*Official* 4th Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, 4 - 8 Mar 2021

[Shri]

Notable that they’re mostly tall too. It’s like they picked the private school kids who gave the other private school kids wedgies, as if that would qualify them for international cricket

name a more iconic pair than @thierry henry and height discussion

 

[Fuller Pilch]

What's the likely England test XI sans IPL players that NZ (also sans IPL) will face in June?

 

[wpdavid]

My humble opinion of modern batting coaching is that most haven’t got a fkn clue

I think that's a fair assessment when you watch most of England's specialist batsmen.

 

[Pothas]

I honestly thought he was going to be something special when he first appeared. Possibly still could be.

Yeah. Young player looks excellent and then struggles is not exactly unusual. Definitely got a lot to work on against spin though because he struggled against Yasir as well.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Yup. This one is on us.

I'm not necessarily suggesting any chicanery in the prep for the last two decks, but even if there was I think this performance shows it definitely wasn't needed.

The 1st innings was just as bad. There were lots of runs to be scored on day 1.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Is Jeets P safe in his job as spin bowling coach?

 

[wpdavid]

What's the likely England test XI sans IPL players that NZ (also sans IPL) will face in June?

Sans IPL means no Buttler and Stokes? Anyone else I've forgotten? Sorry, but I take very little interest in India's domestic games.

 

[BoyBrumby]

What do you make of Pope's excessive crouching against the spinners? In the first test, the commentators were saying it was the latest thing from the coaching staff, but I do wonder whether it's buggered up his natural game. He's better than what we've seen in this series imo.

I'm certainly no expert on batting technique, but it does seem to have given him a very busy MO.

He's gone from looking very fluid and natural to approximating a right handed version of poor old Eoin Morgan just before he made his exit from tests, all twitches and pivots.

I'd guess he's been told to develop a forward press too as he seemed determined to get forward to the spinners at all costs.

 

[hazsa19]

Hard to think of much positive to take away from the winter going forward. We already knew Root and Anderson were class. You could replace every one of the batsmen bar Root and we wouldn’t have done any worse.

Maybe 1 thing is the improvement of Leach, surely cemented his place for a while.

 

[Nintendo]

Hard to think of much positive to take away from the winter going forward. We already knew Root and Anderson were class. You could replace every one of the batsmen bar Root and we wouldn’t have done any worse.

Maybe 1 thing is the improvement of Leach, surely cemented his place for a while.

Sibley and stokes both played a decent hand in the 1st test win tbf, not as much as root but still showed up. Agree re every other batsmen though.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Sans IPL means no Buttler and Stokes? Anyone else I've forgotten? Sorry, but I take very little interest in India's domestic games.

And Moeen.

We will be missing Williamson, Boult, and Jamieson (and Ferguson). Hopefully their teams bomb in the IPL and they get released. Conway may not tour due to Covid and immigration.

 

[Pothas]

What's the likely England test XI sans IPL players that NZ (also sans IPL) will face in June?

IPL will only be missing if they reach the final won't they. So probably

Sibley
Burns
Crawley
Root
Stokes
Pope
Buttler
Woakes/Archer
Broad
Leach
Anderson

Lawrence has shown real glimpses this winter so personally would want him to play but think they will go with Burns.

The tail looks absolutely horrible with Archer at 8 so I would go with Woakes.

If Stokes and Buttler are missing then probably Foakes and Curran will play although he could be at the IPL as well.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Lawrence started the series looking utterly hopeless but seems to have improved a bit and now looks merely sub par these last few innings. Can't say the same for pope though who's only gotten worse.

 

[Pothas]

And Moeen.

We will be missing Williamson, Boult, and Jamieson (and Ferguson). Hopefully their teams bomb in the IPL and they get released. Conway may not tour due to Covid and immigration.

Would Williamson really not miss the IPL for it? I know this tour was scheduled late but it would still be a really bad look.

 

[wpdavid]

Sans IPL means no Buttler and Stokes? Anyone else I've forgotten? Sorry, but I take very little interest in India's domestic games.

EDIT
Apparently Woakes, Archer, Bairstow, Curran and Ali can be added to that list.

I'd guess something like:
Sibley, Burns, Crawley, Root, Lawrence, Pope, Foakes, and then it gets tricky unless we want to see Leach batting at 8. Obviously he's our best spinner and Anderson, Broad are our best quicks, probably supported by Stone. But that's a very long tail. Woakes a huge loss.

 

[wpdavid]

Lawrence started the series looking utterly hopeless but seems to have improved a bit and now looks merely sub par these last few innings. Can't say the same for pope though who's only gotten worse.

It may have helped Lawrence that he's not batting at 3 in this game.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Would Williamson really not miss the IPL for it? I know this tour was scheduled late but it would still be a really bad look.

He said he wants to play the tests, but can't be confirmed. The 2nd test is very close to the WTC final so they might want to rest some quicks for that anyway. Strange times

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Broad and Anderson might not play together much this summer given the number of Tests being played and given the current odd selection policy.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Going bit off topic but I personally feel this Indian side will get thrashed in England. Batting has just way too many glaring holes. Don’t see anyone bar Kohli playing well against moving ball and he is in dismal form atm.

No way. Will be a very competitive series imo. This England side will never 'thrash' anyone as they're always prone to a collapse and are relatively shaky with the bat

 

[wpdavid]

No way. Will be a very competitive series imo. This England side will never 'thrash' anyone as they're always prone to a collapse and are relatively shaky with the bat

Agreed. India's quicks were excellent last time in England, and there's no reason why they shouldn't be excellent this time around. England were a bit lucky in 2018 insofar as they needed Curran to bail them out in the 1st and 4th tests.