1st Test: England v India at Birmingham Aug 1-5, 2018

[TheParraboy]

don't know about anyone else but am looking forward to this one

Anderson and Kholi battle should be intriguing

Poms expected to win the series easily. Starts 8 pm next Wednesday

Interesting to see Shastri cut short a warm up game by a day (v Essex from 4 to 3 days), saying he thought training instead would give the players more intensity for the test. We all know there is no substitute for form in the nets

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_...i-explains-why-india-warm-match-was-shortened

 

[Timbo]

I'm a bit shocked how shy on match practice India are going into a 5 test series. There's no substitute for time in the middle.

But I suppose the TV rights are worth the same regardless of the outcome, and as long as Virat gets a couple of tons the folks in India won't care.

 

[TheParraboy]

If Poms start winning in 3 days it won’t be good, for tv rights and Indian fans.

I would imagine poms will make the decks suit their seam bowlers. Kholi crashed and burned last series here. Anderson will tail him up.

 

[Timbo]

If Poms start winning in 3 days it won’t be good, for tv rights and Indian fans.

I would imagine poms will make the decks suit their seam bowlers. Kholi crashed and burned last series here. Anderson will tail him up.

You reckon the BCCI haven't had a quiet word to the ECB?

Also, in the most recent round of County Cricket, the spinners did some serious damage. The hot weather they've had there for the last month has dried the decks out.

 

[jargan83]

It's all about Net form, we Australian's should know that by now. It's good to see the philosophy has spread beyond our shores.

I hope England towel them up.

 

[Das Gupta]

England have included the Great Moenn Ali and Adil Rashid in their 1st test squad.
Dom Bess who can only slightly turn a door knob was overlooked.

 

[baggygreen man]

Can Kholi get runs this time? In 2014/15 he scored a miserable 134 runs at at a pulsating @13.4 ..not even a 50. The decks four years ago were the usual green, damp Pom tracks. Things should be different this time with England in the middle of a warm summer with little rain. So expect the pitches to be dry and primed for spin. This is where I believe india will win. They have the superior spin bowlers.

 

[Timbo]

Jeez, picking Rashid is idiotic. He hasn’t played a red ball game in more than six months.

 

[TheParraboy]

Jeez, picking Rashid is idiotic. He hasn’t played a red ball game in more than six months.

Really good form in the shorter forms of the game apparently.

What a farce the bloke announced he is committed to the shorter forms of the game and they pick him in the pinnacle form of the game

Hope India smash him back to t20 cricket after 1 test back.

 

[Timbo]

Off the back of one ball. He bowls one fizzing leggie to Kohli in an ODI and now he’s in the test side.

 

[JJ]

The irony of a hot dry summer in the UK

 

[Das Gupta]

Really good form in the shorter forms of the game apparently.

What a farce the bloke announced he is committed to the shorter forms of the game and they pick him in the pinnacle form of the game

Hope India smash him back to t20 cricket after 1 test back.

They probably will.
Then they will pluck another spinner from obscurity, play him all series and when the time come to announce the squad for Sri Lanka they will pick 2 new spinners nobody has heard off.

 

[Timbo]

The irony of a hot dry summer in the UK

Apparently the kind of soil and the amount their decks get used means it doesn't take much sustained heat for the decks to become bunsen's pretty quick.

 

[Timbo]

England have named Rashid in the XI.

That’s a decision on par with us picking Doherty due to Pietersen’s alleged weakness against left arm spin.

 

[TheParraboy]

England have named Rashid in the XI. That’s a decision on par with us picking Doherty due to Pietersen’s alleged weakness against left arm spin.

Yeah but did Doherty bat at no8? that's where its at

www.espncricinfo.com/series/18018/preview/1119549/england-vs-india-1st-test-ind-eng-2018

Adil Rashid's recall to the Test squad spawned a chapter of Yorkshire in-fighting not seen since Geoff Boycott was in his pomp - and Boycott himself hasn't been shy on the subject either - but he will now be making his first Test appearance since December 2016. A grassy deck and a slight easing in the Saharan heat of this most atypical of English summers dissuaded England from fielding two spinners at Edgbaston for the first time since 1993, although Moeen Ali might have been considered ahead of Dawid Malan as a batsman. After playing his part in the series leveller against Pakistan, Sam Curran's left-arm line complements the veteran pairing of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

England 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Keaton Jennings, 3 Joe Root (capt), 4 Dawid Malan, 5 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Jos Buttler, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Sam Curran, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson.


India 1 Shikhar Dhawan/KL Rahul, 2 Murali Vijay, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 R Ashwin, 8 Hardik Pandya, 9 Ravindra Jadeja/Mohammed Shami, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Umesh Yadav

 

[_goParra]

You reckon the BCCI haven't had a quiet word to the ECB?

Also, in the most recent round of County Cricket, the spinners did some serious damage. The hot weather they've had there for the last month has dried the decks out.

yep.. BCCI have organised the hot weather too...

 

[Timbo]

yep.. BCCI have organised the hot weather too...

Wouldn’t put it past them.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

England 1/83 at lunch.

 

[Das Gupta]

Stumps Eng 9/285 Root 80.
2 things were a sure thing last night.
Root failed to convert another 50 into a 100 and Kohli acted like a shit.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

England 9/285. Root with another 50, run out for 80.