[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by freedom

I have always believed in picking your best team..

..I am waiting for a day when Ravi Shastri will be dropped. This batting debacle is a case of bad planning

When we are looking to pick the best team, we should also look to pick the best coach. Here we have only a cheerleader for the captain. Maybe with added expertise in organising musical chairs for the players.

We are missing the tactics and sheer willpower of Anil Kumble. Both of our losses in SA could be attributed to selection blunders, even the first match in England. In the glory days of our earlier no.1 rating, we had a lot of matchwinners who used to fight back from different positions in overseas matches. Sehwag, Gambhir, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Zaheer, Kumble, the odd bowling performance from someone like Sreesanth, etc.
All players in this test team have done this in our winning run in home matches but seem to be lost in such conditions.
We are shipping away too many test match losses.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by NPV

What magic has Pandya worked on the team's think-tank ? He seems to be a 100% sure-shot static feature in the test team!

True. I am fluxomed as well.

Is he a good enough batsman to survive for long in these conditions? No!

He does not have the technique. Maximum you can expect is perhaps a lucky innings in the whole tour. Do you really need to to carry him all through for that?

Does he have the required bowling skill to exploit these conditions? No!!
Hell he bowled a total of 10 overs in the last test. Might as well play a proper batsman and strengthen the batting!!!

Originally Posted by freedom

I have always believed in picking your best team. If that means u have to play 2 spinners on green top so be it.

On a rainy day in England your best team has 2 spinners? I don't think so. Definitely not this team. We have sufficient fast bowling skill to exploit these conditions much better than a spinner can- no matter how bright a prodigy Kuldeep is!!


Edit: Watching Pandya bat. Does he have any idea of how to bat in these conditions??

[NPV]

Kohli out and India reeling at 49/4, will it be another disastrous batting performance ?

[hemanth.anand]

Now our Great Allrounder gone too. The procession has started. Sigh!

[ToyotaFan]

I see no difference in the team from the 2014 tour even in 2018. I have a feeling the tour will pan out the same way. The first test was our best chance to win (we won the first test in 2014 as well) and then cut a sorry figure for the rest of the series. Considering we lost a close test match in the first test and weather becoming wet in the UK again I won't be surprised if this ends even worse than 2014 did.

[Oxy]

107 all out as I type. 2-0 coming up and if that happens (most likely), then we are going to be mentally shot. Nothing will prevent a 5-0 then.

This cheerleader Shastri just has to be kicked out, plus Kohli needs to be sacked as captain and Kumble needs to be brought back as the head coach. The team is not the captain and coach's personal property. Enough is enough really.

[hemanth.anand]

Five-for for Anderson. Thanks to some wagging tail, India manage to get a 3 digit score. Batsmen have shown again that they are still not upto the level. Hope the bowlers can do what the English bowlers have done

[Chetan_Rao]

The number of batsmen playing through the line like it's an Indian flat track, is shocking, even accounting for due credit to English bowlers and the conditions.

India do have a specialist batting coach, right? What does he get paid for?

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

The number of batsmen playing through the line like it's an Indian flat track, is shocking, even accounting for due credit to English bowlers and the conditions.

India do have a specialist batting coach, right? What does he get paid for?

True that. Slightly straight ball and they try to play on the on side. I guess they are good enough players to realise that what fetches them runs in subcontinent won't do them good in these pitches where ball swings both ways.

Anyway the batting has floundered over to the bowlers now!

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

India do have a specialist batting coach, right? What does he get paid for?

At this level (players in the national test team), coaches can only do so much and it's more of a total lack of application and the patience to play more and trying to get in.

Ironically, this is (on paper at least) one of the strongest batting line ups in the game currently

[NPV]

England @68/2 and haven't been troubled too much by the bowling so far. Fact remains that 107 is such a low score batting first, that England could easily end up with a 100-150 run lead even with mediocre batting and then the second innings for India will be a high pressure one ending mostly in disaster - usual test match recipe this!

To stay alive in this series, there has to be some sort of revival for India and I'm just hoping something will trigger that very soon. What will be the tipping point or is it going to be all downhill for India this time ?

[vibbs]

All these are international players so probably they know better than me. Coz there have been already a couple of decisions in this match that has perplexed me.

First one was of course how Pandya manages to retain his place in the side.
Second was inclusion of Kuldeep in place of a geniune pace bowler when the conditions are so seam friendly.
Third now today getting Kuldeep to bowl ahead of Ashwin despite knowing how well Ashwin bowled with a newish ball in both the innings of last test!!

But as I said I am just an armchair critic, probably they have a plan!!
Whatever that plan maybe, I hope it includes getting England bowled out for nothing more than 150 in the first innings. Anything more and we are looking at being 2-0 down the way batting has responded so far!

[Chetan_Rao]

England have a collapse in them, if India can bowl at their best for an hour after lunch. If England survive the next session, they'll have enough on the board simply because India don't.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

...., if India can bowl at their best for an hour after lunch.

Doesn't seem like it. India has managed to give a boundary every over after lunch!!

[Chetan_Rao]

Almost every England batter has got a start but failed to convert. That would be poor in a normal game but in this one, 15-20 runs each could get this out of India's reach really quickly.

First half hour of both sessions have been poor bowling by India. Gave away 40-odd runs in 7 overs since lunch. Shami is bowling well but with nothing on the board to defend, it's unfair to expect miracles from him.