*Official* England in India 2023/24 #CryMoreTour

[Molehill]

Maybe not so much spin-friendly, as pace-unfriendly? Slow, low, little movement etc? When England are bowling 90% of their overs from spin there's got to be something causing that surely

Reckon India should try and get a pitch with just a little more pace and help in it for the seamers, and watch Bumrah/Siraj/Shami (or whoever is fit) run through England

Bumrah took 6-70 in the match and bowled really well when it started reversing.

Problem with more seam friendly wickets, not sure this bunch of Indian batsmen can bat on them.

 

[Immenso]

Only seen the scorecard and not any of the game,

There are good 12 min highlights packages of each day on bcci.tv

 

[Son Of Coco]

It's impossible to back anyone in this battle of evil vs evil, but that was a hell of an effort by England to turn around that first innings deficit.

 

[Woodster]

Bazball continues to thrill, even when logic appears to have gone out of the window and I find myself questioning some decisions Stokes makes, they just make it work! It’s phenomonal, a different record is made each series, though this series is far from over and before this Tes I could not see us winning this overall, but you just never know!

Such an unbelievable mindset shift in this England side. We really are fun to watch!

 

[SteveNZ]

This another case of India losing another Test on an unnecessarily overly spin-friendly surface when they would have been better off just with a regular wicket offering a bit more for the quicks?

India's seamers are if anything better than England's don't think they need these "90% of overs bowled by spin" type scenarios to beat England

It's an attitude thing, for mine. Man for man, India wins it every day of the week on that surface. But India have this rock star mentality about them, that they're not particularly interested in working hard and it seems like they're quite happy to be proclaimed as the best XI in the world, rather than actually being it. No one wanted to work too hard in that 4th innings, perfectly encapsulated by Ashwin and Siraj entering the Shannon Gabriel All Stars XI as the worst shots in defeat in living memory. They took the foot off the throat in the 3rd innings with the ball, too.

 

[SteveNZ]

Pope’s innings was one of the best I’ve seen by an English batsman in my 40+ years of watching. I didn’t know he had it in him.

Hartley grew in confidence as the match progressed. It was rabbit in headlights stuff to start off, but Stokes kept bowling him and showing faith and trust. It was a master stroke of captaincy. The result was a really controlled spell of spin bowling in the second innings. A couple of beauties to Barat and Rohit in particular. Looks a more than useful bat too.

Anything can be said about Stokes (and often is) but his man management is incredible. He's prepared to back guys through the initial stages of their careers, through hard times, especially with spinners (Leach, Patel, Hartley)- the true mettle of a supportive captain. I look at how my own country has failed to back in numerous spinners, Ponting/Clarke/Smith were pretty terrible at it, etc. It takes a brave man to do it.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Anything can be said about Stokes (and often is) but his man management is incredible.

If he manages men half as well as he manages to stay out of prison he's doing very well

 

[Spark]

This another case of India losing another Test on an unnecessarily overly spin-friendly surface when they would have been better off just with a regular wicket offering a bit more for the quicks?

India's seamers are if anything better than England's don't think they need these "90% of overs bowled by spin" type scenarios to beat England

Nah I think this was about the perfect surface for India - plenty of turn but relatively slow and not so much turn that it becomes a lottery. They just played **** cricket from about halfway through the match.

 

[Ashes81]

I thought Stokes' post match interview was outstanding and he made a couple of really interesting points.

Firstly about Hartley. Basically, if he had taken him off after 3 overs in the 1st innings, everything he said to him since he joined the squad would have invalidated.

Secondly, how much he'd learnt from our 1st innings by watching and analysing how India's spinners bowled. He said something like, people don't think it but he's a massive student of the game.

Ever since the appalling incident in Bristol with Stokes, I've respected him as a cricketer but not as a man.

I still hold that view but it has to be said, not only is he a fantastic cricketer, he's also a truly fantastic leader of cricketers on and off the field.

He is on course to be a truly outstanding figure in modern English cricket by the time he hangs up his spikes.

 

[Prince EWS]

Nah I think this was about the perfect surface for India - plenty of turn but relatively slow and not so much turn that it becomes a lottery. They just played **** cricket from about halfway through the match.

Yeah India scored 400 in the first innings, they didn't get bundled out because it was a lottery bunsen.

They lost the toss which can really hurt on these kind of pitches with the fourth and fifth days being a lot harder, but mostly they just played very badly for most of the match after an excellent start.

 

[subshakerz]

I know i may be speaking out my arse, but possibly Hartley is just a good bowler?

Its not like county spinners haven't toured india before. They usually get carted.

If there's any point to make modern Indian batsmen are clearly one or two levels below the previous generations when playing spin. Probably a result of the emphasis they've put on developing pace bowling in recent times.

Sure. But then just go back to the Aus series and see how well their debutant spinners were doing.

 

[subshakerz]

Watching the highlights back have Shastri and Gavaskar fallen out with some of the Indian team? Seem scathing by their usual standards of the team lowering their intensity in the field and some of the dismissals.

Almost like they are half pleased a few egos are being bruised by this defeat.

Maybe there is a degree of complacency in this defeat because they should have shut England out. However even Shastri's side lost a first test to England.

 

[Prince EWS]

For me England should play this team in next test :

1.Crawley
2.Duckett
3.Stokes
4.Root
5.Lawrence
6.Bairstow
7.Foakes (WK)
8.Robinson
9.Bashir
10.Leach
11.Anderson

I don't want to dunk on this post too much, but the fact that it was Pope and Hartley who dominated the second innings so much really adds to the charm of this victory. Lots of people were already dropping both of them for the next game because their first innings efforts were so awful.

 

[honestbharani]

It was a slow low turning pitch but where Pope was great was that he played those scoops and sweeps to get his boundaries quickly and then just played off the backdoor knowing it's gonna turn slow, ensuring he took the only danger out of the equation, having to come on the front foot with all those sweeps.

It was not an easy wicket to score quickly on and yet he did.

 

[Kenneth Viljoen]

 

[Kenneth Viljoen]

 

[Silver Silva]

I don't want to dunk on this post too much, but the fact that it was Pope and Hartley who dominated the second innings so much really adds to the charm of this victory. Lots of people were already dropping both of them for the next game because their first innings efforts were so awful.

Yes I got that horribly wrong I think they may play in the next game ..but that just shows beauty of Test Cricket you can always comeback from a setback.

 

[Son Of Coco]

View attachment 38920

Is the bloke in the middle the son of the other two?

You clearly have to look a certain way to get 7 wickets bowling spin for England.

 

[Spark]

Yes I got that horribly wrong I think they may play in the next game ..but that just shows beauty of Test Cricket you can always comeback from a setback.

It also shows that however much we like to rag on them, selectors who actually watch these blokes in person on a daily basis likely know a lot more about these players than we do, and that just quoting FC stats isn't enough.

 

[honestbharani]

It also shows that however much we like to rag on them, selectors who actually watch these blokes in person on a daily basis likely know a lot more about these players than we do, and that just quoting FC stats isn't enough.

Something for the Sarfraz Samson stans here then.