India in England Jun-Sept 2014

[IceAgeComing]

You can listen on Five Live Sports Extra!!

 

[SaiSrini]

I would seriously laugh at England if they prepare a juicy pitch for the bowlers. Don't worry about India's batting. Whatever they score, you can score way more than that, and your bowlers have the ammunition/knowledge of local conditions/patience to bowl India out two times.

Prepare a flat pitch. You can easily make India toil and crush them.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

India tour of England 2014 : Dravid appointed consultant with Indian team | Cricket News | England v India ? Investec Test Series | ESPN Cricinfo

Amazing move and amazing choice

 

[lion100lion]

Dravid to interact with Indian batsmen on Dhoni's request

 

[bumbisoft]

I think 3 pacers and jadeja at 8 would be a good combo. Ashwin might replace jadeja, bu t 3 pacers must play

 

[Aalay]

Of course it is a great news but I think what we really need is a bowling consultant. Someone who has decent knowledge about conditions, pitch, what line to bowl on different pitches. Our bowlers will be bowling in England for the first time in a test series, and Ishant Sharma is useless as the bowling head.

 

[SaiSrini]

Dravid to interact with Indian batsmen on Dhoni's request

Not really. Cricinfo source says it was Fletcher who wanted Dravid's services ahead of the tour

Cricinfo: Rahul Dravid to mentor India in England

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I think 3 pacers and jadeja at 8 would be a good combo. Ashwin might replace jadeja, bu t 3 pacers must play

Depends on the pitch conditions. If what I think England will serve up to India is right (flat pitches with not much for Indian seamers), we might need two spinners. India should not fall into the trap of "if its played outside the subcontinent, it must always be three or more seamers in the XI". Hope Dhoni reads the pitches right.

 

[lion100lion]

Not really. Cricinfo source says it was Fletcher who wanted Dravid's services ahead of the tour

In fact, both of them had approached.

Dravid to mentor team for India's tour to England on dhoni's request

 

[IceAgeComing]

Depends on the pitch conditions. If what I think England will serve up to India is right (flat pitches with not much for Indian seamers), we might need two spinners. India should not fall into the trap of "if its played outside the subcontinent, it must always be three or more seamers in the XI". Hope Dhoni reads the pitches right.

Why would they do that, though? That advantages spinners and India could pick two genuinely good spinners (Jadeja and Ashwin) while England seem to want to go with Moeen Ali as their main spin option: with the "proper" spinners available being Monty who's never been good as an only spinner; Kerrigan who didn't do so well at the oval last year but is probably a good player; and Tredwell who can't even get a spot in Kent's championship team. Add on the fact that India's batsmen would love a flat road since they bat of them for half a year then I think that England would quite like perhaps not a green top; but a pitch like the one at Headingley. Sri Lanka's pace attack is better than India's IMO; so they shouldn't be so worried about giving India some stuff since Anderson, Broad etc could probably get more out of the pitches than Ishant Sharma, who is apparently playing the first test...

The question for England is the Ben Stokes thing. He's fit and in form for Durham, but I don't see how they can play him without picking a dedicated spinner. Five seamers is too much unless you get a very green pitch: so you'd have to either pick Stokes at eight as your fourth seamer instead of Jordan which would really weaken the seam attack; not pick Stokes which probably isn't a good decision after the way that he played in Australia or pick Stokes instead of... someone and play a spinner which brings you back to the conundrum above. There's also the question of who you drop, since bar Cook all of the England batsman had at least one big, important score in the Sri Lankan series (you had Root's double hundred: Ballance, Robson and Moeen scored their maiden test centuries with the latter almost batting an entire day out to save the second test: and although Bell didn't do much in that series bar a 64 he's done more than enough to keep his spot after that).

 

[bumbisoft]

Not really. Cricinfo source says it was Fletcher who wanted Dravid's services ahead of the tour

Cricinfo: Rahul Dravid to mentor India in England

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Depends on the pitch conditions. If what I think England will serve up to India is right (flat pitches with not much for Indian seamers), we might need two spinners. India should not fall into the trap of "if its played outside the subcontinent, it must always be three or more seamers in the XI". Hope Dhoni reads the pitches right.

What about jadeja at 7, ash at 8 and three seamers. But our batting will become weak

 

[SaiSrini]

Why would they do that, though? That advantages spinners and India could pick two genuinely good spinners (Jadeja and Ashwin) while England seem to want to go with Moeen Ali as their main spin option: with the "proper" spinners available being Monty who's never been good as an only spinner; Kerrigan who didn't do so well at the oval last year but is probably a good player; and Tredwell who can't even get a spot in Kent's championship team. Add on the fact that India's batsmen would love a flat road since they bat of them for half a year then I think that England would quite like perhaps not a green top; but a pitch like the one at Headingley. Sri Lanka's pace attack is better than India's IMO; so they shouldn't be so worried about giving India some stuff since Anderson, Broad etc could probably get more out of the pitches than Ishant Sharma, who is apparently playing the first test...

The question for England is the Ben Stokes thing. He's fit and in form for Durham, but I don't see how they can play him without picking a dedicated spinner. Five seamers is too much unless you get a very green pitch: so you'd have to either pick Stokes at eight as your fourth seamer instead of Jordan which would really weaken the seam attack; not pick Stokes which probably isn't a good decision after the way that he played in Australia or pick Stokes instead of... someone and play a spinner which brings you back to the conundrum above. There's also the question of who you drop, since bar Cook all of the England batsman had at least one big, important score in the Sri Lankan series (you had Root's double hundred: Ballance, Robson and Moeen scored their maiden test centuries with the latter almost batting an entire day out to save the second test: and although Bell didn't do much in that series bar a 64 he's done more than enough to keep his spot after that).

In recent times, Indian bowlers get their tails up if the pitches help them. And when our bowlers do well (which is a rarity), our batting tends to feed off that overwhelming "sense of welldoing". If the pitch is flat, the Indian bowlers break easily (due to their low determination levels) and the downswing confidence affects the entire team.

Sporting pitches are good for India. Only thing is, the braindead BCCI will never prepare them as they want only money and they think a batting fest will bring in that money.

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What about jadeja at 7, ash at 8 and three seamers. But our batting will become weak

Not a bad option.

Pujara, Kohli and Rahane are a must. We need a keeper, so Dhoni. We need two openers (so two out of Gambhir, Dhawan and Vijay). That leaves 5 slots. Considering Jadeja and Ashwin can bat, we can go with a 5 man bowling attack if the pitch is flat. Even if there is swing, Binny can be played as the fourth seamer and he and Ashwin can bat. India has to go with a 5 man bowling attack.

 

[lion100lion]

Even if there is swing, Binny can be played as the fourth seamer and he and Ashwin can bat. India has to go with a 5 man bowling attack.

In case of swing, I would like to include Jadeja instead of Ashwin. Remember him taking six wickets against South Africa, this year ?

 

[aditya123]

I`m pretty irritated by Dhoni`s choice of bowlers and might end up not watching the early part of the series with Ishant being a certainty in the side. We keep complaining about the cupboard being bare but for once we had the opportunity to field an exciting pace attack (albeit unpredictable) in Shami, Yadav, Aaron and Bhuvaneshwar. Instead we go for the predictably mediocre Ishant and mark my words, Pankaj Singh who is another from the Vinay Kumar school of bowling. Nothing that excites me in Pankaj Singh.

Yadav, Shami and Varun Aaron would have had enough pace to rattle the opposition. All of them have the ability to swing the ball as well. I`d rather fail with that attack and give them more exposure than go with Ishant Sharma and fail for the umpteenth time. I fear Dhoni might pick Pankaj Singh ahead of Varun Aaron. Get ready to see some more runfests for England. I genuinely think we have enough firepower to make it competitive but knowing Dhoni, we will end up with the same old stale combinations in the early part of the series, fall way behind and get thrashed.

The team that I would want would be:

Dhawan
Vijay
Pujara
Rahane
Kohli
Dhoni (c) (wk)
Jadeja
Ashwin
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar
Shami
Aaron

Early in a 5-match series is when you must force the initiative rather than waiting for things to happen. Unfortunately, Dhoni likes predictable stuff inspite of it being mediocre and hence he would rather go for bowlers who can give him figures of 20-2-0-60 rather than someone who might go for something like 20-0-3-90. One can afford to be a bit erratic in test matches if you have the ability to get wickets. In Bhuvaneshwar and Jadeja you already have bowlers who are more of the blocking kind. We need two genuine wicket taking bowlers and Ishant is`nt one of them.

 

[Skater]

I will be going to the first day of the fourth Test. I just hope the Manchester weather holds.

 

[greymatter776]

Those who likes to follow the warmup matches here is a link for live commentary BBC Sport - Live - Derbyshire v India commentary