India in England/Ireland/Scotland

Ineffective

I hope it is a quick pitch for our fast bowlers.
 
india's top order will have no chance if the pitch is quick and the english bowlers are on song like they have been for the last few matches...
 
I think Corey Colleymore had a similar throw to Munaf Patel. Thing is, I can't see where else he should field, if not at the boundary. I shudder to think he'll field in the slip quardon or the covers. If he's at mid off or mid on, the batsmen will target him and pinch easy singles. Same if he's at mid wicket. Must be a hard job being Dravid right now.

Collymore sure did have a similar throw, though he is now a fairly decent over-arm thrower so there is still hope for Munaf. To be honest it is baffling that someone can play cricket professionally and not be able to do an overarm throw, ignoring injuries of course.
 
Collymore sure did have a similar throw, though he is now a fairly decent over-arm thrower so there is still hope for Munaf. To be honest it is baffling that someone can play cricket professionally and not be able to do an overarm throw, ignoring injuries of course.

even if there is hope for munaf with his throwing, he shouldnt play tomorrow, his wickets have come by luck this series, only two wickets that are genuine, the wickets of alistair cook and ravinder bopara at bristol...:noway
 
This would be my England line-up then:

1) Alistair Cook
2) Matt Prior
3) Ian Bell
4) Kevin Pietersen
5) Paul Collingwood/Owais Shah - Due to Collingwood's Illness.
6) Andrew Flintoff
7) Ravi Bopara
8) Dimitri Mascarenhas
9) Stuart Broad
10) Monty Panesar
11) Jimmy Anderson


Now that looks like a solid and well balanced line up compared to india's, plenty of all-rounders and 3-4 are on top of their game. ;)
 
That looks like the right line-up.
Hopefully thats what the selectors choose.

how can the selectors go wrong? :p

they'll obviously know not to pick tremlett and shah would obviously come in for colly if hes ill....
 
I would put Bopara at 6 unless we were in need of some big slogging though, I like that side though!
 
well that was because they read the pitch wrong, and even if it was a fast bowling pitch (which it is), they would play him due to his economy in the last few matches.
 
I still maintain that if Flintoff plays he must bat 7. He's a bowling all-rounder, his batting ability isn't brilliant, that coupled with him being grossly out of form with that seems to make pushing Bopara, a youngster with massive potential and a huge future for this country if given the chances, who also happens to be in good form, above him sensible. We can't just keep having Bopara come in with 5 overs left because he just won't be able to make an impact.
 
Well, that still doesn't convince me that a fielding coach will do the trick. The process of a good fielding side should start at the domestic level and not at the international level.

I can understand that India are desperate to improve their fielding, but I don't see any coach in the world making a dramatic improvement in a single series or even in a period of 6 months. It takes time and hard work.

A fielding coach might help only during off-season when the players can go back and actually practise skills.

The question is do India really have an off-season? And how can they hope to practise fielding in international matches? I don't see net sessions helping much here.
So what should they do? Drop Munaf Patel, Sourav Ganguly, Ramesh Powar and the lot? I think our results would be far worse. We may give away 15-20 runs in a match with our fielding, but I think Sourav Ganguly can be expected to add those 15-20 runs back and Munaf and Powar can be expected to dismiss batsmen that would score those 15-20 runs. The point of having a fielding coach is to make minor improvements to those players who have been selected on basis of their specialist skill and whose fielding needs help. Which means if it so happens that a Don Bradman comes through the ranks but has absolutely pathetic fielding (to put forth an edge-case scenario) the fielding coach is there to help him out.

As for your argument that a fielding coach would be more useful in the off-season rather than during the series, that's a valid point. However, I don't think the fielding coach is actually bringing down the level of fielding (and if he is he should be sacked) so there is no harm in having him there. Though improvements aren't always obviously evident, they may be planting the seeds of improvement in fielding.

I really don't know where to go with the Indian line-up. We may fancy giving a couple of youngsters a go because if the series gets too tight, I don't see the selectors handing out debuts (or inexperienced caps) left, right and center. I hope Rohit Sharma gets a game in one of the next 2 games. I hope we stick with Piyush and Powar. Zaheer should also be in for sure. Our bowling department will give us a lot of concerns.

Is the ground fairly big? The problem with our part-timers in the first couple of games was that the grounds were so small that they really had no margin for error.
 
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