[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by NPV

Pujara out and now Gill seems to be taking his chances, got to his 50. This seems like the strategy used in the Gabba test. Gill will play positive trying to chase down the target and if quick wickets fall, then they will try to draw the game ? Fingers crossed, don't want to see a first test loss. Kohli and Rahane will be key.
*Just as I type this, Gill's off stump sent cartwheeling by Jimmy Anderson!

India 92/3

you're still in the allowed edit time window. Add Rahane too to the dismissals. Anderson has come and demolished it. We're again down to a pressure cooker situation

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

I don’t know what Rohit Sharma brings to the team in test matches. He doesn’t bat, bowl or field well and isn’t a talented 20 year old youngster who needs to be given a long chance. His time in tests is up and sooner the team management sees this, the better.
In T20 and ODIs, he’s still a monster and should be the first name on the team sheet.

Rohit's IPL performance earns him a place in tests. He is dropped after poor test performance. He bids his time till the next IPL and gets selected to the test team again. Rohit's test career is caught in this vicious circle.

Originally Posted by NPV

Kohli may end up being the lone unbeaten fighter!

Hope Kohli can hold his own in his pressure situation - he has two stubborn gentlemen in Sundar & Ashwin for the company.

But what a fall from grace, winning test, series in Australia to follow-on situation at home and staring at defeat.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

you're still in the allowed edit time window. Add Rahane too to the dismissals. Anderson has come and demolished it. We're again down to a pressure cooker situation

Yes did that too and by the time I took a short break from work, I see Pant and Sundar are out as well
I read somewhere about an analogy with the 2001 Ind-Aus series - reaching a high with the series win and then plummeting down soon after, is this a repeat of those times ? We will know soon.

[whencut86]

Folks, lets be patient. We will win this series 3-1 even if we lose this test. Just stick together and back our team to the hilt. We lost it in the first innings itself when Kohli, Rohit and Rahane didn't do much with their batting. If atleast one had scored a century, we would have been in a better position to draw this now.

Kohli should have picked Kuldeep ahead of Nadeem. We are still few bowlers short with Jadeja, Shami and Umesh out due to injury. Kuldeep has bowled well against Aus in India and can pick wickets on flat surfaces because of his wrist spin. Team management got it wrong there this time.

The last time England toured India, England had scores of 300s, 400s and 500s in their first innings in three tests. The bundled out for less than 200 in their second innings. We won the series 4-0. This time we may have slipped in the first test but with Jadeja back from 3rd test, we will have more bite in our attack.

[srishiva]

Hope the team wins the toss and sets up a big score in the next test. Kohli was not happy with the body language and intensity. They did alright in Australia without him talking about just that

We didnt have a good bowler to pair up with Ashwin. England has a great fast bowling pair who provide good breakthroughs.

[fordday]

Regarding Kohli's wicket.

Was it a very good delivery from Stokes? or

Was it just luck that he pitched it in the rough and it touched a very soft area which caused it not to rise and somehow found its way between Kohli's bat and pad? or

Was Kohli completely clueless?

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by fordday

Regarding Kohli's wicket.

Commentators might exclaim that it was the ball of the day/week/month/year since the ball kept low, but there is this thing about the great Indian batsmen. The deliveries they face are so special and so good they get beaten. Ordinary batmen would have edge those on to pads & survived to face the next delivery.

[VWAllstar]

Wishful playing XI for the next test:

R Sharma
S Gill
C Pujara
V Kohli
K L Rahul
R Pant
W Sundar
R Ashwin
K Yadav
M Siraj
J Bhumrah

[pandey.jai]

I’m not sure who is going to be the lead spinner for India once Ashwin hangs up his boots. I know we had similar conversations when Kumble, Harbhajan and many others before them but this time around, we don’t even have a good spinner as a back up or understudy to Ashwin.
We have Kuldeep but for various reasons, the team management don’t trust him and they seem to find a reason to not play him.

[breezydrive]

In first innings, W Sunder gave away 98 runs for no wicket and Nadeem 167 for 02 wickets. Also, they bowled 70 overs & leaked runs to English batsmen at much quicker pace by test standards (3.8 runs per over to be precise). While Bumrah, Ashwin & Ishant gave away 2.8, 2.6 and 1.9 runs per over respectively in the168 overs they bowled.

We need more variety in the bowling to take 20 wickets. Batting can be sorted out by bringing in KL or Mayank replacing Rohit.

[landcruiser123]

For me, I rate the pitch a 10/10. Good batting conditions on Days 1 & 2 and evolved into a minefield on Day 4 & 5. Shahbaz Nadeem was too expensive - his ERs in the 1st and 2nd innings were 3.80 & 4.40. Similar with Washington Sundar.

I wish to see Kuldeep play the next game as he'll add the much needed variety to the seam attack. Also, I hope India manage Bumrah's workload and give him a break from the third and fourth tests.

[Venkatesh]

Team India have won the toss and elected to bat first

3 changes for Team India as Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammad Siraj named in the playing XI for the 2nd Test.

Axar Patel makes his test debut.

[NPV]

The way England are managing team selection across the 3 formats and managing the workload of key players by giving rotational breaks is something very commendable. In a 4 test series, these rotations also keep players fresh and there's also the X factor due to unfamiliarity sometimes - Dom Bess getting the better of Kohli in the first test is a good example.

In the second test, they've brought in Olly Stone and he's already tasted success now with Gill's wicket. Both Broad and Stone are bowling very well, hope we can negotiate them for a session at least and then settle in.

I hope the changes India have made in this test will work out well, much needed break for Bumrah.

[landcruiser123]

Kohli's conduct should prompt a match review by the match referee. I think being clean bowled and standing his ground wasn't in-line with the spirit of the game. I'm sure the 3rd umpire would have immediately relayed to the on-field umpire if anything was amiss with the dismissal.

Hoping Rahane-Rohit can stitch a huge partnership and bat through lunch on day 2.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Kohli's conduct should prompt a match review by the match referee. I think being clean bowled and standing his ground wasn't in-line with the spirit of the game. I'm sure the 3rd umpire would have immediately relayed to the on-field umpire if anything was amiss with the dismissal.

Hoping Rahane-Rohit can stitch a huge partnership and bat through lunch on day 2.

I disagree.
He wasn't sure if he was bowled or its stumping. It was the job of leg umpire to confirm it. They referred it to third umpire which means leg umpire wasn't sure himself. There is no question of spirit of the game here. This has happened many times in cricket before. And FYI third umpire doesn't relays anything to on field umpire till on field umpire asks for it. Kohli's fault was there was no need to play that extravagant drive when you have just lost the pillar Pujara. Absolutely ridiculous shot.

Anyways, Brilliant 100 by Rohit. Will be awesome if he makes it a double.

Gill had a bad judgement, happens.
Pujara again playing through the wrong line. I expect more from a player his calibre to again and again get out against spin.

If we reach 300-350 that would be a winning first innings score on this pitch.