[Eddy]

So how long are we persisting with KL Rahul? Time to dip into the A team bucket now. Or go back to Shaw of and when he is available.

[selfdrive]

Our openers will be Shaw and Agarwal, unless Agarwal's form drops off or Shaw's bad luck continues to dog him.
Rahul has had way too many opportunities to cement his place. Though it does seem likely he will hit a century just before Shaw can be considered again.

[hemanth.anand]

Steve Smith 200.
His batting is the most ugly looking of the best 4 test batsmen of this generation. But somehow he keeps scoring tons of runs. Amazing series he is having this Ashes

[AltoLXI]

Well done Australia. Hope they make it 3-1 .

Steve Smith's series it has been. No second thoughts on who will get the player of the series award.

[Sunil2307]

At the moment Steve Smith is batting in God mode. What a player!!!

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Steve Smith 200.
His batting is the most ugly looking of the best 4 test batsmen of this generation. But somehow he keeps scoring tons of runs. Amazing series he is having this Ashes

Not 4 any longer.

I don't think Joe Root is in the same class as the other 3. My hunch is that Babar Azam will be the next big thing.

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Not 4 any longer. I don't think Joe Root is in the same class as the other 3. My hunch is that Babar Azam will be the next big thing.

Root has slipped out of the Fab 4 and will need to score a lot more to get back there. Too early to speak of Babar. He looks good with his temperament and technique but need to do a lot more to be in the Fab 4 list.

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Steve Smith 200.
His batting is the most ugly looking of the best 4 test batsmen of this generation. But somehow he keeps scoring tons of runs. Amazing series he is having this Ashes

His biggest test will be in India. He has already done good on turning pitches but now there will be a lot more expected from him. He is a nice chap and most who love cricket want him to do well.

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Our openers will be Shaw and Agarwal, unless Agarwal's form drops off or Shaw's bad luck continues to dog him.
Rahul has had way too many opportunities to cement his place. Though it does seem likely he will hit a century just before Shaw can be considered again.

Shaw and Agarwal should be our first choice. However, it is high time we recognize few domestic performances as well now rather than keep giving opportunities to K L Rahul.

[carboy]

Smith has been batting like this for a few years now (though this series has been even more extraordinary). I don't think Smith can be even compared to Kohli or Kane anymore - he is above all of them in test cricket. Smith is slowly reaching "2nd only to Bradman" status.

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

Too early to speak of Babar. He looks good with his temperament and technique but need to do a lot more to be in the Fab 4 list.

Oh, he's very far from the current top 4 list. He is likely to feature in the next Fab X list that'll be decided in the next few years.

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by carboy

Smith has been batting like this for a few years now (though this series has been even more extraordinary). I don't think Smith can be even compared to Kohli or Kane anymore - he is above all of them in test cricket. Smith is slowly reaching "2nd only to Bradman" status.

So true. In test cricket, Kohli is close to him but not Kane and by no means Root. The added advantage Kohli had in 2017-2018 was the 16 test matches he played in India whereas Smith had a troubled year because of the sand paper controversy. Still he has managed to score heavily says a lot about his character and mental strength.

Hopefully he will not be given captaincy again so as to keep concentrating on his batting. If he plays the way he has done in this Ashes for another few years then may be Bradman would be called as '2nd only to Smith'

[swissknife]

Afghanistan record their first test victory in a nail biting finish. Rashid Khan sparkles with a 50 and 11 wickets in the test, youngest to captain a maiden test victory for a country. Well done!!!

[hemanth.anand]

Bangladesh become the first nation to lose a test match against 10 different countries. What a dubious record to have!

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Bangladesh become the first nation to lose a test match against 10 different countries. What a dubious record to have!

They deserve it. Attitude of players have made or broken a team. Bangladesh need to keep their head down and work on the basics again. 20 years is a long time of international cricket and they cannot keep giving excuses of being in-progress state.

Originally Posted by swissknife

Afghanistan record their first test victory in a nail biting finish. Rashid Khan sparkles with a 50 and 11 wickets in the test, youngest to captain a maiden test victory for a country. Well done!!!

India should give him citizenship . He has everything to achieve what Warne, Kumble and Vettori have but with an amateur team status he isnt going to get many opportunities at test level.

[Eddy]

Happy for Afghanistan. But Rashid khan going into the record books as the youngest one to do this and that is not fair. Clearly he's not 19.

[ram87pune]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Happy for Afghanistan. But Rashid khan going into the record books as the youngest one to do this and that is not fair. Clearly he's not 19.

Hey Eddy,

I just checked his wikipedia page and it mentions his birthdate as 20/09/98 so he is turning 20 in around 11 days from today. So as of today he is 19.

But still he is going to be one of the greats of the game if he continues his current form.