*Official* India Tour of England 2018

[cnerd123]

We never had a sub-forum for a India-England series. Should we have one now?

Yea this is a fair point. About as many people here care about this just as much as the Ashes, and this is likely to be more competitive and enjoyable. Why don't we get our own subbie?

 

[Burgey]

Because England treats these series as Ashes warm ups, as they should.

Out of interest, what's the likely India line up?

 

[cnerd123]

No news yet.

 

[Shri]

You can rest assured that it wouldd be ****ing terrible because it will be chosen by a drunkard and his idiot manager who got him the job.

 

[Burgey]

Thanks scoop. I asked what the likely line up is, not whether it's been announced.

Best wishes, TBT.

 

[cnerd123]

This is probably your first time following Virat/Shastri leadership - but he's never played the same XI twice. We literally don't know what the likely lineup is because there isn't any real logic to their selections.

Assume it to look something like this:

???
Vijay
???
Kohli
Rahane
Karthik (+)
???
???
Ishant
Umesh
Shami

 

[Burgey]

Looks like ??? is going to need to manage his workload. Busy fella.

Did I read the other day Kumar is out injured?

- Best wishes, TBT

 

[weldone]

Out of interest, what's the likely India line up?

It's difficult to guess what's on the drunkard's mind, but I'll have a go:

Dhawan
Vijay
Pujara
Kohli*
Rahane
Karthik+
Pandya
Umesh
Kuldeep
Shami
Ishant

Realistically, the only change that maybe expected (or not) is Ashwin for Kuldeep.

 

[harsh.ag]

Have a feeling they will drop Shami for Kuldeep. Can's say it's the worst idea given how badly Shami is bowling, how well Kuldeep is bowling, Hardik's presence as 3rd seamer, and the fact that Kuldeep can score some runs at #9.

 

[Shri]

Vijay
Rahul
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Karthik
Ashwin
Pandya
Kuldeep
Ishant
Shami

SHami will play because he can swing it both ways. Ishant has been a test regular so Umesh will miss out again, I guess or Will play instead of Ash/Kuldeep.

 

[Daemon]

Ishant and Umesh will defs play. The rest, who knows.

 

[cnerd123]

Anyone saw the picture of the pitch? Looks like a slow seamer. Warm and overcast weather forecast for this Test. Kohli might actually want to bowl a few overs himself.

If it seams it spins, I don't mind Kuldeep but we need Shami as he's our only real pitch-it-up-and-swing-it bowler. Don't feel safe relying on Umesh to be that strike bowler for us.

 

[Starfighter]

***** with the flexible 'our' as usual.

 

[Top_Cat]

Secondly, Rashid did not quit FC because of a 'lack of interest'. He was dropped after the India series of 2016 and had every reason to believe his Test career was over, and quite reasonably focused on where he thought he had a future - white ball cricket.

Except Rashid himself said he'd had enough.

He wants to prioritise whatever he likes in his own life, fine by me. Bloke has to make a living. And Test boards in every country have been busily marginalising their FC teams for some time, Australia quite guilty of this too, so I'm sure this would engender a 'why bother' mentality amongst a lot of cricketers. And I'm quite happy to acept that, especially in early season games, he wouldn't see much of the ball. But let's not pretend poor Rashie had simply given up all hope of playing Test cricket because there were several statements from his Test captain and others making the point that the door wasn't closed on his Test career.

 

[Flametree]

If the pitch is really a slow seamer as stated above, all the Rashid talk might be a bit pointless (or at least can be deferred for a couple of weeks). England likely to do a 5x batsmen + Moeen + Stokes + Johnny + 3x seamers line-up? With Buttler apparently secure at 7, that would mean Moeen batting at 8 again.

 

[Gremlin]

Rashid and Curran named in the starting line up... Moeen misses out.

 

[Starfighter]

England going in with two bowlers and 3x 1/2 bowlers = 4.5 bowlers. Maybe if the top order had any gumption they wouldn't need Curran to score runs at eight.

 

[Cow Corner]

Curran is not a test class bowler. I think India have a great chance IF they don't lose any wickets in the first 12 overs...then you're into Stokes, Curran and Rashid which frankly isn't Test Match quality. Especially with both Anderson and Broad getting on a bit...seeing off the new ball is going to be very very critical.

Also, Ashwin's gonna love the fact that there are so many lefties in the team: Cook, Jennings, Malan, Stokes, Curran, Broad, Anderson.

 

[Starfighter]

I wonder when the ECB will realise that stuffing the bowling lineup full of no-rounders doesn't work anywhere near as well in tests as it does in ODIs. I like Curran but a 5'9" 130 km/h bowler is not that good a prospect at test level unless they have have Vernon Philander skills.

 

[Starfighter]

Porter's being in the squad almost seems like the ECB saying 'see, we care about county cricket' when they don't. I don't think he was going to get a look in and then Croakes will be back the next test, probably.