*Official* India Tour of England 2018

[flibbertyjibber]

Serious point, has there ever been a number 1 ranked team with a weaker batting line up than India?

8 innings and 4 times bowled out for less than 200 so far. Least they should manage 200 in both innings next week on the highway in London.

 

[Niall]

Serious point, has there ever been a number 1 ranked team with a weaker batting line up than India?

8 innings and 4 times bowled out for less than 200 so far. Least they should manage 200 in both innings next week on the highway in London.

India 2011?

 

[Jay London]

Good stuff, hope we get to see Porter in the next match as well as a new opener for Jennings to build on that score with. Wonder who we'll get at 3? Probably Mo, although he is going to need a strong opening partnership behind him. Gripping in the end but I still stand by the fact that had India even won 2 tosses this series then they'd either be ahead or series level. The two teams are even in these conditions, India have an exceptional seam attack. Jadeja probably should have played. Kohli is absolutely streets ahead of Root as a batsman. Rashid, Cook and Bairstow out. In Porter, Pope and Burns.

India will rue their missed opportunities in this series. Should have won game one. Lost every toss. Missed their best bowler in these conditions and second best for two tests. Should have batted better first innings. Ashwin injured too had a major impact. England were there for the taking, but alas, everything will be hunky dory until they get hammered in Sri Lanka.

Agree entirely. Someone conditions are freaky in England and favour one team or another. If the series was to start again I wouldn't put a lot of money on either team - they seem very well matched. Great series - perhaps a pity the conditions have been so variable.

 

[harsh.ag]

Excellent job by England. Especially Moeen. He's special in England. Hope they don't make the mistake of dropping him in home tests again.

Off topic but I really wish some captain would have the balls to reverse the batting order someday in a chase like this.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Good stuff, hope we get to see Porter in the next match as well as a new opener for Jennings to build on that score with. Wonder who we'll get at 3? Probably Mo, although he is going to need a strong opening partnership behind him. Gripping in the end but I still stand by the fact that had India even won 2 tosses this series then they'd either be ahead or series level. The two teams are even in these conditions, India have an exceptional seam attack. Jadeja probably should have played. Kohli is absolutely streets ahead of Root as a batsman. Rashid, Cook and Bairstow out. In Porter, Pope and Burns.

India will rue their missed opportunities in this series. Should have won game one. Lost every toss. Missed their best bowler in these conditions and second best for two tests. Should have batted better first innings. Ashwin injured too had a major impact. England were there for the taking, but alas, everything will be hunky dory until they get hammered in Sri Lanka.

We know everything isn't hunky dory but we are a crap side who have stuffed the number 1 side in the world 3-1 with a test to go. Shows how bad the standard around the world is if this team is beating the number 1 side so easily.

We will get stuffed in Sri Lanka, don't think there is any England fan who thinks different. We are realistic unlike you.

 

[Slifer]

Remember Lara's 688?

This series is Lara-688 for Kohli

No. Silly just no.

 

[Cruxdude]

We know everything isn't hunky dory but we are a crap side who have stuffed the number 1 side in the world 3-1 with a test to go. Shows how bad the standard around the world is if this team is beating the number 1 side so easily.

We will get stuffed in Sri Lanka, don't think there is any England fan who thinks different. We are realistic unlike you.

I wouldn't say England stuffed India except at Lords. Standards are lower but I think India is deservedly number 1 and is actually doing much better than most teams when touring.

 

[Burner]

India should try out Shaw in place of Rahul for the last test. Having watched Rahul in that Aus vs Ind home series, it is baffling to me how he can be this terrible. He was never in contention but in hindsight I think Shaw would have outperformed Rahul if he was given the whole series. I mean it's a low bar but still.

 

[Slifer]

Smith can't be considered way better than Kohli at this point. The gap is minimal since Kohli now has scored runs everywhere.

Smith isn't way better but even with kohli going through a purple patch, he still averages 3 runs less than Smith away. Oh and overall Smith out averages kohli by 7 runs. That's akin to the difference in average between Sachin and lara at the end of the 90s. Nobody thought lara was better than sachin even with Lara '99.

 

[Top_Cat]

So what all did we predict correctly?

1) Sam Curran to **** us over with the bat in both innings
2) Moeen Ali to **** us over with the ball in both innings
3) India to blow the chance to get a big lead in the 2nd innings (ChePu did his best to prove us wrong tho)
4) Ashwin to be disappointing with the 3rd innings when we need him the most
5) The runchase to implode once Kohli got out

Gambhiring my ass

Nuh uh, you don’t get to claim predictive genius when you were all pissing and moaning and relentless negativity after Lords.

Fight me, ****s.

 

[Slifer]

I wouldn't say England stuffed India except at Lords. Standards are lower but I think India is deservedly number 1 and is actually doing much better than most teams when touring.

Awta. Certainly competed better in RSA and the UK than vice versa. Plus RSA the only other team competing for number one, just got hammered in SL.

 

[Bijed]

Just noticed this from the cricinfo commentary at the start of the final innings

We hear the last 24 reviews from either team have been for absolutely nothing

One successful review since then, but another 5 (I think) unsuccessful. No idea what the numbers are for the series before the run of 24 started.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Picking up one test per away test series is reasonably good going in this day and age.

 

[weldone]

Off topic but I really wish some captain would have the balls to reverse the batting order someday in a chase like this.

not as drastic but I was thinking of sending Pant as a hitter at no. 4 today

 

[akilana]

Smith isn't way better but even with kohli going through a purple patch, he still averages 3 runs less than Smith away. Oh and overall Smith out averages kohli by 7 runs. That's akin to the difference in average between Sachin and lara at the end of the 90s. Nobody thought lara was better than sachin even with Lara '99.

S Waugh had better record than Lara and nobody thought he was a better batsman.

 

[Cruxdude]

Our pacers have been pretty good but their lack of run scoring is hurting us bad when we have **** openers and an unreliable "allrounder". Bhuvi is missed and so is Jadeja. Maybe Jadeja in place of Pandya would have been the way to go especially considering the track. Sam Curran is special. He was the difference between the teams in two tests.

 

[Larwood's_boots]

Our pacers have been pretty good but their lack of run scoring is hurting us bad when we have **** openers and an unreliable "allrounder". Bhuvi is missed and so is Jadeja. Maybe Jadeja in place of Pandya would have been the way to go especially considering the track. Sam Curran is special. He was the difference between the teams in two tests.

Is it just a question of the different conditions and the moving ball? As someone who was marginally obsessed the Indian batting line up of the early 00's when I was in my twenties (Sewag, Ganguly, Sachin, Dravid and especially Laxmann) this lot have been a real disappointment to watch- especially since the team seems a lot more well balanced in other areas.

 

[Cruxdude]

Is it just a question of the different conditions and the moving ball? As someone who was marginally obsessed the Indian batting line up of the early 00's when I was in my twenties (Sewag, Ganguly, Sachin, Dravid and especially Laxmann) this lot have been a real disappointment to watch- especially since the team seems a lot more well balanced in other areas.

I think our current batsmen except Kohli and Pujara are just not as good as the earlier generation. The conditions do matter a lot because if you play this series in India you would have seen a lot more runs from Rahul and Dhawan. Also with Pandya not pulling his weight or any weight and the WK being a rookie who is probably more a white ball specialist (should give him time thoiugh) we just do not have the batting power to win as much as we should with this bowling attack.

 

[Cruxdude]

Also how good is Stokes. Knuckled down after failing with the bat in the first few innings and has made valuable contributions. And his bowling is just excellent. The ball to get Rahane out in the first innings was just so good. Hope India wins the last test at least. Losing this series 4-1 would just not reflect the quality of the sides.

 

[smash84]

It's that man mo' again