***Official*** England in India

[marc71178]

I think most of us will agree with those teams, with the slight exception of Udal, but England doesn't have many better options anyways.

The only alternative to Udal is another batsman, but I can't see that happening.

 

[Sanz]

agreed....although we were comparing gangs and sachin as one day players not sachin's place in the test team here....

Well it started with Sachin's place in the team

 

[silentstriker]

Let me guess, you're an India fan?

Err, yes. But those are the teams that I think have the best chance of winning.

Who would you have instead of Udal, considering the number of unfit players Eng has at the moment?

no, im not sayin dat. I just feel dat he is not as bothered as he once was. he is only playing 4 the world cup now. i hate to say it, but he will retire after it.

So you are saying that he doesn't care if he scores runs? That's an even odder claim. To claim that he is scoring in the single digits purposefully, however unlikely, can happen if you are a match fixer. But to claim that you don't care if you score runs...thats just inexplicable.

Plus, if that were the case...he'd just slog it out and go out scoring at an S/R of 150. But he doesn't, and he has switched from being the Master Blaster to a much more subdued batsman over the past three or so years.

I do believe, though I hope not, that the WC 2003 was his last hurrah (and what an hurrah it was). But I do think he can be a useful cricketer for a couple more years.

 

[honestbharani]

Dude it is one thing blooding kids who deserve a chance and another thing constructing a B-team akin to the WI in packer years(ie, the team representing the WI while their stars were away playing packer cricket).... Currently Laxman's position is not secure, and Ganguly has been axed. India isnt gonna go in with 5 bowlers all matches and Dhoni isnt gonna bat at six most tests.... You already have two bona-fide middle order and one opening spot up for grabs....axing tendy for non performance for a few matches ( and lets face it- it isnt a 2 year slump due to bad batting alone - ala Lara in 96-2000 period, the guy has been injured most of the time through it ) or axing Kumble/Harbhajan would be like having Dravid, Sehwag, Pathan and 8 other newbies in the squad.........

Tendulkar needs to be given an extended stretch to recover from his bad form ( and lets face it, he hasnt gotten much opportunity to bat in tests over the last 2 years either - he had a bad patch after the world cup due to injury shortly before the NZ tour to IND.... he hit groove in OZ belately and did well in Pakistan before getting injured again...he came back injured for the AUS-RSA-BD tour and promptly got injured again and missed a whole chunk of cricket.... now he's been back just before the SL series and batted on some pretty hard wickets in the SL series, hardly got a chance to bat in Pakistan and this English tour has had him batting for just two completed innings.
Give him a 10 match period of uniterrupted play and then judge him.

And FYI, I've been following WI cricket for a long time and in the late 90s the 'Lara has lost his direction' chants were at their zenith and people were actively pushing players like Philo Wallace, Stuart Williams, Floyd Reifer, etc. in the team..... Lara was held on to and so should Tendulkar, until one atleast one of Laxman-Yuvraj-Kaif-Raina secures their place in the middle order.
Else yer gonna have Sehwag-Dravid-4 newbies batting lineup.

Actually, you will see that I never really advocated dropping him right now or anything. I was just pointing out that the situation with the Windies then was different from what it is with India. And plz... Wallace, Williams won't even hold a candle to Laxman and Kaif,the guys that are missing out right now and competing with Sachin for ONE spot, unless INdia plays with 4 bowlers...

 

[DanielFullard]

Oh Dear. Harmison missed training yesterday due to a shin injury and he is having an ex-ray today to determine whether or not he can play. Fletcher and Flintoff have apparently said eveything will be okay, but without Steve our already slim chance diminishes considerably

 

[aussie]

hopefully he is fit for the 3rd test, England surely cant afford more injuries..

 

[DanielFullard]

hopefully he is fit for the 3rd test, England surely cant afford more injuries..

Indeed we can't. Harmison played well in the last test, particularly his second innings of batting, and we need him in the attack desperately if we have any hope of pulling off a suprise win

 

[GIMH]

Everyone's a better option than Udal. He's just an old fart who can't bowl.

I read somewhere that Saturday was Udal's birthday, the article went on to add that it was in fact his 58th!

Old fart who can't bowl. Haha, that did make me laugh

 

[SJS]

Whither now for VVS?


Excellent Article by Dilip Premachandran

 

[honestbharani]

yeah, it is very unfortunate that it all has come down to this.

 

[silentstriker]

Well, unfortunatly Yuvraj has to be accomodated at this point. He is in too good a form to be left out, and unless India go in with only four specialist bowlers...I am afraid VVS just has to be left out.

 

[Nuts]

Just been confirmed. Harmy out of the test.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

****

 

[wpdavid]

Just been confirmed. Harmy out of the test.

We'll miss his runs, but apart from that? H'es not exactly run through them this winter, and Mumbai should suit him even less than Mohali. Maybe Anderson will do more damage swinging the ball.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

I love watching James Anderson. Wish I could

 

[Nuts]

Do you think they'll choose to go with Jimmeh? I'd love it if they did but I thought they'd favour Plunkett and a second spinner...

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

I hope so, he's a better bowler than Plunkett and Udal.

 

[DanielFullard]

As I said before, we will desperately miss Harmison in ths thrid test. Anderson should get a look in now. Looks like Plunkett will keep his place now though

 

[Barney Rubble]

Strauss
Cook
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff*
Jones+
Udal
Plunkett
Hoggard
Panesar

Is what I'm now betting on. Seeing as Udal's not a Test number eight, and neither's Plunkett, Fletch'll play them both at the expense of Anderson. Neither Plunkett or Anderson were ever gonna run through India anyway, given that they've got a total of two subcontinent Tests between them. I still wouldn't rule out a return for Blackwell ahead of Udal though.

With our bowling attack weakened, Fletch may (paradoxically) go for Blackie's extra batting ability over Udal - seeing as neither of them are going to run through India either, he may see fit to give us the option of going for a draw if things look bad early on.

I'd have taken a 1-0 series defeat if you'd offered it at the beginning of the series, so I'm not too disheartened by things as they stand - even 2-0 wouldn't be that bad.

 

[silentstriker]

so I'm not too disheartened by things as they stand - even 2-0 wouldn't be that bad.

I am not an English fan, but if my team was to lose 2-0 in a three match series...let alone 2-0 twice in a row....making it 0-4-2 in the last six tests....it would definatly be "that bad". And the English are trying to be the clear nuber #2 side. That's simply unacceptable for a side thats hoping to be anywhere near #2.

I'm an indian fan, so such scorelines are not foreign to me when playing outside the subcontinent...but I am heavily dissapointed every time.