India test series.

scarletpimp wrote: Wil Chips wrote: scarletpimp wrote: Wil Chips wrote: No Bazball, called the toss correctly (as the pitch stayed true for the 5 days). England had the edge in the bowling set up with the tail being cleaned up in both innings. India will bounce back with Arshdeep and Yadav surely starting next time. Read GPR 's assessment yesterday   Will. A fair reflection of where we are There was elements ents of Bazball in both innings, which ,made the task harder and despite the wonderful  win , a lot of issues to ponder. England's bowling attack, without Atkinson  and Wood looks weak and Bashir is never an international  spinner. I,saw him perform LIVE fir Glammy in div two and he was  poor.   Test cricket however has proved yet again it is the jewel in the Crown, and the members of all counties should lobby their chief executives regarding  changes to reduce County  championship  matches.  Reduce one day games, they do'nt breed true test match players  Yes I've read it, always tuck in to his analysis, just on this occasion I can't really agree. England played exceptionally well to clean up the tail in both innings, set about the 10th biggest run chase in history with great discipline and took far more + then - out of the game England are still short of a strike bowler. Tongue might be worth sticking with. The clamour for Archer's return falls on deaf ears with me. Atkinson could be worth another go, bur broadly I'm sure England will stick with the team from today, and rightly so. (I'd stick with Bashir for the series). Like wise Will.. your one my SF'S guru "s but we're not in agreement this time. Some of India ' s work in the field and bowling was woeful ( other than Burrmah),  so there is need of perspective  here. Regarding England's attack..Wood and Atkinson  are both injured and may come in to the equation later in series,  as will Potts.  Bashir is learning the ropes and is not first choice at  Somerset ( Leach).  You do'nt enter the test arena to " learn the ropes, although even experienced players will say " your always learning". He's just not up to it ATM, and needs to play a lot more county cricket, with a lot more bowling. Finally , I have been a big critic of Ducket and the way he plays. Always playing , never leaving etc.  I was an opening batsman , more in the Boycott mould . Credit to Ducket , he was sensational today,  and his performance  underscored a famous England  win.  Well done !

All good points.

I'm not suggesting Bashir will turn out to be the man. It's too soon to tell. I'm just saying that he's taken 60+ wickets inn tests and there's not much in the spin cupboard as an alternative. We haven't had a really potent 'five-for' spinner since Swann in the red ball game. So I'm going with stick rather than twist.

India did drop a couple of sitters, and Jadeja getting dragged in to trying to 'keeping one end quiet' rather than exploit the rough outside the left handers off stump until well in to his spell, was one of the many key points missed by India in the game.

India will be concerned at Bumrah's durability (and their bowling overall). He was bowling a pie every other ball in his last spell, and had no gas left to take the new ball (admittedly it was probably all over by then, but still...).
Siraj is a straight up and down guy, Thakur got a couple of wickets from rank bad balls and went at 6 an over in both innings.
Krishna did take 5 wickets, and bowled a couple of jaffers, but it was interspaced by a whole stack of pies, and he too went for 6 an over in both innings.

As I mentioned above viz the tail end...India scored 800+ runs through their Top 5, and 80 runs from 6-11. The lad Nair looked all at sea - felt a bit for him, and only Jadeja offered something.

For England, I'm not yet convinced by Carse at test level, he's a black of a length bowler, without a full armoury of deliveries that test cricket needs. Tongue at least bowled fast and for the stumps when bowling at the tail end and picked up 6 wickets by doing so.

Overall India have quite lot to work on, England not so much.

The thing that Duckett does that catches my eye is he rarely misses out on a poor ball ( wherever it's bowled).

Wil Chips wrote: The thing that Duckett does that catches my eye is he rarely misses out on a poor ball ( wherever it's bowled).

Intresting  discussion  above.

4+ years since he played a red ball test. Smacks a bit o England trying to get VFM from being on a central contract for all that time. Certainly not based on form.

aber-fan wrote: I've paid less attention to test cricket in recent years as it's been on pay-TV - back in the day, it was great fun free to air. Anyway... I did watch the highlights of the last day v India - an impressive run chase.. test cricket at its best is superb entertainment, much more gut-wrenching than the shorter formats. Of course, it can also be one-sided or peter out into tame draws. Fascinating at its best.  Duckett's technique was discussed by the BBC highlights team - fascinating how he can play reverse sweeps off either leg - an advantage of his short stature, presumably?

Don't forget the flashing board , belle and Sebastian and champion the wonder horse. All still available on you tube.

And the slightly creepy Pippy Longstockings