India in England Jun-Sept 2014

[abhi_jacko]

Doesn't look like the sort of pitch that will flatten up after a day. It is holding up very well even with the ball fairly old now. And I feel like it is going to be conducive to spin a lot more from day 3.

In any case, no teams wants to be rolled out ever. We need to get as many runs as we can regardless of how long it takes

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Umm: Sky comms talking about their 'mojo' and 'rubbing'!!

 

[SaiSrini]

Comment on Cricinfo

Shantanu Agrawa: "The curious case of Jadeja: He is not a better bowler than Ashwin. He is not a better batsman than Ashwin. Ashwin has 2 hundreds and 3 fifties whereas Jadeja has not even scored a ffifty. His average is almost half of Ashwins. What is he doing in this team?"

Exactly my thought!

 

[abhi_jacko]

Well played Rahane ..

 

[used2bcool]

Jadeja does have a better bowling average than Ashwin, I think. It's a classic case of variation versus control, and you know Dhoni will always go for control. To be fair, Jadeja's batting has been disappointing - I believe he has the talent to succeed with the bat in Tests but he needs to get his mind sorted out and apply himself better.

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Also, watching Cheteshwar Pujara today - he needs to understand that merely sticking it out isn't going to get the job done. He's got to optimize the time he spends at the crease - just blocking through 120 balls achieves very little for the team. He's got the technique to survive for long on tough tracks, but he's got to use that to his advantage and score some runs. Look at the innings Rahane played as opposed to Pujara - Rahane's looked just as solid, but he's coupled that with an intent to score.

 

[barmyarmy]

Well just to balance the pessimism all the English commentators are convinced that England have bowled dreadfully and blown any advantage they might have got.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

in the balance I think.

india should be a tad worried if the old ball isn't doing anything, jadeja's not a good enough spinner to twirl people out without much spin and they don't have enough raw pace to worry england. could see england being 100/5 or something like that and still making well over 350. pretty much what happened last time they toured here.

 

[grkrama]

what a shot from rahane, pure timing

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

rahane has been the real surprise out of india, all the talk had been about kohli and pujara emerging but he looks an absolute gem of a player, he might even be better than those two, he's doing so well in the overseas tests.

 

[Aalay]

Rahane has played absolutely brilliantly here. Plunket's poor bowling gave him that much needed start and he has been solid since than. His partnership with Bhuvi has put India into a decent position. What a lovely place to get your century. He is on the honours board.

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Oh lord, he has thrown it away.

 

[War]

rahane has been the real surprise out of india, all the talk had been about kohli and pujara emerging but he looks an absolute gem of a player, he might even be better than those two, he's doing so well in the overseas tests.

Yep. Gundappa Viswanath reincarnated.

 

[abhi_jacko]

Well played Rahane .. what a knock. AT Lord's and at a point when the team really needed it. Too bad he had to get out to a freaky, reaction catch from Anderson

 

[shravi]

rahane has been the real surprise out of india, all the talk had been about kohli and pujara emerging but he looks an absolute gem of a player, he might even be better than those two, he's doing so well in the overseas tests.

yup. 3 classic innings with the 96 in durban, 118 in wellington, and this 103 at lord's. he's also shown he's very good at batting with the lower order.

 

[aditya123]

Its been one of the better test match knocks that I have seen by an Indian batsman in recent times. This knock by Rahane was almost a throwback to the era of the Fab Four. He has been our best batsman in the last 3 test tours to SA, NZ and England.

Two 50s and a 96 in 4 innings in SA and a hundred in NZ to add to this knock. This guy can bat! From an Indian point of view, from being 140/7 to end the day at 290/9, it has definitely been India`s day. The wicket is not a batting paradise by any stretch of imagination and a 300 score here is almost worth a 400-odd score on a good batting track. Bhuvaneshwar and the tail have shown some spine as well. In fact, Bhuvi has looked better equipped than Jadeja and Dhoni with the bat so far. Jadeja would be under great pressure to get some wickets here. He cannot hold Ashwin out for long enough, especially with such insipid batting efforts.

 

[SaiSrini]

Rahane is surely in the making of becoming "one of those Fab Four" guys who served India so well in tests. Absolutely amazing knock! Getting a hundred on a helpful pitch in Lord's (England) where the rest of the batsmen have failed, is so Dravid-esque. And I have always wanted the team to use Rahane lower down because I think he can bat well with the tail, like how Laxman did.

All his good knocks so far have been overseas, on sporting wickets. Very well done!

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Yep. Gundappa Viswanath reincarnated.

Too early. I have not seen GRV (Vishwanath) play, but have heard that he was in an altogether different league than even the guys in our Fab Four (Sachin, Dravid, Laxman).

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Fantastic innings from Rahane. As some one mentioned earlier, a lot was said about Pujara Kohli and this guy quietly has gone about doing business. This is the way cricket is played stay low profile let your bat do the talking.

For me Jadeja and Binny should be no where near the Indian team and so is Ashwin. We need some fresh talent into the side. Ojha was super against England and he should have been there for the series. But if only presented Jadeja Ashwin Binny, I would have played Ashwin in place of Jadeja and Gambhir/Rohit in place of Binny.

3 Fast bowlers one spinner and medium pace of Kohli and part time spin of Vijay/Sharma would be more then enough. Luckily we had Rahane who played sensible knocks or else we would have been struggling. With 290 on board, if we could add another 25-30 runs we would be comfortable this match given how the pitch has played.

Whoever wins or draws the test match its good to see Seaming and Swinging tracks back as this is what we expect from English soil and that is what is my interest even if India had to lose 5-0