential candidates and instead go with proven failures at test level. I have no sympathy for those saying there are no options when they haven't tried all of them.

I don't know why he replied to be honest. He clearly doesn't realise that Burns was the obvious pick even before Stoneman made his test debut. Why they are picking openers who average sub 35 in FC cricket bewilders me. Burns is averaging almost 45 and they continue to ignore him.

 

[Cruxdude]

People are being very harsh on Pant here. That catch was pretty difficult. Still wish he had held on but saying he is losing us a test match anytime is just too harsh.

 

[OverratedSanity]

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

Worst part of this is that people have already forgotten that Saha exists and was the number 1 choice. When he recovers from his injury he no longer might be.

 

[Hicheal Michael]

wtf happens to these openers once they get dropped? jennings is the only one i can think of who has been recalled, though he looked a better player in the first stint.

i am not overly familiar with this hong kong tournament, though i have an ever growing suspicion that may be the answer to my question...

 

[MW1304]

I can't even sort of remember what it's like to have a top order at this point.

 

[Bijed]

wtf happens to these openers once they get dropped? jennings is the only one i can think of who has been recalled, though he looked a better player in the first stint.

Compton got recalled, though he batted at 3 second time around. Mostly it seems these days that once someone gets dropped from the test side they tend to go back to being pretty mediocre in the CC (that's my impression anyway)

 

[cnerd123]

wtf happens to these openers once they get dropped? jennings is the only one i can think of who has been recalled, though he looked a better player in the first stint.

i am not overly familiar with this hong kong tournament, though i have an ever growing suspicion that may be the answer to my question...

The Hong Kong Sixes will not feature an English team this year to my understanding, but they are always welcome at the HKT20 Blitz

 

[Bijed]

I know the series isn't over, but according to cricinfo:

Here's a stat for you. The average of England's top four in this series is their worst in any series since 1934-35.

 

[wpdavid]

If India screw this up they should hang themselves from shame.

Yeah, they're looking much the better of the two teams now. I'd be highly surprised if they didn't end up being the first team in history to win 3-2 after being 2 down overseas.

 

[Top_Cat]

People are being very harsh on Pant here. That catch was pretty difficult. Still wish he had held on but saying he is losing us a test match anytime is just too harsh.

For you or me, yes. For a Test 'keeper, should snaffle it. He dropped the same bloke who went onto a ton last Test and it only didn't matter because his team were so far ahead of the game. As we've seen, tons are at a premium this series. Kidding yourself if you think it's anything but a huge miss.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I know the series isn't over, but according to cricinfo:

A series in which England kept sending this guy with a FC average of 11 out at 3

 

[cnerd123]

A series in which England kept sending this guy with a FC average of 11 out at 3

The Keaton Jennings of his time

 

[Stapel]

I've missed most of the build-up. Why is Woakes out?

 

[Starfighter]

Yeah, they're looking much the better of the two teams now. I'd be highly surprised if they didn't end up being the first team in history to win 3-2 after being 2 down overseas.

Second.