*Official* India Tour of England 2018

[theegyptian]

Moeen should never have been left out in England. This should have been obvious and many of us were saying it all summer.

Australian conditions =/= English conditions. It would be like Australia leaving Usman Khawaja out of the team for Home tests because he was terrible on a tour to Sri Lanka. Dumb.

Disagree. They got it right to leave him out vs Pakistan. I would have brought him back for the first test vs India though.

Moeen's confidence was at rock bottom after the winter and then he had a spell at the IPL where he barely played. To stick him into the test team at that point with no fc cricket behind him, and no preparation time could have been disastrous.

He needed the break that he got from fc/test cricket. It allowed him to ease back into the international fold and think about how to move forward as a cricketer. It also afforded him the time to play county cricket and build his confidence again.

 

[vcs]

India's batting actually did worse than my worst fears. That's quite something.

There was a line in cricinfo which was pretty apt. England didn't bat better than India, they just had more batting (lower order, Curran/Stokes/Buttler chipping in). One thing which would have helped is if the batting had collectively performed better in either Edgbaston or Southampton. Unsuprisingly, we won in Trent Bridge where there was a collective batting effort.

 

[R!TTER]

There was a line in cricinfo which was pretty apt. England didn't bat better than India, they just had more batting (lower order, Curran/Stokes/Buttler chipping in). One thing which would have helped is if the batting had collectively performed better in either Edgbaston or Southampton. Unsuprisingly, we won in Trent Bridge where there was a collective batting effort.

Our lower order didn't contribute at all, like it did vs SA, NZ, Eng, Aus in India. It's easy to forget the contributions from Jadeja, Jayant & Ashwin - in that order at crucial times in each of these series.

 

[ankitj]

Jayant. Where is he? I in fact forgot he even once played for India.

 

[StephenZA]

Well done to England. Been a fantastic series overall... particularly as a semi-neutral.

I do think that India need to go back and start playing 6 batsmen; 5 batsmen may work in India with the strength of India batting at home, but I think it is the wrong move overseas. They have a decent bowling attack and need to trust it.

 

[Shri]

Kuldeep should have played instead of Ashwin.

 

[CricAddict]

Kuldeep should have played instead of Ashwin.

Would have extended the tail further. Jadeja should have played.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Kuldeep should have played instead of Ashwin.

That feels like a retrospective idea, or was that how you were thinking before the test

 

[StephenZA]

Why is everybody trying to replace the bowlers when both the teams batting was suspect? There was not an innings >300 and the pitch was better than that.

 

[ankitj]

Not bowlers. Just Ashwin.

 

[cnerd123]

Ashwin didn't bowl badly enough to be dropped. Kuldeep got his chance and was awful.

 

[StephenZA]

Not bowlers. Just Ashwin.

While I appreciate Ashwin did not bowl at his best; it does feel like 'ignoring the elephant in the room'.

 

[cnerd123]

While I appreciate Ashwin did not bowl at his best; it does feel like 'ignoring the elephant in the room'.

We don't have any backup batsmen who could come in and do better. We do have two backup spinners. Hence the sentiment.

I would drop Ash for the 5th Test, just because it's a dead rubber and he isn't really fit. Wouldn't be against giving Kuldeep another game to get him some experience, but personally hope they pick Jadeja and he picks up a jammy 5-fer to go alongside his 5-fer in SA, thus proving himself to be the superior spinner.

 

[Flem274*]

please pick jadeja. he's a genuine opportunist. i want to see the 'put it down the other end of the dustbowl as fast as possible' OP hack merchant brutally exposed

 

[R!TTER]

please pick jadeja. he's a genuine opportunist. i want to see the 'put it down the other end of the dustbowl as fast as possible' OP hack merchant brutally exposed

May I know which team you support before brutally exposing them as HTB, FTB or fair weather bullies

 

[Shri]

Look at his username ffs.

 

[Flem274*]

May I know which team you support before brutally exposing them as HTB, FTB or fair weather bullies

greg ritter the memory of your crappy FPR car spearing off at Barbagallo 05 is forever etched into my memory

 

[R!TTER]

Look at his username ffs.

NZ don't count, I'm thinking someone historically outside the bottom half.

greg ritter the memory of your crappy FPR car spearing off at Barbagallo 05 is forever etched into my memory

I dunno what to say, I have no recollection of my past life.

 

[Starfighter]

greg ritter the memory of your crappy FPR car spearing off at Barbagallo 05 is forever etched into my memory

I'm absolutely loving this line of banter.

 

[Flem274*]

I'm thinking someone historically outside the bottom half.

i thought you were an indian fan?

let us all take a moment to remember 2002, the year ganguly spent more time crying about the pitches than in the middle and never forget this episode of border patrol