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[jwebber86]

i enjoyed watching gilchrist opening the batting still looked awesome. i found lara a bit disappointing played 2 good shots and faced 40 balls but still nice to see him.

a big shame that warne got injured (which was why pollock was fielding) and finch and yuvraj were awesome.

i couldn't believe how crazy indian fans go when tendulkar does anything. the first time he fielded the ball i thought they had won the game!

i also managed to get a replica shirt there were only 4 left when i got there

[beaver5]

How good is Chris Read behind the stumps! Such a shame he hasn't played more for England...

I know everyone raves about Foster, but I've always thought Read was as good if not better and he has consistantly scored runs in Div 1. Very badly treated by England and a real waste of talent. Instead we've had to watch cymbals Prior for years just because Read made one misjudgement against Chris Cairns.

[ppccopener]

I think beaver it helps if your a keeper to appreciate everything Read did yesterday and how easy he made it look
I'm a batsman but what I would say is the speed of the stumpings amazed me and it was all so effortless
He made bad throws in look good and always seemed to be in the perfect position
We saw some great cricket yesterday but my thought is Read stood out amoungst some great players as top class
It was brilliant to watch a top class keeper in action
You do wonder how this guy,or Foster, have been overlooked for England for so long...

[BigBlueMachine]

Not sure how true this is but I heard that the reason Read didn't play much for England was because he wasn't proactive enough. The example I was given was in a match the captain (I guess Nasser or Vaughan) had setup for the ball to be swinging. They didn't make a breakthrough and at lunch he asked Read if it was doing much and he said it was gun barrel straight. But cause he hadn't said anything at the time he was seen to not be proactive enough. Like I say not sure if true or not.

[mike1989]

I think beaver it helps if your a keeper to appreciate everything Read did yesterday and how easy he made it look
I'm a batsman but what I would say is the speed of the stumpings amazed me and it was all so effortless
He made bad throws in look good and always seemed to be in the perfect position
We saw some great cricket yesterday but my thought is Read stood out amoungst some great players as top class
It was brilliant to watch a top class keeper in action
You do wonder how this guy,or Foster, have been overlooked for England for so long...

Agreed, I do like watching Foster and Read keep. It isn't surprising to see how they have been treated by England, because they seem to favour batsman that can catch, rather than exquisite glove men like Foster and Read. It showed what they thought of Foster when he got his foot back in the door, only for it to be slammed shut again. For me, we could do worse than look at Foster or Read as a short term option if Prior's form behind the sticks or bat struggles.

I know some might favour Buttler, Kieswetter or Bairstow, but I think their glove work needs development and they would be better suited to spending time at their county developing. Even if there are doubts about Foster and Read's batting not being up to scratch, they are more than good enough to bat at 8 in the potential line up that we will field against India. We would have five specialist batsmen (Cook, Robson, Ballance, Bell, Root), plus two batting all rounders (Ali and Stokes). There are seven players that are capable of scoring a lot of runs, most average over 40 with the bat. So the team could afford to take one of the best glove men in the country and bat him at 8. But if Foster and Read's time has passed, then the team could look to one of the better young glove men in the country like Duckett at Northants, Billings at Kent, or Simpson at Middlesex seem to be very tidy glove men. But I don't think England will go down that route if Prior fails, it will probably go to Buttler, Kieswetter or Bairstow because they can add to the batting line up.

[cesare_in]

Cool GoPro View!! Gilchrist hitting two boundaries!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrvfMPrCcf0

[Nato]

"I knew it wouldn't be long before he tried to hit the GoPro!" Lmao at that comment


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