I still don’t think India’s defeat in SA was that much of a departure from the results they experienced v NZ in 2020 and at Southampton. They came apart in green, seamy, swingy conditions that could’ve been engineered in a lab to exploit their weaknesses. The MUCH more notable result was the runfest at the Oval in July. That was much more similar to the conditions where India rolled over Australia in 2020/21.
Was Edgbaston, and the ball wasn't exactly 'normal' either.
They were playing with a football right? Certainly looks like it from the 4th innings scorecard.
I somewhat disagree. Yes, the batting lineup fell apart, but they managed to set up competitive totals in SA and England in 2022. Not bowling a team out wasn't a problem India had before.
The SA series was on pitches that had a ton of pace and bounce, it wasn't really the swing/seam that undid our batsmen (unlike the NZ tour) imo. They found Jansen angle across the right handers with bounce and Rabada's lift off a length completely unplayable and the sheer number of times they fended short pitched balls on the body straight to fielders was infuriating to watch. The running theme of the series was that SA had quick tall bowlers that could exploit those conditions to the fullest, while basically all of India's pacers were skiddy ones whose strengths were relatively blunted.
Some of that is also just bad bowling, but football isn't too far off.
Basically India can win every game but still England wud be better if they win a home series against Australia, even if it's just 2-1
Think he might be referring to the crap Dukes that were in use last year in England which basically went soft after 15 overs
Was part of a set of balls that were **** by Dukes standard, where they became useless after 20-30 overs. When combined with flatter wickets vs NZ and India you saw huge middle order stands after the top order basically crawled earlier.
I still find it a little weird that Cummins and co couldn’t find the formula to bounce India into submission in that 2021 series when even Tim Southee was making Kohli look skittish against the short ball a year prior. I get that the wickets that series were pretty flat and Aus missed a trick by not scheduling a test at Perth, but still…
On top of whitewashes in Pakistan and NZ and factoring in just recent form, yeah.
Indian pacers bowled well but not collectively so, more in patches.
Oh that. The fact that a clerical error mixed up a box of Dukes with a box of Kooka’s should only help to make England’s home summer achievements all the more impressive given Anderson’s noted uselessness with the bird ball.
Ngidi. He was literally the difference between the two sides and we played the second test with 10 players as Siraj was injured very early on in the game.
Since June 2022:
You are assuming way too much about a game that is not yet done and yet refusing to acknowledge actual wins and results another side has achieved. Carry on the idiocy.
I mean first you have to consider the difference in AUS and NZ pacers. The big 3 Aussie quicks are all actually big, and generally faster, which on Aussie pitches with bounce makes them extremely difficult to face generally. They're not the swing/seam specialists NZ pacers are. NZ pitches also aren't that bouncy anyway, so that has some effect as well.
That's all they tried to do lol. Their love of the short pitched stuff literally cost them the series, particularly the last two tests. Their batsmen just choked against any spinner we selected.
We had our narrow embarassing moments at times but the lower order has been extra ordinary to bail us out every time we needed them.Since June 2022:
England: 11 tests played, 10 wins, 1 loss. Whitewashed NZ at home, one off test win vs India, beat SA 2-1, whitewashed Pakistan in Pakistan, one test (so far) in NZ.
India: 5 tests played, 4 wins, 1 loss. One test loss vs Eng, 2-0 win in Bangladesh, 2-0 up vs Australia.
India's record just a smaller sample, but they're comparable. Imo, I went with England only on the basis of current form as in, just regardless of the results (which are dominant for both teams), I feel they're just playing better. This can change as soon as the next series if England's dumb bazball thing somehow starts imploding, but I'm going with gut feel since the records are similar. Admittedly not sure if this makes sense because I tend to harp on the negatives of the India team a lot, but I'm just not convinced we're actually playing at as high a level as we were a few years ago. The test match in Bangladesh where we almost choked a small chance was a bit embarrassing even though we won. Whereas England have mixed in incredibly easy wins with some crazy heists. Again, all completely subjective, but as of right now I do feel they're playing better. ?