[harry10]

Originally Posted by TokyoDrifter

BenStokes! Ben Stokes has different plan - like Harsha Bhogle says “In his current form, Ben Stokes will prolly find a vaccine for COVID!”

I know the ratings say differently but for me Ben stokes is the number 1 all rounder in the world right now. The way he won the World Cup for England last year and since then his performance has been peaking all the time. Truly exceptional player in current form. Take him out of the England team and they become really mediocre.

[hondafanboy]

Originally Posted by TokyoDrifter

BenStokes! Ben Stokes has different plan - like Harsha Bhogle says “In his current form, Ben Stokes will prolly find a vaccine for COVID!”

That was funny ! did he really say that ?

[Bibendum90949]

I'm not sure this is a real hawk eye compilation or not.

[Geo_Ipe]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

I'm not sure this is a real hawk eye compilation or not.

No way this can be correct! Almost 1/3rd of all balls he faced were bowled outside his leg stump!? Absolutely no way!

[TokyoDrifter]

Originally Posted by Geo_Ipe

No way this can be correct! Almost 1/3rd of all balls he faced were bowled outside his leg stump!? Absolutely no way!

Doesn’t seem like accurate representation- no balls in the line of the stump either. Plus it’s all mapped to after the popping crease.

He faced enough leg spin and left-arm pacers to see balls outside leg stump however.

Originally Posted by hondafanboy

That was funny ! did he really say that ?

Yup! On his twitter feed.

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[ABHI_1512]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

I'm not sure this is a real hawk eye compilation or not.

That’s a fake post, a hawk eye compilation for a player playing for a decade or more can’t be true anyways. Also, we never ‘calls’ Rahul Dravid the wall for playing accurately but for his ability to doggedly defend his wicket !

[Eddy]

Pakistan are batting first. Playing 5 bowlers including 2 spinners. This will be interesting now.

[KPR]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Pakistan are batting first. Playing 5 bowlers including 2 spinners. This will be interesting now.

Shan Mashood has done a great grind alongwith Babar Azam facing Broad, Anderson, Archer and Woakes. On a lighter note is it a recent plot by England to give away the first test to visitors and then maul them in the remaining tests? Proof: Recently concluded Eng vs WI series. Let's see how this series goes.

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by KPR

Shan Mashood has done a great grind alongwith Babar Azam facing Broad, Anderson, Archer and Woakes. On a lighter note is it a recent plot by England to give away the first test to visitors and then maul them in the remaining tests? Proof: Recently concluded Eng vs WI series. Let's see how this series goes.

Yup, Shan Masood was a revelation. And England bowling in the second session was listless.

Pope is not known to play big ones, but he will need to do that today to save this match for his team. Rain permitting, my money is on Pakistan for this gamge.

WI led to their own downfall by not batting first I feel. 300 on board in the fist innings is way to go against this England team.

[Aakash118]

Hi folks,
Yesterday while watching the test match between Pakistan & England, I realised that the later is playing this game just next day of playing an ODI against Ireland. And they have completely different squads for both the formats. Do you guys think this strategy works better in modern day cricket? And should India also follow a similar approach? If yes, what should be our squads?

Pros-
1- Players don’t get exhausted in the busy shedule of modern day game and that should bring out the best from them.
2- Lesser injuries, so we get to play our best eleven more often.
3- Players can focus on one format and don’t need to change their game every week. Again it should help them perform better.

Cons-
1- The top players in the country who are integral parts of whole process may not be comfortable with this. They will like to play all formats.
2- We won’t see any more all format superstars.

Image courtesy- thecricketer

[Eddy]

I think England is possibly the only side who can afford this because their white ball team is quite different from their red ball team.

No other team has this "luxury" and it will be unfair to ask players in their peak fitness to choose a format when they are good enough to play all three.

[Amit_breakfree]

Maybe not having completely different squads, but almost all the countries nowadays have format specialists. This is generally due to 2 reasons:
1) Players themselves want to focus on one of the formats due to age/fitness: For example - Malinga, Steyn, Dhoni only playing in ODI/T20.
2) Teams having enough depth that they can choose to select players depending on their capabilities. For example - India only plays Ishant, Umesh, Pujara, Rahane in tests while KL/Pandya brothers are short format specialists.

And this is expected to continue in the future as well as the number of matches/workload increases.

[Eddy]

Another thing that I forgot to mention - I do not foresee this happening. These are unusual time and ECB wanted to earn as much money as soon as possible to offset the Covid losses and hence scheduled it this way.

I hope this does not become regular.

[srishiva]

As said its not feasible for all teams.
In addition, players might not like it too. Especially in India, some of our top players will not like it. They dont want to let go any opportunity to play and be in limelight.

[NPV]

England need 277 to win the first test against Pakistan, they have enough time on hand so unless Pak bowling has some magic, it seems like an English win is on the cards. If Pak had another 30-40 runs more, it could have been tougher for England.