England's tour of India - 2021

[Bevab]

Faiz Fazal captain of Vidharbha can be an alternative for Rituraj Gaikwad. Prolific run scorer and led Vidharbha to an Elusive Ranji Trophy title as well.

Fazal was the first player who was picked for the national side on the basis of his domestic performances alone and not the IPL since the league started. A very underrated cricketer.

 

[Bevab]

@RichieBGM in response to the question about pitches.. it is true that Indian pitches are more oriented towards batting these days. Pacers were arguably better than the spinners in our last few home series, the early days of Kohli's captaincy where a minefield per series and dustbowls were common seems to be over. And it should stay that way, the excessively spin heavy pitches did nothing but aid spinners from the opposition by helping them with unpredictability while the skill difference between Indian spinners and opposition spinners was reduced due to the pitch factor. Some of our batsmen not being able to dominate spin like the previous generations also helps the opposition if the pitch is spicy.

On the Pant argument, have you seen his off-side play? It is extremely textbook and some of those drives and cuts can be delightful to watch. The main (and possibly only?) technical issue I see with him is his lack of balance in certain leg-side shots, especially when he goes aerial. In a test match though, he doesn't really have a need to go for big shots and it shows in the way he batted at Gabba, preferring shots along the ground to keep the scoreboard ticking. There have been worse cricketers in terms of technique who have ended up having very fine careers, I doubt Pant will be one to fall away.

As for his record, England was his debut series in which he was flown in the middle of the series and he still managed a century (a dead rubber it might have been on a very flat pitch, but this was special to us given him being a debutant). The NZ tour was a collective failure and while I admit I expected much more from Pant, he was pretty heavily mismanaged in the weeks prior to the series, being dropped after a concussion in white ball cricket and having no real assurance over his test spot with Saha supposedly the first team choice according to the dressing room.

 

[Aalay]

It will be interesting to see what team we will go with in the first test match. The batting line-up will be pretty similar to what we had in the Gabba Test, I am assuming, with obviously Virat coming back into it. Since we are playing in Chennai, I assume we will play two spinners, two fast bowlers and a spin-bowling all-rounder.

We will definitely miss Jadeja considering how well he was playing in Australia, so it will be interesting to see who takes the all-rounder spot. Again, most people will say Sundar considering his amazing debut game at Gabba, but I would be very tempted to go with Akshar Patel considering England's weakness against left-arm spin.

Gill
Rohit
Pujara
Kohli
Rahane
Pant
Patel
Ashwin
Kuldeep
Ishant
Bumrah

England is a much better test team than Australia currently, plus the form Joe Root is coming in with will definitely make this series close.

 

[RichieBGM]

@RichieBGM in response to the question about pitches.. it is true that Indian pitches are more oriented towards batting these days. Pacers were arguably better than the spinners in our last few home series, the early days of Kohli's captaincy where a minefield per series and dustbowls were common seems to be over. And it should stay that way, the excessively spin heavy pitches did nothing but aid spinners from the opposition by helping them with unpredictability while the skill difference between Indian spinners and opposition spinners was reduced due to the pitch factor. Some of our batsmen not being able to dominate spin like the previous generations also helps the opposition if the pitch is spicy.

On the Pant argument, have you seen his off-side play? It is extremely textbook and some of those drives and cuts can be delightful to watch. The main (and possibly only?) technical issue I see with him is his lack of balance in certain leg-side shots, especially when he goes aerial. In a test match though, he doesn't really have a need to go for big shots and it shows in the way he batted at Gabba, preferring shots along the ground to keep the scoreboard ticking. There have been worse cricketers in terms of technique who have ended up having very fine careers, I doubt Pant will be one to fall away.

As for his record, England was his debut series in which he was flown in the middle of the series and he still managed a century (a dead rubber it might have been on a very flat pitch, but this was special to us given him being a debutant). The NZ tour was a collective failure and while I admit I expected much more from Pant, he was pretty heavily mismanaged in the weeks prior to the series, being dropped after a concussion in white ball cricket and having no real assurance over his test spot with Saha supposedly the first team choice according to the dressing room.

I figured that was the case with your modern pitches. You mentioned they were still dust bowls in Kohli's early career. Did he have something to do with putting an emphasis on a good pace attack rather that a spin attack. Thus the main reason for the phasing out of dust bowls. Will be interested to see how many spinners both India and England play. May be a pointer for when we tour there in '22.

I saw a great deal of Pants play. Yes he played some fine shots interspersed with some poor ones. Other than losing balance on some leg side shots his most glaring technical flaw with his off side shots is he plays too far from the ball.. He is not compact and does not connect with ball late and under his eyes like the best batsmen. England a dead rubber on a very flat pitch for his debut ton. I expect the ECB will be hoping Pant is chosen next away tour on seaming and swinging Pom tracks.

 

[RichieBGM]

England is a much better test team than Australia currently

Other than for Stokes white ball like explosion at Headingley Australia won the 2019 Ashes. So your comment does not hold water.

As for playing in India Australia had its best series in 2017. Won one and were close to a second victory if memory serves. Has England fared as well in past decade. I can see Roots purple patch coming to an end at the hands of a fine India attack. He came to Australia in form back in 2017/18 and left without registering a century. Our quicks, specially, had his measure as I believe yours will.

 

[Ed Smith]

Other than for Stokes white ball like explosion at Headingley Australia won the 2019 Ashes. So your comment does not hold water.

As for playing in India Australia had its best series in 2017. Won one and were close to a second victory if memory serves. Has England fared as well in past decade. I can see Roots purple patch coming to an end at the hands of a fine India attack. He came to Australia in form back in 2017/18 and left without registering a century. Our quicks, specially, had his measure as I believe yours will.

While ago now chief

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Other than for Stokes white ball like explosion at Headingley Australia won the 2019 Ashes. So your comment does not hold water.

As for playing in India Australia had its best series in 2017. Won one and were close to a second victory if memory serves. Has England fared as well in past decade. I can see Roots purple patch coming to an end at the hands of a fine India attack. He came to Australia in form back in 2017/18 and left without registering a century. Our quicks, specially, had his measure as I believe yours will.

While I agree that Australia has some great talent in Marnus and Smith with bat and Cummins and Hazlewood with bowl, I would not say that Australia is better compared to England. England did not lose the series. Australia just retained it by drawing the series 2-2.

 

[asprin]

For perhaps the first time in a long time, I'm upbeat about India. Of course it would naive to downplay England's chances but India definitely hold the advantage and momentum. England are coming off a series sweep in SL, but it won't be that easy against us. I don't foresee any drawn matches.

Just hoping that we don't end up gifting wickets to Bess the way SL batsmen gifted theirs

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Just hoping that we don't end up gifting wickets to Bess the way SL batsmen gifted theirs

Sharmaji would step out and try to loft him once in every over. He did this to Keshav Maharaj the last time.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

I know I have established my image on this forums as a bit of Reverse Jinx guy.

But this is a Serious Prediction or just my feeling about the upcoming series - England might win a test atleast considering there are just two venues for the Tests Chennai & Ahmedabad less travelling means less fatigue to players and more time to get accustomed to the conditions so this can be a closer series then being predicted.

India still mighty favorites with 2-1 or 3-1 win.

 

[Bigby Wolf]

Fazal was the first player who was picked for the national side on the basis of his domestic performances alone and not the IPL since the league started. A very underrated cricketer.

Suprisingly never played or even get selected for India after that Zimbabwe Debut Series back in 2016 where he scored a 55 not out.

Speculations back then in Media was about involvment of Shashank Manohar (Former BCCI & ICC President) played a part in his selection which I think is absolute bullocks..

(Remember it was either Aaj Tak - Vikrant Gupta or India TV - Sameep Rajguru who mentioned the Shashank Manohar Angle in his selection).

 

[Ed Smith]

I know I have established my image on this forums as a bit of Reverse Jinx guy.

But this is a Serious Prediction or just my feeling about the upcoming series - England might win a test atleast considering there are just two venues for the Tests Chennai & Ahmedabad less travelling means less fatigue to players and more time to get accustomed to the conditions so this can be a closer series then being predicted.

India still mighty favorites with 2-1 or 3-1 win.

Only one I reckon we habe any chance with is the day/night test. Other than that I think you'll be pretty comfortable.

 

[Skater]

India v England will be live on free-to-air television in the UK!

First time since 2005 that Test cricket will be available to watch without paying for a subscription.

Live Test Cricket returns to Channel 4 | Channel 4

Full coverage of India vs England Test series live on Channel 4

www.channel4.com

 

[SaiSrini]

Should be an interesting series. I agree with Bigby Wolf that England will benefit from the less fatigue. Also they are a much better team than Australia and are just coming off a subcontinental series vs Sri Lanka. I won't be surprised if they win a test and seriously challenge us in our home ground.

For us, we are just coming off a historic high of a series that feels like a World Cup victory. Almost always after such highs, we've had some below average performances that have resulted in losses and a hard return to earth. Added to that, the new dynamics that the team has to face where the long term captain returns to an environment thats radically different from the one when he left for his leave. There is a likelihood that every misstep of his will be amplified not only in the media, but even in the minds of his own teammates who have seen a massive "rising from the phoenix" success under the vice captain's leadership. (P.s: I am not wishing for Kohli the captain to fail; after all the post-paternity leave vitriol, that feeling of mine wanting Kohli the captain to fail, has almost disappeared; I still feel he would serve best if he relinquished captaincy, but I dont care anymore; the guy deserves some luck after what he was put through).

Is this the return of that Satan666 guy or whatever his username was? Seems familiar was round the forums back in 2017-18 had similar thoughts over Bumrah back then.

P.S - There was this Bumrah fan name user too who used to troll Bumrah. Quite the Irony that!

Yeah... Same bulb is going off in my head too.

 

[Bevab]

Pretty nuts that someone like Bumrah would attract trolls. He is easily the most likeable cricketer of this team, how could someone even fathom having a negative reaction to that bloke!