England's tour of India - 2021

[Velocity]

England lost this series based on their selections and the fact that they never had the same XI for two matches straight in the series. It may make sense interchanging Anderson and Broad in unhelpful conditions occasionally but they got their selections pretty wrong. It also looks like the England team management have destroyed Bess' confidence with his bowling. After picking four wickets in the first Test in Chennai in the first innings, Bess claimed that "it was the best he ever bowled" to Root claiming that he was still a young inexperienced guy serving up full tosses and half trackers and dropped him for the next game, which probably didn't help Bess when he came back for the final Test. Bess may not be any good, but he's still young and it makes sense to back him and not drop him after performing decently in a Test match win.

I've always liked Bairstow for his attacking approach in his batting but he was just out of sorts in this series. Surprising that Dan Lawrence was never seen more than just a backup batsman in the team when he showed he could handle spin at least better than the likes of Pope and Bairstow.

It was a pretty close series tbh, if England didn't chop and change so much and put behind all the controversies they had in the background it's possible they could've drawn 2-2 or even won 3-1 if they took their chances. Kinda a one sided Test series after that first Test, the LO's should be a lot more competitive, looking forward to that.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Been out of the cricket loop with the ongoing pandemic but you really think India can win against England in England. I followed this series a bit and it represented the typical pitch manipulations we’ve grown accustomed to in India.

India may not necessarily be the best test team in the world.

I can't see why not. Yes away batters can find English conditions difficult but the best can overcome that. Kohli showed that last time out. Rahane, Pujara, Pant all have centuries in England too.

The current side has a lot of experience in England.

Kohli and Rahane have played 10 tests
Pujara 9 (and substantial time in county cricket)
Rahul has 5 (maybe that's worth considering)
Jadeja 5, Ashwin 6, Pandya 4, Pant 3

The bowlers, especially the seamers, should welcome the conditions and ball.

The worry for India is the openers. Rohit was the best player of this series but he looks like he could have a Warner-esque drop off in England as an opener. Gill was out all but once, I think, to seamers. Couple of quick wickets with the new ball and that's where teams can fall apart.

Post automatically merged: Mar 7, 2021

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/56311207

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Blaming Jonny Bairstow for England's defeat would ignore wider context

Bairstow is only partially culpable for his batting struggles since his recall

www.espncricinfo.com

Love this line: 'you would probably also have to accept that Bairstow was going along very nicely until he was destabilised by the latest bit of whimsy from selectors who claim they use data but give every indication of simply manipulating it to justify the prioritisation of their latest favourite.'

 

[Khan Sahab54]

Blaming Jonny Bairstow for England's defeat would ignore wider context

Bairstow is only partially culpable for his batting struggles since his recall

www.espncricinfo.com

 

[zimrahil]

Blaming Jonny Bairstow for England's defeat would ignore wider context

Bairstow is only partially culpable for his batting struggles since his recall

www.espncricinfo.com

Love this line: 'you would probably also have to accept that Bairstow was going along very nicely until he was destabilised by the latest bit of whimsy from selectors who claim they use data but give every indication of simply manipulating it to justify the prioritisation of their latest favourite.'

No fan of Bairstow but would love to know how true the above might be?

 

[Ed Smith]

No fan of Bairstow but would love to know how true the above might be?

He's sleeping with Ed Smith

 

[wasteyouryouth]

No fan of Bairstow but would love to know how true the above might be?

I'd love to see the data that originally justified the selection of Buttler and Crawley. If you're going off first class centuries then Adil Rashid has a better claim to be in the top seven than Buttler.

 

[RichieBGM]

It was actually a really lucky innings by Pant. He remains a slogger.

Yes. But this time he showed some semblance of maturity by building his innings before going beserk. Disagree he was out only for glory. This was a team knock as it produced what India needed to win and wrap the series.

I have a question how does India and England get to play so many tests and even back to back series when Aussie gets to play virtually nothing this year other than meaningless ODIs and meaningful T20s. Baffles me to be honest. We have a young 21 year old Test batsman in excepional red ball form and he has no matches to showcase that talent other than on our domestic circuit.

 

[Aislabie]

I'd love to see the data that originally justified the selection of Buttler and Crawley. If you're going off first class centuries then Adil Rashid has a better claim to be in the top seven than Buttler.

I think the data that justified the inclusion of Crawley was similar to my VARP stat in that Canterbury pretty much didn't see a lawnmower for the summer months (see: Darren Stevens' bowling stats), suggesting that Crawley's average of 32 for Kent was worth about 42 anywhere else. They also had numbers that suggested he was much better as an opener, which is atypical, and suggested that he might be a player like a Vaughan or Trescothick that would perform better whenever confronted with a bigger challenge.

I'm not saying I completely agree, but when I went on a deep dive I could almost see what they were thinking. I still do not agree that it justified his initial selection though.

Post automatically merged: Mar 7, 2021

I have a question how does India and England get to play so many tests and even back to back series when Aussie gets to play virtually nothing this year other than meaningless ODIs and meaningful T20s. Baffles me to be honest. We have a young 21 year old Test batsman in excepional red ball form and he has no matches to showcase that talent other than on our domestic circuit.

This is related to CA pulling out of the South Africa tour.

Also, if you're feeling as if Australia are some sort of cricketing have-nots, probably widen your lens a little bit.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

I think the data that justified the inclusion of Crawley was similar to my VARP stat in that Canterbury pretty much didn't see a lawnmower for the summer months (see: Darren Stevens' bowling stats), suggesting that Crawley's average of 32 for Kent was worth about 42 anywhere else. They also had numbers that suggested he was much better as an opener, which is atypical, and suggested that he might be a player like a Vaughan or Trescothick that would perform better whenever confronted with a bigger challenge.

I'm not saying I completely agree, but when I went on a deep dive I could almost see what they were thinking. I still do not agree that it justified his initial selection though.

Post automatically merged: Mar 7, 2021

This is related to CA pulling out of the South Africa tour.

Also, if you're feeling as if Australia are some sort of cricketing have-nots, probably widen your lens a little bit.

And how about Jos Buttler and Jason Roy?

 

[asprin]

Happy that India won the series. Couldn't care less about WTC. I'll probably find myself giving it a miss.

England have had some decisions not go their way and that was quite unfair. India did find themselves at the receiving end too but the count was low. Nonetheless, it would be better to have neutral umpires until at least the home umpires improve. This is not to say it was all bad. I think the 3rd and 4th Tests showed a remarkable improvement.

The positives for India were that the big names (Kohli, Pujara, Rahane) didn't fire for most part of the series and yet there was always someone else who stood up to the challenge.

Gotta make a special mention for Rohit. He played out of character innings, didn't get any gigantic scores but his occupation of the crease for longer duration is commendable. He was the standout opener all through the series. I'll still be sceptical about him as an opener in Tests but I may slowly be finding myself changing my stand on it.

Gill had a very bad series. But it would be in India's best interests to persist with him and not drop him yet. With Ashwin, Sundar, Jadeja and Axar, India have 4 bowling allrounders. That is a good problem to have. Our batting dept increases without having the need to sacrifice the bowling. Don't remember the last time we were blessed in this department and spoilt for choice.


I feel England did have some positives as well. Anderson was gold as usual. Lawrence looked good and definitely should bat higher up the order. Pope didn't do much but one could tell there's good potential in him, this series should add to his experience. Haven't seen much of Sibley and Crawley to say anything though.

Foakes as a keeper was great but he gotta be regretting not making an impact with the bat. Pretty sure he will get replaced by Butler in the next series. Bairstow should focus only on limited overs format. Not sure why England keep bringing him back.

Also not sure why Sam Curran wasn't part of the team to begin with. His record against us is exemplary and he may well have proved to be a "thorn in the flesh" this time around too. If not injury, then I think England missed a trick by not including him.

 

[Khan Sahab54]

Also not sure why Sam Curran wasn't part of the team to begin with. His record against us is exemplary and he may well have proved to be a "thorn in the flesh" this time around too. If not injury, then I think England missed a trick by not including him.

He was added to the squads but he refused to come because of Covid 19

 

[Aislabie]

And how about Jos Buttler and Jason Roy?

I've got nothing.

Fun Jason Roy fact, he's never once batted over three hours.

 

[Crassus]

Right, onto the white ball stuff then. Feels a bit 'after the Lord Mayor's show' but there you go.

Although the rankings have India 3rd I would say this is the between the top two T20 teams in World cricket. Will India make many changes or will they put out their strongest XI for a World Cup dress rehearsal?

I would imagine England to line up like this...

Roy
Buttler (wk)
Malan
Bairstow
Morgan
Stokes
Ali
S Curran
Rashid
Archer*
Wood

*fitness permitting. If he isn't fit I'd expect Chris Jordan to come in.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Will India make many changes or will they put out their strongest XI for a World Cup dress rehearsal?

I don't think so India would be too keen on playing their best XI this early. Also with a season of IPL left there are changes that can occur in the Indian team for the World T20. I think one season of IPL at times is enough to get a new star suddenly making it into XI. T Natarajan is a good example of that.