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[six and out]

Bairstow... lol.. really.. still persisting in the belief he's a test batter?!?!? No wonder this side are poor

The point was more it's a side of 9 batters and 2 spinners. I couldn't think of any other batter in the squad to replace him to be honest

[ProCricketer1982]

The point was more it's a side of 9 batters and 2 spinners. I couldn't think of any other batter in the squad to replace him to be honest

tbf fella, you're correct.. there is literally nothing better to replace him with.. that's how bad things are with Englands test team.

What do India need to ensure they get into the WTC final?? if they've done it and a draw suits them.. expect a similar feather bed to the first test and a 500+ plays 500+ snore draw

[alba caerulea]

tbf fella, you're correct.. there is literally nothing better to replace him with.. that's how bad things are with Englands test team.

What do India need to ensure they get into the WTC final?? if they've done it and a draw suits them.. expect a similar feather bed to the first test and a 500+ plays 500+ snore draw

I seem to remember the 1st Test pitch being good to start with but gradually deteriorating to be very difficult towards the end of Day 3.

And it wasnt a draw.

Im not arguing however that India will now want the flattest pitch possible for the 4th and to bat England out of the game. Although you have to think England are so far down mentally it would take a miracle to get a result on any surface.

[ProCricketer1982]

I seem to remember the 1st Test pitch being good to start with but gradually deteriorating to be very difficult towards the end of Day 3.

And it wasnt a draw.

Im not arguing however that India will now want the flattest pitch possible for the 4th and to bat England out of the game. Although you have to think England are so far down mentally it would take a miracle to get a result on any surface.

first test was a draw wicket but.. but.. India batted soooo badly that it cost them the game first dig. Happens but very very rare for any side to do that. They'll prepare a snore draw and a few of these England lads who like a flat deck will fill their boots and leave the shores being hailed like they were win SL... 9th rate SL side mind

This wicket was poor though.. second test was fine.. this one.. not so much.

[jimmy23]

Pope has looked a little out his depth the last two games with the ball turning, not sure wether to use his feet, play off the back foot.
No doubt about his talent but has looked in all sorts of trouble.

[ProCricketer1982]

Pope has looked a little out his depth the last two games with the ball turning, not sure wether to use his feet, play off the back foot.
No doubt about his talent but has looked in all sorts of trouble.

this is why you need to see players in all conditions. Looks the part when it's flat and you can play strokes.....    Can he tough it out.. fight... 

Foakes for example, while not scored loads.. has shown fight and a willingness to hang in there when it's hard.

[Manormanic]

Pope has looked a little out his depth the last two games with the ball turning, not sure wether to use his feet, play off the back foot.
No doubt about his talent but has looked in all sorts of trouble.

I think for everyone involved, you have to make some allowances for the disruption of rotation policies etc, which is going to have been that much worse for Pope who has been living in bubbles for a long time mostly for the purposes of rehab.  He's had a couple of sketchy dismissals, I will grant you, but has also been done by some really good bowling a couple of times (and by that, I mean that he may not have been dismissed by an unplayable ball, but has instead been moved around the crease by a master until his concentrated failed him). 

[ppccopener]

Foakes is a typical old style keeper who scraps around for runs and singles, I remain convinced he is what we need regardless of conditions, he have enough stroke players in the side.

I don't think myself England, or us fans for that matter,should be too downbeat, I've just read this test is the shortest game since 1935, and before that it's back to 1890 or something.

The Indian spinners are better than ours and played better, the pitch was a minefield to bat on for both teams and we came off worst which is almost to be expected.

It's 1-2 not 0-4 which I think was the series score last time we were in India.

The way I see it, India after the first game thought we were a threat to their home record so we have had 2 bad pitches, let's be honest without making excuses, the pitches are bad.

batting wise, we don't have that many options, I don't believe there are better players sat home in the UK.

There are positives it's not a disaster, Crawley looked good, Foakes keeping and batting is good, Leach has bowled well,Root's run of hundreds had to come to an end at some point.

Stokes has been largely absent for some reason, and we, Emgland, made a right pigs ear of the second spinners slot, Bess God knows what has happened behind the scenes and Mo was an option we could not use for this game.

I don't think the management of England has been good with regard to Mo and Bess.

The players I don't think need or deserve a hammering, realistically ask what was the expectation before the series started....

[Jimbo]

Pope has looked a little out his depth the last two games with the ball turning, not sure wether to use his feet, play off the back foot.
No doubt about his talent but has looked in all sorts of trouble.

Pope is, to be fair to him, coming off the back of a fairly long injury lay off. No doubt he'll come good given time.

[thedon]

India chased 49 without loss. The conditions were the same for both teams. Pitch wasn't a test match standard, but please let's not make excuses.

[Jimbo]

India chased 49 without loss. The conditions were the same for both teams. Pitch wasn't a test match standard, but please let's not make excuses.

England had to take wickets and set fields accordingly. Gill and Rohit took them on and attacked because there was no pressure on them. Not really comparing apples and apples.

Earlier the same day India lost their last 7 wickets for absolutely zip, that's a better indication of the quality of pitch this was.

Two decisive factors - individual excellence from Rohit across both innings and the quality of spin options. Nobody believes Leach and Root are the equals of Axar and Ashwin.

[ppccopener]

England had to take wickets and set fields accordingly. Gill and Rohit took them on and attacked because there was no pressure on them. Not really comparing apples and apples.

Earlier the same day India lost their last 7 wickets for absolutely zip, that's a better indication of the quality of pitch this was.

Two decisive factors - individual excellence from Rohit across both innings and the quality of spin options. Nobody believes Leach and Root are the equals of Axar and Ashwin.

Yeah you can't compare chasing such a low score with so many wickets in hand, and there was space everywhere in the outfield.

The 10 wicket win is just a statistic that does not resemble the game.

[Bats_Entertainment]

We lost twice as many wickets in the match as they did.  And I wouldn't have wanted to have bet much on us chasing 49 without losing a wicket.

[adb club cricketer]

I think pitch is blamed considering the scores the two sides made, but if you look at the wickets, most were to straight balls with normal bounce. Just feel this is the type of pitch where using the feet was more important than the sweep. When Rohit and Gill did that in 2nd innings, it looked much easier to score. With better application, each side could have easily made 250 odd atleast. Also not to ignore, both sides bowled really well, some of Root's wicket taking deliveries were peach, the seam position, the dip and turn, so need to give it to good bowling as well exploiting the conditions to the most.

[ProCricketer1982]

call me eyore or whatever but the pitch wasn't great.. however.... it wasn't 'that' bad. The first test was a boring draw wicket which you'd expect 500 plays 500 bore draw but India just batted badly. terrible test wicket.


second test was fine.. sure, not a road but hey.. maybe learn how to bat when you can't just play shots!!

this test was obviously a bit too bad BUT... it's the same for both sides and England were again, totally outplayed when the going was tough.. England are quite simply over rated and we have a few players who are only at home when it's either a green top (Curran).. or a flat track where they can just tee off (Bairstow, Curran, Mo, Buttler).

Sibley/Crawley should be given time regardless.. Burns, anyone sensible knew he wouldn't be anything great but he's the best there is currently.

Bairstow.. laughable but again.. when we play on roads or against 9th rate sides like SL he looks great.. (Curran and co in the same vain)


Foakes needs to be in now for 20-30 tests at least but he will be dropped for White ball Buttler.

Rotation policy is terrible, play your best test side and if you must rotate, rotate the white ball side where the country has many hitters anyway so leaving out a root, stokes etc won't matter at all. We simply don't have 6 test batters let alone enough to rotate

the sweep.. yet again.. seems to be Englands (and white ball players) 'go to' shot.. works on roads..  doesn't work so well consistently on these sort of tracks.. you have to have different game plans and ability to execute.. that is test cricket after all