*Official Third Test at Headingley* 25-29 August

[SillyCowCorner1]

The backfoot thing is a good point. Virat is the only one of the fab 4 who is a front foot batsman.

Virat and Babar are both ff batsmen

 

[OverratedSanity]

Root has solid backfoot play.. Those late dabs & square cuts. Kohli doesn't has them in his arsenal. Sachin also had those strokes.. Rahul Dravid had a fierce square cut.

Total lack of a square cut or even a proper square drive off the front foot. Literally has one attacking shot on the off side and its the one which gets batsmen in trouble in England.

 

[honestbharani]

Virat and Babar are both ff batsmen

Babar is not ff though, mean fab 4.

 

[GIMH]

Root's average back above 50, did that just happen today?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Root's average back above 50, did that just happen today?

Been hovering there or thereabouts since his double in India.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Root has solid backfoot play.. Those late dabs & square cuts. Kohli doesn't has them in his arsenal. Sachin also had those strokes.. Rahul Dravid had a fierce square cut.

I could swear Kohli could do all that once. You think he orchestrated all those chases in the subcontinent without touch behind the wicket? He's just confused with his strokeplay atm.

 

[honestbharani]

Total lack of a square cut or even a proper square drive off the front foot. Literally has one attacking shot on the off side and its the one which gets batsmen in trouble in England.

He played a lot of square cuts in ODIs and at various other points. I think this forward press is something he brought to his game as a counter to his 2014 struggles. It was never this pronounced before this and its like his only option against swing now, is to get out of the crease and smother it. And to his credit, his first innings in the WTC final was a bit of a masterclass in how controlled it was till he let the over night break impact his focus.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Amazed that none of India's batsmen have understood that third man can get you bucketloads of runs in England. Did you not watch Dravid in 2011 or Bell in the 2013 Ashes ffs? But muh coverdrive.

 

[Nintendo]

Very clearly from relative series and ICC rankings we can now conclude marnus>Kohli. No questions asked.

 

[The Sean]

Root's average back above 50, did that just happen today?

On current trajectory his and Kohli's averages will cross sooner rather than later.

 

[Spark]

Didn't he used to really just not play square of the wicket on the offside early in his career at all because of his bottom hand dominant grip? I remember it was something he really had to work on, to be able to open the face enough to drive the ball square.

 

[Uppercut]

India apparently played 71 false shots yesterday and lost 10 wickets in that. England had 34 false shots but did not lose a single wicket. That invisible momentum at play again, I guess.


EDIT - Should add its according to crapinfo, so take it with a grain of salt, cricviz might have tracked it differently, but it is the best we have to go by, for now.

Yeah I don’t love that statistic anyway. Counts a play and miss off the hips the same as missing a straight one.

Pujara’s dismissal is one where he didn’t get the luck the English openers did. A lot of the time he misses it, that time he nicked it. But you also have Rohit and Jadeja making mistakes that you just aren’t ever getting away with.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Very clearly from relative series and ICC rankings we can now conclude marnus>Kohli. No questions asked.

I look forward to him acting like king **** with RCB a month from now.

 

[Spark]

Amazed that none of India's batsmen have understood that third man can get you bucketloads of runs in England. Did you not watch Dravid in 2011 or Bell in the 2013 Ashes ffs? But muh coverdrive.

I mean it's a technical thing no? The back cut just doesn't seem to be a shot many current generation Indian players excel at.

 

[White Ball]

I do wish we had let Sibley score 40 or even 50 in the last innings!

 

[OverratedSanity]

I mean it's a technical thing no? The back cut just doesn't seem to be a shot many current generation Indian players excel at.

The run down to third man should still be reasonably easy. As you've said, the square drive/cut is difficult for someone with bottom hand heavy shovel techniques like Kohli and Pujara, but surely playing it late and dabbing it down with a vertical bat is feasible.

Its just not as ***y as nailing one coverdrive and glaring at anderson as though you've owned him and blowing a kiss to anushka when you manage to get to 25.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Jesus they're quiet out there. Total resignation.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

So nice Root coming in with 159 on the board instead of just 9.

 

[Uppercut]

I mean it's a technical thing no? The back cut just doesn't seem to be a shot many current generation Indian players excel at.

Yeah but Root does and there isn’t really any need for them to give him a 30 run head start by leaving it open for an hour every time he comes to the crease.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Yes Athers, serviceable is all Jadeja is at the moment.