***Official*** England in India

[Pratters]

I want Blackwell to play.
Udal wont be too bad either though.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

So will it be:

7 Pathan
8 Kumble
9 Bhaji
10 Singh
11 Munaf/Chawla

..or variant? Excuse my ignorance but can any of the last three bat? Okay Pathan and Kumble can bat but if it's a bouncey pitch this changes things with England's pace attack.

Long tail possibly?

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Munaf and Chawla are both as good, if not better batsmen than Kumble.

 

[wpdavid]

So will it be:

7 Pathan
8 Kumble
9 Bhaji
10 Singh
11 Munaf/Chawla

..or variant? Excuse my ignorance but can any of the last three bat? Okay Pathan and Kumble can bat but if it's a bouncey pitch this changes things with England's pace attack.

Long tail possibly?

At the risk of tempting fate, that was my reaction too. Perhaps that means we can forget any thoughts of the game being played on the seamers' wicket that is supposed to be one of the two alternatives.

 

[Scaly piscine]

So will it be:

7 Pathan
8 Kumble
9 Bhaji
10 Singh
11 Munaf/Chawla

..or variant? Excuse my ignorance but can any of the last three bat? Okay Pathan and Kumble can bat but if it's a bouncey pitch this changes things with England's pace attack.

Long tail possibly?

I was hoping India would do that in the first Test, even on that dead pitch which was tail-ender friendly India would have been bowled out for 100+ less with a bowler in for Kaif. If there's a bit of movement or life in the pitch England's bowling has a chance at any moment of slicing straight through a team with those, Yuvraj and Dhoni in it. One day batsmen don't come off against proper Test bowling.

 

[steds]

I want Blackwell to play.
Udal wont be too bad either though.

Given a choice between the two, Blackwell.
Given a choice between the two and any other English spinner, even Salisbury will do.

 

[Pratters]

Seriously a Plunkett would be a better option IMO

 

[Sanz]

I was hoping India would do that in the first Test, even on that dead pitch which was tail-ender friendly India would have been bowled out for 100+ less with a bowler in for Kaif. If there's a bit of movement or life in the pitch England's bowling has a chance at any moment of slicing straight through a team with those, Yuvraj and Dhoni in it. One day batsmen don't come off against proper Test bowling.

Tail-ender friendly ?? Btw Hindsight is a great thing...isn't it ?

 

[kvemuri]

Yuvraj and Dhoni in it. One day batsmen don't come off against proper Test bowling.

Guess you haven't seen/heard about the 122 and odd Yuvraj played on an extremely seamer friendly track in Karachi or the hard hitting 148 by Dhoni at Faisalabad. Underestimate at your own peril

 

[steds]

Seriously a Plunkett would be a better option IMO

Anderson > Plunkett.


"But Plunkett can bat" Fletcher moans.

 

[adharcric]

Dropping Kaif and Laxman is bordering on unfair, but more than that it's the bold move and the right move. Laxman has a brilliant record at Mohali and Kaif played a brilliant innings at Nagpur .. besides you could be sure Laxman would score a huge ton with his neck on the line and Kaif would improve the fielding unit vastly. Despite all this, it's become quite obvious that our 4-man bowling attack struggles to take 20 wickets, and we can't hope to win a test without taking 20 wickets. Now, the only other time recently that we played 5 bowlers, our attack consisted of an all-time great, a demoralised off-spinner, a strike bowler devoid of pace, a left-arm debutant who was a replica of his seam partners, and a misfit who is thankfully long gone now .. on a dead pitch .. no wonder we still couldn't get the wickets. Not only do we have better bowlers in the team this time, but these bowlers are better batsmen as well. As far as batting ability goes,
Pathan > Chawla > Munaf > Kumble > Harbhajan > RP Singh > Sreesanth.
Harbhajan is a pretty good tailender to have, so this will be a deep lineup. I'd like to see India opt for the turning track and go in with the first 5, 3 spinners and 2 seamers. Should be a good match, weather-permitting.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Could have picked nine bowlers and Nagpur and you weren't getting 20 wickets if the batters didn't chance their arms...

 

[Scaly piscine]

Guess you haven't seen/heard about the 122 and odd Yuvraj played on an extremely seamer friendly track in Karachi or the hard hitting 148 by Dhoni at Faisalabad. Underestimate at your own peril

That 148 was on a pitch so flat it would have been a road even by ODI standards. Yuvraj's innings was shortly after Pakistan had racked up 599-7 and was a meaningless score in a lost cause.

 

[adharcric]

That 148 was on a pitch so flat it would have been a road even by ODI standards. Yuvraj's innings was shortly after Pakistan had racked up 599-7 and was a meaningless score in a lost cause.

let's the cut the pre-match talk and wait for the results, shall we? soon enough, we'll all know what yuvi's all about.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

According to Aggers' the spin-friendly strip will be the one chosen (surprise surprise)

"the cracks are well formed and clearly the pitch has been played on already this season.".

With India probably going in with three spinners, it going to very tough for England I think.

 

[Woody_cloudofsm]

Its an absoloute travesty the way the selectors treat VVS he is the best player in india today watching him bat is the greatest site in international cricket.

Greg Chapell and Kiran More together are going to ruin indian cricket.

 

[marc71178]

will be interesting to see who england go for in place of Blackwell (presuming he will be dropped. I'd say at this stage the front runner might me Udal, but if the pitch has something for the seamers i'd pick the big Lancastrian quick

Because a tail starting at 8 is just we need isn't it?

 

[Scaly piscine]

Because a tail starting at 8 is just we need isn't it?

Well to be fair England do have an all-rounder coming in at number 10... Harmison's stats since just before the 2nd Test against WI in July 2004:

                     Mat  Runs  HS   BatAv 100  50   

filtered              20   301  42   [B]16.72[/B]   0   0

 

[adharcric]

Well to be fair England do have an all-rounder coming in at number 10... Harmison's stats since just before the 2nd Test against WI in July 2004:

                     Mat  Runs  HS   BatAv 100  50   

filtered              20   301  42   [B]16.72[/B]   0   0

I guess India might have all-rounders from #7 to #11 in this match then.

 

[adharcric]

Things not looking good in Mohali, just checked the forecast and it's supposed to be raining like crazy for the next few days. Does BCCI even check weather trends and forecasts when scheduling matches? Or any cricketing board for that matter? What idiots ...