*Official* India tour of Ireland and England 2022

[Shady Slim]

Incredibly depressing result. Being ahead for 3 days but getting wrecked in under 4 sessions to lose is the stuff nightmares are made of.

But my word this England side is playing some incredible cricket. Nothing makes sense anymore. Too soon to say if they've revolutionized the game or it's just a streak of freaky results. Both NZ and India had terrible 3rd innings with the bat, and both bowled awfully at times. However that is in no small part down to the pressure put on them by England, the batters especially. Bowlers and captains just are not used to this sort of aggression in Tests, and they've been clueless on how to respond. Root and Bairstow are batting on a whole other level now too. This may not be sustainable once (if?) they come back down to Earth, and once teams figure out how to bowl in the 4th innings again.

India need a lot of soul searching. There is definite scarring since the two SA tests as well, and the team seems to lack the fire they had under Shastri's coaching. Dravid hasn't really impressed as coach yet, Rohit has not played a game since becoming captain, and Kohli is ****ing useless. Just acts like a prat for the cameras when a wicket falls and has been a non presence otherwise. Real lack of leadership in this group atm.

i think it's neither though. worst thing other sides can do is simply look at these results and say durrrr it's clobberin time!!

these have not really been matches like aus pak at the gabba 2017 (https://www.espncricinfo.com/series...a-vs-pakistan-1st-test-1000881/full-scorecard) where if the pakistan team had chased that it would've been based on bizarro, excellent contributions the entire way down. england have always had a great home bowling attack that's nothing new. they have always had a star batsman, but who was burdened with the captaincy and the natural ups and downs of form too. he's on the up again. they've found another contributor with the bat that being jonny red. they still have no openers. there's still a question mark at spinner (though i do hope leach can get it done personally because i feel for him after how he was treated by root's captaincy). stokes is in solid form with the bat, but he's still just coming back in to bowling. there is a question mark at keeper bat. and not to mention all these wins have come against megaminnow opposition... definitely there are great signs for england but there's still a lot they need fixed

 

[TheJediBrah]

i think it's neither though. worst thing other sides can do is simply look at these results and say durrrr it's clobberin time!!

these have not really been matches like aus pak at the gabba 2017 (https://www.espncricinfo.com/series...a-vs-pakistan-1st-test-1000881/full-scorecard) where if the pakistan team had chased that it would've been based on bizarro, excellent contributions the entire way down. england have always had a great home bowling attack that's nothing new. they have always had a star batsman, but who was burdened with the captaincy and the natural ups and downs of form too. he's on the up again. they've found another contributor with the bat that being jonny red. they still have no openers. there's still a question mark at spinner (though i do hope leach can get it done personally because i feel for him after how he was treated by root's captaincy). stokes is in solid form with the bat, but he's still just coming back in to bowling. there is a question mark at keeper bat. and not to mention all these wins have come against megaminnow opposition... definitely there are great signs for england but there's still a lot they need fixed

Well said. Perfect example of a couple great players, or players in great form, covering over cracks and making things look a lot better than they really are as a whole. Lose Root and Bairstow and the English side is ****ed

 

[Nintendo]

Well said. Perfect example of a couple great players, or players in great form, covering over cracks and making things look a lot better than they really are as a whole. Lose Root and Bairstow and the English side is ****ed

Ehh, get rid of those two and you still have pope, stokes and foakes who at various points in the summer have made important contributions. The only person who has done next to nothing this summer is Crawley.

 

[TheJediBrah]

you still have pope, stokes and foakes

world beaters the lot of them

 

[Daemon]

i think it's neither though. worst thing other sides can do is simply look at these results and say durrrr it's clobberin time!!

these have not really been matches like aus pak at the gabba 2017 (https://www.espncricinfo.com/series...a-vs-pakistan-1st-test-1000881/full-scorecard) where if the pakistan team had chased that it would've been based on bizarro, excellent contributions the entire way down. england have always had a great home bowling attack that's nothing new. they have always had a star batsman, but who was burdened with the captaincy and the natural ups and downs of form too. he's on the up again. they've found another contributor with the bat that being jonny red. they still have no openers. there's still a question mark at spinner (though i do hope leach can get it done personally because i feel for him after how he was treated by root's captaincy). stokes is in solid form with the bat, but he's still just coming back in to bowling. there is a question mark at keeper bat. and not to mention all these wins have come against megaminnow opposition... definitely there are great signs for england but there's still a lot they need fixed

i get where you're coming from, but there's something intangible here. lees/crawley wouldn't have made that match winning opening stand if there wasn't.

it's probably unsustainable/can't be replicated everywhere/may lead to egg on face type of stuff down the road, but there is no disputing some sort of big time change in mentality and approach which has for now translated into pretty incredible performances on field.

 

[Flem274*]

i think what we're looking at here lads is shady slipping into classic 'if it didn't happen to australia, it didn't happen' chat. i know nz don't get to write their own narrative but i'm not having india going from 'best in show (allegedly)' to 'megaminnow'. choose one *****.

let the aussies have it i guess, they need it more than we do. they lived under ScoMo.

 

[Prince EWS]

i think what we're looking at here lads is shady slipping into classic 'if it didn't happen to australia, it didn't happen' chat. i know nz don't get to write their own narrative but i'm not having india going from 'best in show (allegedly)' to 'megaminnow'. choose one ****s.

let the aussies have it i guess, they need it more than we do. they lived under ScoMo.

Haha I assume he was trolling by calling the finalists from the last WTC megaminnows. NZ haven't been good since then and I think India have declined slightly as well but they're both still serious opposition.

 

[chris.hinton]

i now wonder who steve is but i should probably not push my luck

I started to write about Steve Smith then i saw your comment

 

[chris.hinton]

T20 time. England will win, India will play well but Buttler will get a 100 and take the game away from them

 

[Shady Slim]

Haha I assume he was trolling by calling the finalists from the last WTC megaminnows. NZ haven't been good since then and I think India have declined slightly as well but they're both still serious opposition.

yeah this is correct the megaminnow but was obviously a joke lol (but trust the fragile kiwu to take it seriously ? ) india i still rate ason the whole better than we are bc the cumsquad hasn't yet shown they can't beat a prank opposition (though not their fault, we have only played prank opposition)

i get where you're coming from, but there's something intangible here. lees/crawley wouldn't have made that match winning opening stand if there wasn't.

it's probably unsustainable/can't be replicated everywhere/may lead to egg on face type of stuff down the road, but there is no disputing some sort of big time change in mentality and approach which has for now translated into pretty incredible performances on field.

you've harvested a whole heap of likes out of this but i never denied this! cnerd put out the (obviously extreme) juxtaposition that it's either revolutionising cricket or a streak of lucky results, i said it's neither. as usual when someone is right, which you are here, you're agreeing with my post

 

[honestbharani]

i now wonder who steve is but i should probably not push my luck

 

[Starfighter]

So is the Thakur as test allrounder experiment over? He was under bowled and very expensive in any case, and scored stuff all runs. I never thought his batting would have any permanence with an FC average of 16. I don't see the rationale for picking him if he's not going take the full role of a bowler, and he's back in the queue for that.

Ashwin certainly would have been a lot more useful on a pitch that was flat and dry for most of the match and never demanded four fast bowlers. I don't know why both Ashwin and Jadeja don't play in every test where the pitch is distinguishable from the outfield. Jadeja is quite good enough to bat seven , which is just as well as his bowling seems to be getting less penetrative.

 

[honestbharani]

I wont write off Lord based on one bad test, literally his first real bad one since debuting.

 

[Starfighter]

To be honest I think he's over performed considering his quite lengthy domestic record. It's been entertaining but I'm not sure how long it will last.

More to the point, on that pitch he did not add more than Ashwin might have and was always going to be underused with the ball. Ashwin might have provide the nous to get wickets, though he hasn't always stood up where expected.

 

[Xix2565]

Thakur as an experiment has lasted all of 7 Tests (excluding his debut), all in Australia/England/South Africa. And to be fair it's easy to look back and pick out flaws.

 

[thakzz]

This is bit fraudulent win! India won the test series last year 2-1 and it was covid that stop them, so England should accept.

 

[ataraxia]

Thakur being mauled by CW after one test is kinda funny. Not that I know much about him or the current Indian team, but I do know enough to see why: a lot of very good options. It's the same situation with (mainly pace) bowlers for NZ, Aus, and Eng also - a lot of players have done really well by all standards for recent debutants, only to get dropped. I wonder if any strategy on how to use the amount bowlers in an effective fashion floats up to the top. (I hope the strategy isn't to pick the ones who'll pester the umps to change the ball the most.)

 

[ataraxia]

This is bit fraudulent win! India won the test series last year 2-1 and it was covid that stop them, so England should accept.

impartial cricket fan

i shouldnt feed troll, i know...

 

[Daemon]

3wpm, solid average, 3 game changing knocks and an almost match winning 6-fer in SA.

He's actually done an incredible job, but should probably just be a backup to Pandya/2nd spinner going forward.

 

[Xix2565]

Pandya playing Test cricket again is a pipe dream at this stage. Not sure if he's got the form or desire to succeed in red ball cricket again, and so far the management doesn't seem to consider it.