*Official Third Test at Headingley* 25-29 August

[Nintendo]

I look forward to him acting like king **** with RCB a month from now.

Hard to act like king **** when you've had a team full of international legends of the format like AB, Gayle, watson, quinton de kock and indian guys like rahul and even kohli himself and still failed to win a single trophy in 10 years.

 

[Spark]

Yeah but Root does and there isn’t really any need for them to give him a 30 run head start by leaving it open for an hour every time he comes to the crease.

To be fair, it's a risk/reward thing with Root. When he's on, it's a shot that allows him to effortlessly rotate strike against even good balls and makes him arguably the hardest batsman to bowl to in the world, because you can't tie him down. But it's also a shot that gets him out a lot, even when set.

 

[honestbharani]

Amazed that none of India's batsmen have understood that third man can get you bucketloads of runs in England. Did you not watch Dravid in 2011 or Bell in the 2013 Ashes ffs? But muh coverdrive.

Even Vijay got a lot of runs there. But to be fair, all our guys are intent on the forward press, then the third man scoring option is what leads to days like yesterday.

 

[Spark]

Haha, and literally as I post, Root does exactly that to a perfectly reasonable ball and gets an effortless two. Miserable experience trying to bowl to this but it does keep you in the game as a bowler.

 

[honestbharani]

To be fair, it's a risk/reward thing with Root. When he's on, it's a shot that allows him to effortlessly rotate strike against even good balls and makes him arguably the hardest batsman to bowl to in the world, because you can't tie him down. But it's also a shot that gets him out a lot, even when set.

Yeah, just as likely this time next year the discussion is about how it is getting him out for low scores. Form is fickle in this sport but apparently, it is something we at CW don't learn either.

 

[Apex Predator]

The backfoot thing is a good point. Virat is the only one of the fab 4 who is a front foot batsman.

Quite a big drawback actually. Credit to Kohli he has made a career outta it. Micheal Holding also said the same in 2018 tour. Probably his childhood coach had a role in it.
Newer recruits like Gill Shaw have great backfoot play.

 

[andruid]

Would have been nice if one of the openers kicked to a ton. Still England's match to lose.

 

[Spark]

Even Vijay got a lot of runs there. But to be fair, all our guys are intent on the forward press, then the third man scoring option is what leads to days like yesterday.

Vijay is the one Indian batsman of the last ten years who I'd say excelled at that sort of dab behind square on the offside for singles tbh. Drove us to distraction with it in several series.

 

[Spark]

The backfoot thing is a good point. Virat is the only one of the fab 4 who is a front foot batsman.

I'd guess this is a straightforward function of the high quality of pace bowling and the return of spicy pitches/conditions across the world (not to mention D/N Tests); it's not an era where the Matthew Hayden types are going to excel with the amount of movement on offer.

 

[Calm_profit]

Hard to act like king **** when you've had a team full of international legends of the format like AB, Gayle, watson, quinton de kock and indian guys like rahul and even kohli himself and still failed to win a single trophy in 10 years.

The guy in your profile pic as well ?.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Root's in once in a lifetime touch. Bat flow is beautiful right now, all triggers firing at just the right instant.

 

[Apex Predator]

I could swear Kohli could do all that once. You think he orchestrated all those chases in the subcontinent without touch behind the wicket? He's just confused with his strokeplay atm.

He may have played a few of those but generally he doesn't.. He does play square cut against spinners.
You don't see many backfoot punches as well which Sachin used to play effortlessly. Sehwag was Awesome as well.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Would have been nice if one of the openers kicked to a ton. Still England's match to lose.

Lose? As mercurial as this English batting can be, this one's an innings win.

 

[Spark]

To be honest, I know he's considered pretty much uncopyable, but I do wonder if it might be worthwhile for some batsman to try taking a leaf out of Smith's book from 2019 and playing literally everything off the back foot if at all possible. It can't be that crazy an idea.

 

[Apex Predator]

Virat and Babar are both ff batsmen

Babar has quite pleasing square cut & he played few of those in that 2nd inns in recent test vs WI.
Probably doesn't plays square drives that much & prefers to score in the V.

 

[Spark]

Geez that's a class shot.

 

[Calm_profit]

Odi-esque half century from Root.

 

[honestbharani]

I know the attention has been on Ishant, but Siraj has picked a very bad time to go missing as well. Just seems to be lacking a bit of the zip. TBF, this is a pitch that famously aids the bowlers who can bowl it slower through the air, but still. The number of loose balls we have seen from Siraj, Ishant and Jadeja in this innings is very unlike all 3 of them. Too many unforced errors, just like with the bat.

Shami bowling 4 balls often and giving away runs is pretty expected in these conditions. His role is literally to play the odd unplayable ball to well set batsmen but he is not gonna run through anyone. But the other 3 going missing this innings has dented whatever little room there was for us to get back into the game somehow.

 

[BoyBrumby]

So nice Root coming in with 159 on the board instead of just 9.

Yeah, Zaltzman on the Beeb's feed has just pointed out it's as rare as hen's teeth:

Joe Root has only come in with 150 on the board once since 2016. That was against Ireland in the second innings at Lord's in 2019.

The last time it happened in the first innings was in Abu Dhabi in October 2015.

The last time he came in with more than 100 on the board was the third Test against West Indies last summer. England have played 13 Tests since then.

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah, Zaltzman on the Beeb's feed has just pointed out it's as rare as hen's teeth:

Man how good was it listening to Norcross, Mann and Zaltzman actually enjoying the cricket for 45 minutes this afternoon, before miserable prick Vaughan dropped in and they all had to talk about something else lest he venture an opinion.