• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

*Official* 2nd Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, 13 - 17 Feb 2021

Red_Ink_Squid

Global Moderator
I asked this earlier, but is he suspect against pace/swing or something? He looks absolutely natural against the spinners and is brilliant behind the wickets and I say this as one of the biggest Buttler supporters here, Foakes should never be dropped for either Bairstow or him, unless he is really bad at playing pace and/or swing.
I'm not aware of him having a rep of struggling with pace/swing at County level, with the caveats that you don't face a lot of 90mph bowlers there and also his home ground is The Oval which is flat for an English ground. In England's last tour to Oz, Trevor Bayliss was talking him up as the first reserve batsman (not even keeper) so they can't have had concerns about him vs pace at that stage.

After his debut series in SL a couple of years back (where he was MotS) we next toured WIndies and were crushed in the first two Tests. Bayliss took this as a sign that England needed to #batdeep again, dropped Foakes and put put the gloves back on Bairstow. This is the first Test he's played since then. If there are any question marks about his batting they come from those two Tests in the Caribbean but I think mostly it's just that the England set up are super high on Buttler and Bairstow - and Foakes is a relative outsider.
 
Last edited:

Arachnodouche

International Captain
I'm reading the ECB penalized Somerset for preparing turners. Gets rid of the last bit of sympathy you may have had for the tourists. How bad was that wicket?
 

BSM

U19 Cricketer
Think the most effective approach now on this wicket seems to be to come down the track and meet the ball before it spins. Sibley was doing it quite well until he got out a bit unfortunately. That Sharma innings is looking top quality now (it looked that way yesterday as well tbf)
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
I'm reading the ECB penalized Somerset for preparing turners. Gets rid of the last bit of sympathy you may have had for the tourists. How bad was that wicket?
It's been like that in the English game for years. I remember the howls of anguish when Surrey had the temerity used to produce pitches that gave some support for Saqlain and Salisbury, although I don't think we were ever docked points. But the culture of the game in England is at best suspicious and at worst downright hostile to giving spinners any encouragement before lunch on Day 4 of the county games.
 

Gremlin

U19 Vice-Captain
I've thoroughly enjoyed reading the opinions and points made at this stage of the 2nd Test.

My humble opinion, for what it's worth, is that the pitch has played similar for both sides therefore the toss has less value after both sides have played their first innings but the 4th innings may prove a different story. Many commentators, former players and educated pundits on this forum have said it's not aTeat Match standard deck but to be honest I've not seen any danger to the batsmen and the bounce has not varied too much. Players have made a score on it despite the spin.

What we can't detract from is that Rohit has played supremely well, supported beautifully by Rahane and Pant in their differing styles and India's bowlers have out performed England's so far in both seam and spin.

England have been on the wrong end of some abject umpire decisions but I doubt the overall effect on the state of the match would have significantly been altered had the decisions been correct.

England have not played to their potential thus far whilst Rohit, Ashwin and Pant have had blinders with good team support.

I doubt that England can win or draw from this position but at least they can fight. There are positives to be taken with application. I also feel Anderson and Bess would have made similar impact as Broad and Moeen has had in the first innings.

Oh, final point. Buttler is some player. And has kept perfectly well this winter. Impeccably in fact.

Foakes is better though.

There may still be room for Buttler to bat at 6 going forward but England look better with Foakes behind the stumps. Tough calls for the selectors!
 

Jack1

International Debutant
Buttler has batted too well recently to be left out. You’d have to pick both if Foakes plays well for the remainder of the series. You’d have to hide Buttler in the field though as he can’t catch a thing without the gloves
 

custodiansofcricket

Cricket Spectator
I've thoroughly enjoyed reading the opinions and points made at this stage of the 2nd Test.

My humble opinion, for what it's worth, is that the pitch has played similar for both sides therefore the toss has less value after both sides have played their first innings but the 4th innings may prove a different story. Many commentators, former players and educated pundits on this forum have said it's not aTeat Match standard deck but to be honest I've not seen any danger to the batsmen and the bounce has not varied too much. Players have made a score on it despite the spin.

What we can't detract from is that Rohit has played supremely well, supported beautifully by Rahane and Pant in their differing styles and India's bowlers have out performed England's so far in both seam and spin.

England have been on the wrong end of some abject umpire decisions but I doubt the overall effect on the state of the match would have significantly been altered had the decisions been correct.

England have not played to their potential thus far whilst Rohit, Ashwin and Pant have had blinders with good team support.

I doubt that England can win or draw from this position but at least they can fight. There are positives to be taken with application. I also feel Anderson and Bess would have made similar impact as Broad and Moeen has had in the first innings.

Oh, final point. Buttler is some player. And has kept perfectly well this winter. Impeccably in fact.

Foakes is better though.

There may still be room for Buttler to bat at 6 going forward but England look better with Foakes behind the stumps. Tough calls for the selectors!
Good post but some very evident Anglo bias creeping in.

England have actually played to their potential this match. There is a reason the batsmen (barring Root) and spinners have their averages I the 30s.

Last match was very much the exception and England punching above their weight. Not only in terms of getting the best batting conditions but India's team composition getting screwed due to Axar's injury. The three mainline bowlers in Ashwin, Ishant and Bumrah bowled well while England feasted on a guy who wasn't in the squad (Nadeem) and a net bowler India had to play at the Gabba due to lack of options (Sundar).

As soon as Axar is back with his control and lack of freebies, England don't even look like scoring a run. Axar at one end also makes Ashwin more potent.

As far as blinders go, Rohit I can agree as he had centuries before, but none this good on such a surface. But Ashwin and Pant?

Ashwin averages 25 with nearly 400 wickets with an average in India around 20-21. This is very much the norm, not the previous match. I mean he literally did the same thing in the second innings of the last match.

Same with Pant. He just did something like this the match before. And the match before. And the match before.

The team that hasn't played to their potential is India. India's two best batsmen - Kohli and Pujara have excellent records and more so in India. I don't think they can be both kept quiet over the duration of a series (both have had fifties but I expect bigger things).

This series is looking a lot like the 17 Aus in Ind, 14 Ind in Eng, 20 Eng in SA series etc. A good scrappy performance leads to the weaker team upsetting the stronger team. But over a series, the quality of the better team prevails.
 
D

Deleted member 38150

Guest
All this talk of pitch is just tiring..In Adelaide, one session of pitch assisting the home side with a lot of swing robbed India a strong position in that test that far. There was no hue and cry then from the same people who are crying now, that it is unfair for the visitors. When did the SENA countries prepare a pitch that suits visitors really? It is just that now the Asian teams are learning to play well in the conditions given there. But the same teams who visit here expect to be given Home conditions as if it is their birth right.. come on, have some balls and start learning to adapt to the conditions. This kind of crying baby attitude is both hypocritical and childish really..
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Yeah, England played brilliantly in the first test and outplayed us. I dont think we played badly even, so it just shows they were so much better. And tbh, none of the players have actually complained about the pitch too much, except Foakes who seems to be suggesting things happened in this pitch that they never did. We should not confuse the media and ex-players whining as usual to the team complaining about it.

And I agree with Daemon. England played nowhere near to their potential in this match with the bat. The problem for them seems to be the big run scoring options are kinda non-existent outside of Root and Stokes and maybe, Pope, to an extent. Once they get Crawley and Bairstow back for next game, it may seem more balanced.
 

custodiansofcricket

Cricket Spectator
Defs not with the bat.
Naah. Their batting has always been poor against spin. Even in the 2016 series during most of the second innings (and some of the first) they were collapsing to low scores when the pitch had some bite. All the runs they scored were on flattish wickets (similar to the first test first innings). Even in their last innings they scored 170 odd.
 

custodiansofcricket

Cricket Spectator
Yeah, England played brilliantly in the first test and outplayed us. I dont think we played badly even, so it just shows they were so much better. And tbh, none of the players have actually complained about the pitch too much, except Foakes who seems to be suggesting things happened in this pitch that they never did. We should not confuse the media and ex-players whining as usual to the team complaining about it.

And I agree with Daemon. England played nowhere near to their potential in this match with the bat. The problem for them seems to be the big run scoring options are kinda non-existent outside of Root and Stokes and maybe, Pope, to an extent. Once they get Crawley and Bairstow back for next game, it may seem more balanced.
I completely agree they outplayed us but they were greatly advantaged by Axar missing. Without the control Jadeja (and now Axar) brings they had lots of release options in Sundar and Nadeem. The frontline bowlers bowled well. Also no Axar meant no Kuldeep as well.

Kind of like in Aus. After the 36ao, the moment Pant and Gill came in, there wasn't a single bad batting performance (maybe Sydney first innings but even that was decent).
 

Daemon

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Naah. Their batting has always been poor against spin. Even in the 2016 series during most of the second innings (and some of the first) they were collapsing to low scores when the pitch had some bite. All the runs they scored were on flattish wickets (similar to the first test first innings). Even in their last innings they scored 170 odd.
I don’t think 170 is what their average score would be if they replayed that innings a 100x for example. They’re a better team than that.

Only Lawrence looked like he played to his potential. Clueless.

Foakes didn’t even have enough partners so ended up underperforming in a way.
 

custodiansofcricket

Cricket Spectator
I don’t think 170 is what their average score would be if they replayed that innings a 100x for example. They’re a better team than that.

Only Lawrence looked like he played to his potential. Clueless.

Foakes didn’t even have enough partners so ended up underperforming in a way.
Might be around 200 odd at best. And again there was no Axar.
 

Top