***Official*** England in India

[honestbharani]

Scaly... your A team just drew the tests in India. The problem is not the injured players. Your bench in tests are good, but not in ODIs.... And generally, they say any team is only as good as its bench strength. England have problems in ODIs, just like how India have problems in tests, whether ye like it or not.

 

[silentstriker]

Injuries are a fact of cricket, you aren't a good team unless you can cope with it well. McGrath-less Australia were a bit exposed in the Ashes as well.

England would destroy India A in England as well.

Well, your problem is that what we are playing is not really the England A, its the England team. Injuries are a fact of life, and your bench strength is what it is.

 

[honestbharani]

yeah and pedantically speaking, England A will NEVER have the likes of Flintoff, Pieterson or others. And BTW, the only player they are really missing is Tresco. Jones is unproven in ODIs, Harmo is nothing to write home about in these conditions, Giles may have perhaps scored more than Blackwell but I don't see him bowling better than him here, Vaughan is a joke in ODIs...... I mean, you are basically missing one player and all of a sudden, it is your A team? India are without Sachin Tendulkar as well. And Sourav has done just as well as Vaughan (if not better) over the past two years in ODIs, Kumble is not playing either....


Look at the situation for England. They won 3 very good tosses, made the right decisions and yet lost the matches... First one they should have never lost, no matter how good Bhajji was that day... Second one, fair enough, they ran into a very special knock from a new kid, but today was rather stupid. Is it that difficult to stay IN on that wicket?

 

[silentstriker]

Also, India have now broken the West Indies record for the most consecutive chases, with 15 in a row.

And they have also won 8 of their last 8.

 

[Sanz]

Why do you need my approval?

Well I dont want to go 'aussie' way.

 

[Ikki]

India > England

 

[Jono]

India.

http://aus.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/ENG_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/ENG_IND_ODI1_28MAR2006.html

http://aus.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/...OCKOUTS/ENG_WI_ICCCT_ODI-FINAL_25SEP2004.html

I'll have to remember that one come India's next mickey mouse triangular final or World Cup.

Whilst England go out in the group stage.

 

[Jono]

yeah and pedantically speaking, England A will NEVER have the likes of Flintoff, Pieterson or others. And BTW, the only player they are really missing is Tresco. Jones is unproven in ODIs, Harmo is nothing to write home about in these conditions, Giles may have perhaps scored more than Blackwell but I don't see him bowling better than him here, Vaughan is a joke in ODIs...... I mean, you are basically missing one player and all of a sudden, it is your A team? India are without Sachin Tendulkar as well. And Sourav has done just as well as Vaughan (if not better) over the past two years in ODIs, Kumble is not playing either....


Look at the situation for England. They won 3 very good tosses, made the right decisions and yet lost the matches... First one they should have never lost, no matter how good Bhajji was that day... Second one, fair enough, they ran into a very special knock from a new kid, but today was rather stupid. Is it that difficult to stay IN on that wicket?

In terms of ODIs, Sachin > Tresco and Vaughan put together, and chuck in Simon Jones too.

Sachin would have clobbered the crap that Hoggard chucked up today. How many times do people have to say Hoggard isn't anything close to a good ODI bowler before people stop asking for his inclusion? Its not too hard to distinguish between tests and ODIs, for a start the coloured attire gives it away!

England's batting has been downright pathetic this series. Pietersen is the only one that can hold his head high IMO, with Collingwood and, believe it or not, Geraint also showing something here and there.

 

[marc71178]

England need a hell of a lot of bad things to happen to pick Gareth Batty

No, it actually shows how poor our reserves are, although the first choice players aren't actually that much greater.

 

[marc71178]

Well I dont want to go 'aussie' way.

Supporting England is never a glory seeking option.

 

[Scaly piscine]

yeah and pedantically speaking, England A will NEVER have the likes of Flintoff, Pieterson or others. And BTW, the only player they are really missing is Tresco. Jones is unproven in ODIs, Harmo is nothing to write home about in these conditions, Giles may have perhaps scored more than Blackwell but I don't see him bowling better than him here, Vaughan is a joke in ODIs...... I mean, you are basically missing one player and all of a sudden, it is your A team? India are without Sachin Tendulkar as well. And Sourav has done just as well as Vaughan (if not better) over the past two years in ODIs, Kumble is not playing either....

Simon Jones is only unproven because he's barely played in ODIs, you're not going to tell me he'd be worse than Gareth Batty, Mahmood, Kabir Ali or the like are you - so yes England are missing him and Harmison. Vaughan, as crap as he has been is still a little better than Solanki, Prior, Shah etc. and he can also bowl useful off-spinners (when his back's ok) and he's still a better captain than Flintoff in ODIs, also Tresco would probably be a better captain than Flintoff in ODIs. By having these players they'd at least have a team that's not carrying several completely substandard weak links which is crucial in ODIs because otherwise you're always on the wrong side of any pressure. Look at what happened today, England got India to a slightly wobbly position when they were 4 down, but England are then forced to bring on... Gareth Batty - pressure, what pressure? Similarly with England's batting, there are early/easy wickets each time because they've got Prior and others consistently getting out cheaply, so all the pressure is on KP, Flintoff and Collingwood to do a rescue job.

 

[Sanz]

Okay India have rested Dravid for next two games, Sehwag is going to lead the team. I hope noone can complain now that India are going to play with their 'A' side.

The squad: Virender Sehwag (captain), Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Shantakumaran Sreesanth, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Venugopala Rao, Munaf Patel and Vikram Rajvir Singh.

From the above only Sehwag, Yuvraj, Kaif, Dhoni, bhajji and Pathan are regulars out of which Sehwag and Kaif are out of form.

 

[neutralguy]

A clinical performance from team india to nail the series with 15 straight wins while chasing, thereby creating a world record. The major transformation for this belongs to mainly few players who have done really well while chasing.M.S.Dhoni, Irfan pathan and yuvraj singh. These players are able to absorb the pressure of chasing targets really well.
With this win dravid proved that he can lead this indian team in subcontinent mainly in india and pakistan for one-dayers well. It is a good start by dravid and iam glad to see the emphasis is more in methods, which are yielding some kind of results as an effect and we are seeing more consistent performances from team india. 6-1 against lanka, 2-2 against SA, 4-1 against pakistan and 4-? against england.
More challenges for dravid remain though neverthless. He has to make sure that the team performs well in west indies, england and srilanka to start with , atleast in one-dayers. Then he can look towards the bigger challenges of australia and south africa.An one-day series win in any of the above countries should give dravid more confidence to lead.
problems in indian test team remain though, but i sense its just a matter of time , may be an year before things must be sorted out in this arena by bringing in some stable new middle order bats.
All in all a good show from team india.

 

[TheEpic]

Ok, series lost. Side for next game has to be thus IMO:

Strauss
Solanki
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
G Jones
Blackwell
Plunkett
Ali
Anderson

 

[silentstriker]

Simon Jones is only unproven because he's barely played in ODIs, you're not going to tell me he'd be worse than Gareth Batty, Mahmood, Kabir Ali or the like are you - so yes England are missing him and Harmison. Vaughan, as crap as he has been is still a little better than Solanki, Prior, Shah etc. and he can also bowl useful off-spinners (when his back's ok) and he's still a better captain than Flintoff in ODIs, also Tresco would probably be a better captain than Flintoff in ODIs. By having these players they'd at least have a team that's not carrying several completely substandard weak links which is crucial in ODIs because otherwise you're always on the wrong side of any pressure. Look at what happened today, England got India to a slightly wobbly position when they were 4 down, but England are then forced to bring on... Gareth Batty - pressure, what pressure? Similarly with England's batting, there are early/easy wickets each time because they've got Prior and others consistently getting out cheaply, so all the pressure is on KP, Flintoff and Collingwood to do a rescue job.

Well for the next two games, its giong to be India A vs. England A. So we'll see.

 

[kvemuri]

No, it actually shows how poor our reserves are, although the first choice players aren't actually that much greater.

From what i can see England's doing the same mistake that India till an year ago was doing, relying only on handful of players to perform, if they fail game over. Yesterday's game was a great example of England's over reliance on KP, Collingwood and Freddie. All three fell back to back to back, hadn't it been for a dodgy knock from Geraint, England would've been struggling to get up to 220.

 

[kvemuri]

Personally I thought England's batting order yesterday is the ideal one for ODIs with KP at 3, Collingwood at 4 and Freddie at 5. Imagine with Tresco giving them flying starts and these 3 to follow its an opposition nightmare.

Also I agree with Deano's comments that England don't have a lower order batsmen who can do a Razzaq, a Lee, a Dhoni or an Afridi. Throw caution to the wind and go aerial route. Blackwell is capable of doing it but he isn't. So instead of getting Vaughn, Shah, Bell or even Solanki they should look for someone like that.

 

[kvemuri]

Well for the next two games, its giong to be India A vs. England A. So we'll see.

England A will never contain KP, Freddie, Collingwood and/or even Strauss (who btw has played 48 ODIs ) , Geraint Jones (42 ODIs). The only player England definitely missing is Tresco, well maybe even Harmisson, fine will give Giles too. (to be fair their contributions are nothing great to write about in this format of game, meant Giles and Harmy).

India is also missing Sachin, Sourav has been gone for sometime, the way Viru, Kaif are playing this Indian team should have lost the 4 matches, the main difference i see in both teams is temperament. Where Dhoni curbed his hit out attitude to play second fiddle to Raina in second ODI, KP has lacked that attitude, thats what i see as a key difference.

 

[marc71178]

Also I agree with Deano's comments that England don't have a lower order batsmen who can do a Razzaq, a Lee, a Dhoni or an Afridi. Throw caution to the wind and go aerial route. Blackwell is capable of doing it but he isn't. So instead of getting Vaughn, Shah, Bell or even Solanki they should look for someone like that.

The problem is there isn't anyone in the country who can do that role.

And btw putting Lee in that group is an insult to the other 3.

 

[adharcric]

I'm really glad they rested Dravid and brought in Vikram Singh. I tell you, the end is near for Agarkar.
In the rest of the series, Sehwag and Kaif need to play every match to regain form. Uthappa, Raina, Dhoni and Powar should also be played in every match. Yuvraj, Pathan and Harbhajan should be given a rest for 1 match apiece to accomodate Venugopal as well as RP Singh, Munaf Patel and Vikram Singh.

I'd like to see the following team for Guwahati.
Sehwag*, Uthappa, Kaif, Yuvraj, Raina, Venugopal, Dhoni+, Powar, VRV, Munaf, RPS

... and for Jamshedpur ...
Sehwag*, Uthappa, Kaif, Raina, Venugopal, Dhoni+, Pathan, Powar, Harbhajan, VRV, Munaf/RPS/Sreesanth

This is an excellent opportunity to build bench strength. Who knows, VR Singh might come up with something big and further deepen our pace reserves.