*Official* India Tour of England 2018

[Cow Corner]

How should one interpret Jadeja coming on as the first spinner? Is his spot in the team guaranteed? If so, I guess Kuldeep isn't playing the first match..

Also, Jadeja batted and Ashwin didn't. :-/

 

[Borges]

I wouldn't be surprised if they are trying to hide (red ball) Kuldeep.

 

[Prince EWS]

Maybe Kohli's OCD-like aversion to bowling spinners that turn the ball into the batsman is so strong that he can't even bring himself to bowl Ashwin or Kuldeep to two right handers in a practice game.

(I joke, but if he was Steve Smith it'd probably be true).

 

[BSM]

About time that Jamie Porter was selected for the England squad. Hopefully, he'll start. The Rashid selection is certainly out of left field but not overwhelmingly surprising nor disappointing. I doubt Leach or Bess would be much more effective to be honest. I doubt as well that the pitches prepared will be too spinner friendly anyway, so he might end up sitting out the majority of the series. Although you'd think if they've gone to the trouble of picking him in the first place, they might be more accutely aware of the significance he is to play in the side.

 

[Daemon]

Thakur is such a joke. Poor mans Vinnie Kumar.

 

[fredfertang]

I'm enjoying all this whining about Rashid - I've never been entirely convinced by him but he certainly deserves a chance in a home Test, and I'm looking forward to hearing what Michael Vaughan has to say if he bowls well

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Rashid should never have been picked but he should also have never been bombed in the first place after comprehensively outbowling Moeen in Bangladesh and India. I knew he would get picked but no way would I have done it.

 

[FBU]

Yeah, I think Yorkshire should refuse to pick him for any List A or T20 games either.

He will be busy with England and not able to fill his white ball stuff with Yorks.

BBC
"They might be disappointed for various reasons, but it would have been nice if the chief executive or head coach could have said, 'well done, congratulations on being selected, good on you' - as opposed to being angry and upset for not playing red-ball cricket for them, even though I told them I would not be doing so.

 

[Daemon]

They had no real options. Rashid is the best of a bad bunch. The selectors pick to win, not to avoid sending the wrong message.

 

[cnerd123]

They had no real options. Rashid is the best of a bad bunch. The selectors pick to win, not to avoid sending the wrong message.

Eh, debatable. To think this means to
A) Believe ODI form will translate to Tests better than County form and
B) That proven and available Test players like Moeen, Bess and Leach are all bowling so poorly they no longer merit selection

I don't agree with either of those premises. I'd have played Moeen tbh. Even Bess looked decent against Pakistan.

 

[MagicPoopShovel]

Does India actually gain anything by trying to hide red ball Kuldeep. The main Eng line up has seen him already. Seemed like a missed opportunity to have given him some game time with the red ball tbh.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I'm delighted that Rashid is playing, he's a serious talent. And **** County cricket.

 

[Borges]

Does India actually gain anything by trying to hide red ball Kuldeep.

No, not really. I think they would have gained more by giving him a feel of bowling with the Dukes ball on a typical English wicket in a (mock) match situation.

 

[Daemon]

Eh, debatable. To think this means to
A) Believe ODI form will translate to Tests better than County form and
B) That proven and available Test players like Moeen, Bess and Leach are all bowling so poorly they no longer merit selection

I don't agree with either of those premises. I'd have played Moeen tbh. Even Bess looked decent against Pakistan.

Leach is coming off a long period of rest. Bess looks mediocre af. I'd pick Moeen in the first XI but as a backup in the squad Rashid is fine.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Does India actually gain anything by trying to hide red ball Kuldeep. The main Eng line up has seen him already. Seemed like a missed opportunity to have given him some game time with the red ball tbh.

The idea was to give game time to those who haven't had game time like the Jadejas and Shamis.

 

[Howe_zat]

Eh, debatable. To think this means to
A) Believe ODI form will translate to Tests better than County form and
B) That proven and available Test players like Moeen, Bess and Leach are all bowling so poorly they no longer merit selection

I don't agree with either of those premises. I'd have played Moeen tbh. Even Bess looked decent against Pakistan.

Both of those things are plausible.

Tests are hard, pressurised and varied in a way that county matches typically aren't. Rashid bowling to Virat Kohli in an ODI in July is going to tell you at least something about how Rashid bowls to Virat Kohli in a Test in August, probably more than can be gleaned from Rashid bowling to Rikki Clarke in a four-day game in April.

Would Rashid really have gotten anything out of playing for Yorkshire this season? Current selection policy says no and for two months of the season he barely bowls anyway. It's hard to blame him.

 

[srbhkshk]

Dropping Pujara is the sort of thing people will throw **** on Kohli about but is actually a real problem for him. Guy hasn't done anything of note (especially in foreign conditions) for a long time now. Wouldn't be a horror selection to bring Dhawan somewhere in the middle order, although looking at the forms of Pant and Karthik I am thinking a good option would be to play both of them. Pant and Hardik at 6 and 7 is a very dynamic selection imo. My batting order would be -

Vijay
Rahul
Rahane
Kohli
Karthik +
Pant
Pandya
Ashwin

Now that Bumrah and Bhuvi are out - Ishant and Umesh by virtue of being fairly consistent and less injury prone than Shami should walk into the side. So the other three should be -

Kuldeep
Yadav
Ishant

Shami is the only real headache for me - on song he is a better bowler than any of three pacers in the team. But Hardik's not going out - we need all the batting we can get, and Yadav and Ishant are more in form and tested as of now than him.

 

[Gnske]

They had no real options. Rashid is the best of a bad bunch. The selectors pick to win, not to avoid sending the wrong message.

None of the England spinners on the table seem more likely than one another to actually contribute something meaningful imo. Might as well gone with Mo alone if you want meme wickets and throwaways

 

[Top_Cat]

Both of those things are plausible.

Tests are hard, pressurised and varied in a way that county matches typically aren't. Rashid bowling to Virat Kohli in an ODI in July is going to tell you at least something about how Rashid bowls to Virat Kohli in a Test in August, probably more than can be gleaned from Rashid bowling to Rikki Clarke in a four-day game in April.

Would Rashid really have gotten anything out of playing for Yorkshire this season? Current selection policy says no and for two months of the season he barely bowls anyway. It's hard to blame him.

Miles in the legs, personally. He's no triathlete...

 

[Howe_zat]

Miles in the legs, personally. He's no triathlete...

Yeah that's a good point.