India in England Jun-Sept 2014

[greymatter776]

Looks like Cook is going to find his form again and yet again vs India.

 

[Aalay]

I don't know how are we going to get 20 wickets in this match. Bowling looks very weak.

 

[MUFC1987]

That easy chance that Jadeja dropped off Cook, may be what reignites his England career.

 

[Aalay]

I thought there was an edge.

 

[grkrama]

Looks like Cook is not going to throw it away this time. He is shaping up nicely at the crease and looks really comfortable. I can see a big one for Cook here. In fact, I fear something huge from him. India missed a trick by not picking Varun ahead of Pankaj. England have not looked comfortable against pace and Varun would have added some zip to this tired Indian attack.

you need to get back in form to turn this around for us

 

[asprin]

Excellent opportunity for Cook to score big here. Indian bowling seems inept so far. I wonder what the situation would have been had Jadeja managed to hold onto that catch.

 

[Aalay]

They have bowled too short. Bhuvi who is very accurate is not bowling well today. He is bowling too short. Shami just bowls too many bad deliveries to lose any pressure he has initially built on. Pankaj Singh has bowled well but needs some support from fielders.

 

[aditya123]

Our selection in this game has been really defensive. With Ishant Sharma out for this game, we could have easily done with some cushion in the bowling department. Ashwin for Rohit would have been a very logical selection. Yet, we decide to play safe and go in with Rohit. I think Cook has now really booked in for bed and breakfast here. Pankaj and Shami have looked good without much luck. That dropped catch by Jadeja is going to hurt us hugely in this series. We are easily looking at a 500+ target here.

For all those saying greentops are the way to go against India, this is exactly the kind of wicket where we struggle the most as a test match side. Forget twice, our bowlers are not going to bowl you out even once on such a wicket. When we come out to bat now with the scoreboard pressure, I expect our batting to collapse and concede a huge first innings lead. England are on course to a series leveling win here.

 

[asprin]

England are on course to a series leveling win here.

Too early to say, don't you think? It's just the first day. I could agree on Cook scoring a big one, but I'd still like to see how the Indians bat on this pitch.

 

[aditya123]

Too early to say, don't you think? It's just the first day. I could agree on Cook scoring a big one, but I'd still like to see how the Indians bat on this pitch.

Dhoni`s captaincy has moments where he is happy not taking wickets, allowing the game to just drift. Jadeja and Rohit Sharma bowling in tandem on Day 1. Really? Its been a good hour or so since a seamer last bowled. Although they were`nt setting the stage on fire, at least we had the ball beating bat now and then. With spin, there is no chance of getting a wicket unless the batsmen do something stupid. If we did want an offspinner to bowl a lot of overs, Ashwin should have been in the side. I don`t know how Jadeja can be considered a test class spinner on good tracks. Yes, he can keep it tight but does not offer you anything else on a good track against decent players of spin. Ashwin might have a bad overseas record but he has only played 4 tests spread across 3 years overseas. Three of those were in 2011. Since then, he has just played one test overseas. He is still a more attacking spin option on good wickets.

 

[Epic]

Our selection in this game has been really defensive. With Ishant Sharma out for this game, we could have easily done with some cushion in the bowling department. Ashwin for Rohit would have been a very logical selection. Yet, we decide to play safe and go in with Rohit. I think Cook has now really booked in for bed and breakfast here. Pankaj and Shami have looked good without much luck. That dropped catch by Jadeja is going to hurt us hugely in this series. We are easily looking at a 500+ target here.

But that's all in hindsight, just like at Trent Bridge, all the pundits expected more pace in the wicket, and again, everyone's wrong.

Dhoni`s captaincy has moments where he is happy not taking wickets, allowing the game to just drift. Jadeja and Rohit Sharma bowling in tandem on Day 1. Really? Its been a good hour or so since a seamer last bowled. Although they were`nt setting the stage on fire, at least we had the ball beating bat now and then. With spin, there is no chance of getting a wicket unless the batsmen do something stupid. If we did want an offspinner to bowl a lot of overs, Ashwin should have been in the side. I don`t know how Jadeja can be considered a test class spinner on good tracks. Yes, he can keep it tight but does not offer you anything else on a good track against decent players of spin. Ashwin might have a bad overseas record but he has only played 4 tests spread across 3 years overseas. Three of those were in 2011. Since then, he has just played one test overseas. He is still a more attacking spin option on good wickets.

Obviously he didn't expect to have to get Rohit into the game this early, at the interview after the toss, he said they wanted someone that could bowl 10 overs of spin if need be, not 20.

 

[grkrama]

@aditya123 i have faith in you mate keep it up[DOUBLEPOST=1406471572][/DOUBLEPOST]seriously though this is a road heading for a draw, cook getbacks to form and is hailed as king of adversity etc etc, kohli/rohit one of them is set for a big one.

 

[aditya123]

But that's all in hindsight, just like at Trent Bridge, all the pundits expected more pace in the wicket, and again, everyone's wrong.



Obviously he didn't expect to have to get Rohit into the game this early, at the interview after the toss, he said they wanted someone that could bowl 10 overs of spin if need be, not 20.

Its not even hindsight here. I have been harping about this since the start of the series. Jadeja cannot be your frontline spinner in test cricket. He is simply not a wicket taking option unless its turning big. His bowling has very little in terms of variations and wont bother a lot of test match batting lineups. All he does is just firing the ball with a flat trajectory at 90 kph. At best he should be playing as an allrounder in the side, not a frontline option. We might have gone ahead in this series but that has been mainly due to some inept English batting so far and not due to our strengths. Dare I say, even Dhawan looks more likely to pick wickets than Jadeja.

Dhoni`s tactics will lose us more games than we would win. Can anyone explain why we are so shy of picking potential wicket taking options in Aaron or Ashwin? You cannot pack a team with honest trundlers like Pankaj, Bhuvi and Jadeja and expect to take 20 test match wickets. This is not T20 cricket where the batsmen are going to gift it away if you keep it tight! Yes, you do need guys who can give you control but its good to have an erratic yet quick bowler in the side, especially when most test match wickets these days are fair batting tracks. That is where someone like Sreesanth, Eranga or Johnson were effective. This is precisely the reason why Varun Aaron or Umesh Yadav need to get into this test side before they lose their pace. If it were a captain like Clarke or even the Pakistan team management, they would have picked someone like Aaron or Yadav ahead of Pankaj Singh.

 

[lion100lion]

Another nonsense pitch.
Lord's pitch was the best for a test cricket. The pitch had took the match to the 5th day and gave out a result.

 

[Epic]

Its not even hindsight here. I have been harping about this since the start of the series. Jadeja cannot be your frontline spinner in test cricket. He is simply not a wicket taking option unless its turning big. His bowling has very little in terms of variations and wont bother a lot of test match batting lineups. All he does is just firing the ball with a flat trajectory at 90 kph. At best he should be playing as an allrounder in the side, not a frontline option. We might have gone ahead in this series but that has been mainly due to some inept English batting so far and not due to our strengths. Dare I say, even Dhawan looks more likely to pick wickets than Jadeja.

That I agree with, but I was talking about hindsight in relation to picking 2 spinners (Ashwin in place of Rohit), there's no point in playing 2 spinners if you expect the pitch to behave closer to the one served up at Lord's rather than the one from Trent Bridge, which is what the pundits (and everyone) believed this pitch would be close to during the pitch report, so I don't know how you can fault a captain for misreading the pitch.