***Official England in India***

[wpdavid]

Can't see him not being.

Disappointing to see Bopara apparently in line to bat way down the order again though... completely pointless. You might as well play Luke Wright. Bopara is no use down the order and playing down there is only going to damage his long-term prospects.

Presumably going to be Bell, Prior, Shah, Pietersen, Collingwood, Flintoff, Patel, Bopara, Broad, Anderson, Harmison. Both Patel and Bopara are top-order batsmen not lower-order sloggers, and not for the first time in recent years (Yardy, Loudon, Dalrymple) we see a batsman who bowls a bit of fingerspin picked as a fingerspinner to bat in the lower-order.

Agree with all of that, unless they reckon that Bopara's bowling is significantly more suited to Indian conditions than Wright's. Something which has slipped through my radar, tbh. It's almost as if they have no faith at all in England's top order, so they think they need some proper batting to rescue us from 50 for 5. But I'm with you about Bopara's prospects being done more harm than good coming in at number 7 or 8, and I don 't relish the thought of the usual comments from some quarters when he hasn't set the world alight when batting way out of position. I wonder if his best bet is to open the batting for Essex in List A games next summer and get a decent chance for England that way.

Swann's absence is odd. You have to love the olde English notion that Indian batsmen, who have seen a bit of spin in their time, will struggle more against our part-time spinners than someone who does the job for a living. But Swann must feel hard done by being written of after those games in NZ.

What time does the game start btw? GMT that is.

 

[Richard]

3:30AM IIRR. I'll do my best, but I've failed those sorts of hours before now.

 

[Precambrian]

I don't see why he shouldnt start in the middle order, ie, Bopara. There is no spot for him at the top, and he's no opener. Best thing could be to send him in at No.3, pushing Owais to the middle. But Pietersen has such confidence in Shah that he won't be batting lower than 3.

Ian Bell
Prior
Shah
Kevin
Bopara (?)
Colly
Fredo (?)
Patel
Bowlers.

Think that would be the better bat order.

 

[Richard]

Patel at eight's probably even more ridiculous. And there's no way there's going to be a situation with Collingwood at six and Flintoff at seven in the immediate future, that much is obvious from what's happened in recent games and recent comments by those who have a say in picking the team. If it happens it'll be sometime further down the line.

And TBH, Flintoff at seven has rarely produced much, most of his best innings' have been when he's come in after 25-30 overs rather than 40 or so.

 

[Precambrian]

Thing is, MSP has several advantages over Krejza - probably spins the ball a bit more effectively, though not much; more accurate; and doesn't toss it up anywhere near so much. This means that if he's attacked like Krejza was on a turning pitch, I don't see many batsmen lasting long.

If the Indian batsmen play him normally I can perfectly easily see him struggling, even on the presumption that the pitches to take spin, but if they play him headless-chicken style like they just did Krejza, I can see him having success.

It's not like many batsmen have ever managed to successfully go after him hell-for-leather. About the only time that comes to mind is those few overs by Gilchrist at The WACA in 2006/07.

Oh yeah, no two words abt it, Krejza is nowhere near MSP. Krejza was successful only because the Indian batsmen treated him like a nets bowler. Monty will never be played like that I can guarantee. Not even Sehwag will play in that lackadiascal fashion. They will play him like they did to Clarke, who used to get wickets the Krejza way against India, but supremely struggled this tour.

 

[Precambrian]

Patel at eight's probably even more ridiculous. And there's no way there's going to be a situation with Collingwood at six and Flintoff at seven in the immediate future, that much is obvious from what's happened in recent games and recent comments by those who have a say in picking the team. If it happens it'll be sometime further down the line.

And TBH, Flintoff at seven has rarely produced much, most of his best innings' have been when he's come in after 25-30 overs rather than 40 or so.

It's a battle of riches there. However, frankly I think England will have to bat deep this series, more the chance if India goes in with two spinners, Bhajji and Ojha.

Last time around, the middle order was not as strong as this, and I think, purely because of merit against spin, there could be a slight shuffle in the batting order.

 

[masterblaster]

Holy crap! Precambrian already has over 2600 posts! Most of them seem to have come in the last month or two!

That's some achievement right there!

 

[Lambu]

I think the Indian XI should ideally be..

Sehwag
Gambhir
Raina
Rohit
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Yusuf Pathan
Harbhajan
Zaheer
RP
Munaf

What do you guys think of this line-up? I put Yusuf in there because he could be handy wth the bat and also the fact that England too have a part timer as a fifth bowling option.So i think we won't see 2 specialist spinners tomorrow.So him and Sehwag might do the 5th bowler's job reasonably well.

 

[Precambrian]

Holy crap! Precambrian already has over 2600 posts! Most of them seem to have come in the last month or two!

That's some achievement right there!

Good form huh? Yeah being unable to move around for a month helps.

 

[Richard]

Haha, sheesh, I only just noticed Precambrian joined in March. Weird, I only noticed him a month or so ago.

 

[FBU]

Pretty sure he's in the squad for the ODIs but not the Tests. And despite the fact that the longer form of the game is clearly easily his strength, his First-Class form last season was extremely poor and it'd have been difficult to justify picking him for the Tests on this tour.

Nor do I see him doing much on the sort of pitch you expect in India, you need a Flintoff-type bowler for that.

Tremlett is not in the ODI, Test or EPP squads.

 

[Precambrian]

Looking forward to Yuvraj Vs Broad mini-battle. They haven't played against each other since the T20 WC right?

 

[Richard]

Tremlett is not in the ODI, Test or EPP squads.

He's not? WoW, that's a surprise.

 

[pup11]

Haha, sheesh, I only just noticed Precambrian joined in March. Weird, I only noticed him a month or so ago.

He was using the Pnottath (i hope i have got it right) account earlier and then he later made the Precambrian one, i guess he didn't knew duplicate accounts are against the forum rules.....

 

[pup11]

I think the English bowling will be better in India. I don't think any bowler will be quite as ineffective as, for example, Lee was.

Their batting should be decent, same as Australia.

I really don't expect anybody else then Freddie Flintoff being effective with the ball in India given they encounter similar pitches that we saw during the Aus-Ind series recently, they obviously have a decent finer-spinner in Monty so he might come into play but other than that i see blokes like Harmison, Anderson (it might be a different case if the new ball swings for him) Broad and Sidebottom struggle in the Indian conditions.

Batting wise i think they look much more solid with blokes like Cook, Bell, Collingwood and Pietersen taking most of the batting responsibilities.

 

[Richard]

He was using the Pnottath (i hope i have got it right) account earlier and then he later made the Precambrian one, i guess he didn't knew duplicate accounts are against the forum rules.....

Oh, so that's who he is!

Didn't spot the merger.

 

[Arjun]

How about this England XI?

• Prior (WK)
• Bell
• Cook
• Shah
• KP (C)
• Collingwood (RM)
• Flintoff (RF)
• Patel (OB)
• Broad (RFM)
• Harmison (RFM)
• Anderson (RFM)

Nine batsmen, six bowlers- well balanced and very versatile.

 

[Richard]

If Bell and Prior open Bell will take first strike but if your top three is Cook, Prior and Bell I'd have them in that order. Cook (an opener) batting three while Bell (not an opener) opens would make little sense.

Also it's been noted before that having Cook and Bell in the same team is not confidence-inducing. Both are better batsmen than Prior but you're as likely to lose by reaching 50-1 after 18-19 overs as you are by slumping to 30-2 after 7.

Right now, Cook should not be playing ODIs for mine. Bell has done OK-ish as an opener in the shorter game and I can see trying to turn himself into a good ODI player damaging Cook's Test game (as I think it damaged Strauss' for a time), something which should be avoided at all costs.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Yeah agreed that Cook shouldn't be anywhere near the ODI setup.

 

[pskov]

I don't see the point in picking Bopara to bat him at 7, nor Patel batting at 8. Really I think both of those should be ahead of Collingwood in the lineup as Colly is more likely to come in with a few overs to go and bash a couple of sixes. The problem is then where do you fit in Shah? No matter the solution, Pietersen has to bat a 3. I can see the argument for him at 4 in tests to protect him form the new ball somewhat, but in ODIs when you only have 50 overs get your best player in ASAP has to be the strategy.