2nd Test: England v India at Lords Aug 9-13 2018

[Bazal]

India's all-singing, all-dancing lineup just can't play when the ball performs for the quicks.

Watch them throw in the towel completely if they go 3-0 down too.

I think so too. They don't seem particularly tough to me and a lot of their highly rated bats are bigger home town heroes than Dave Warner. They're only #1 because of the 547 home tests they played recently

This is, IMO, easily the lowest quality era of Test cricket I can remember. And I don't think that will be a particularly unique opinion...

 

[Timbo]

I think so too. They don't seem particularly tough to me and a lot of their highly rated bats are bigger home town heroes than Dave Warner. They're only #1 because of the 547 home tests they played recently

This is, IMO, easily the lowest quality era of Test cricket I can remember. And I don't think that will be a particularly unique opinion...

It’s so bad for the game, India refuse to play warm up matches so their players never acclimatise and get spanked. Their players also don’t want to play County Cricket because it clashes with all the various PL’s out there. So you have five garbage test matches.

But you know Viraat the amazing will score a couple of tons so the TV audience on the subcontinent will be fine with it. And that’s all anyone really cares about when organising this tripe.

 

[WaznTheGreat]

International cricket is pathetic these days,everyone is a no hoper

 

[ANTiLAG]

It’s so bad for the game, India refuse to play warm up matches so their players never acclimatise and get spanked. Their players also don’t want to play County Cricket because it clashes with all the various PL’s out there. So you have five garbage test matches.

But you know Viraat the amazing will score a couple of tons so the TV audience on the subcontinent will be fine with it. And that’s all anyone really cares about when organising this tripe.

I still don't get the warm up games being such an issue, I expect Indian batsmen to still be failing in the 4th and 5th test if conditions continue to allow for big swing and Jimmy stays fit. It isn't like the English batsmen are leading the way neither. Root has one big 50, Malan has been dropped, Jennings looks inept, Cook is doing it very lean (despite huge runs for Eng A vs Ind A), Buttler is yet to have an impact, Pope made 28 and England owes a lot of its success to the allrounders and keeper in Curran (1st test) and Woakes and Bairstow (2nd test) making significant batting contributions.

Look at Australia's attempted in England solution, use a Dukes ball at home for half the season. That makes more sense to me. And their solution to India, though unsuccessful, was to create bud-sen burner pitches at home and have a training camp calling in all the spinners they could find. And Aus hit that series running after one mere warm up game.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Our top order batting really is a colossal clusterf**k.

We'll win the Ashes on the back of the swinging conditions but just as much via our lower order batting of Bairstow, Stokes, Curran, Woakes and whichever excuse for a spinner we pick for the real reason being that he's a super handy no.8 or 9.

We're a team of Joe Root, 3 or 4 awful batsmen, and half a dozen seam bowling Dan Vettori's. Which is pretty freaking handy no doubt.

 

[ANTiLAG]

Our top order batting really is a colossal clusterf**k.

We'll win the Ashes on the back of the swinging conditions but just as much via our lower order batting of Bairstow, Stokes, Curran, Woakes and whichever excuse for a spinner we pick for the real reason being that he's a super handy no.8 or 9.

We're a team of Joe Root, 3 or 4 awful batsmen, and half a dozen seam bowling Dan Vettori's. Which is pretty freaking handy no doubt.

Hahah. England has been doing this for a while, remember Bresnan, Swann and Broad (pre-bouncer) at 8,9,10 with Collingwood as the 5th bowler? And that was when KP and Trott were still invincible, Cook at his peak and Strauss was useful.

But yeah, Moeen at 8 (too soon to write him off), Woakes at 9, could be joined by Curran at 10 next year if Broad/Jimmy break down and TRJ still isn't fit. Even if he is fit...

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Lol India.

A hugely overrated bunch of hometown harry's.

Lol, Anderson and Broad look like they're 80 years old away from home.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Lol, Anderson and Broad look like they're 80 years old away from home.

And the Aussie top 6 minus Smith play like they're 8 years old

 

[Bazal]

Our top order batting really is a colossal clusterf**k.

We'll win the Ashes on the back of the swinging conditions but just as much via our lower order batting of Bairstow, Stokes, Curran, Woakes and whichever excuse for a spinner we pick for the real reason being that he's a super handy no.8 or 9.

We're a team of Joe Root, 3 or 4 awful batsmen, and half a dozen seam bowling Dan Vettori's. Which is pretty freaking handy no doubt.

If Buttler is in the side (and he deserves to stay at the moment IMO), why is he not keeping with Bairstow batting higher in the order?

There's not a vast gulf between them in terms of keeping quality and Root and Bairstow at 3 & 4 looks a lot better than Root and Malan/Pope

 

[ANTiLAG]

If Buttler is in the side (and he deserves to stay at the moment IMO), why is he not keeping with Bairstow batting higher in the order?

There's not a vast gulf between them in terms of keeping quality and Root and Bairstow at 3 & 4 looks a lot better than Root and Malan/Pope

Several reasons; Bairstow earned the keepers job from Buttler and wants to keep the gloves, but more so that Buttler has only just been recalled (off IPL form this year) and is no guarantee to be sticking around. He's on a trial more or less as a batsman. Johnny also thinks that keeping helps his batting in tests. https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricke...land-says-jonny-bairstow-20171108-gzhd9t.html

And playing in England, he'd probably prefer to move back down to 6 or 7 than upto 4. Given he's averaging about 35 in his past 18 tests, I doubt he'd be too keen to give up the gloves to be a specialist bat right now.

Pope is also a wicket keeper. As is Ben Foakes. Foakes and Rory Burns are probably the next two in line for a call up into this revolving door batting order England is suffering. It is starting to resemble a Sri Lankan team with all these wicket keepers around the place.

 

[Timbo]

I think Joe Clarke is probably next in line - also a wicket keeper, funnily enough.

 

[ANTiLAG]

I think Joe Clarke is probably next in line - also a wicket keeper, funnily enough.

That would be surprising given he has only played 1 FC game since July 8 and Burns played as captain in the Eng A game (with Cook, Malan, Pope, Woakes and Curran) and smashed a ton in his last match.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/...-only-unofficial-test-india-a-in-england-2018

But after Buttler and Rashid, if you're English and a cricketer, you're a possible selection. Heck, just be "English enough" to play.

If Buttler/Pope gets dropped, and Foakes comes in, Johnny will lose the gloves whether he likes it or not. Foakes is their best wicket keeper by a mile.

https://www.wisden.com/stories/opinion/ben-foakes-englands-no-1-test-wicketkeeper

Burns is more likely to replace Jennings. But if someone bats well enough to open, it easier to slot down the order than the reverse.

 

[Timbo]

They’ve been grooming Clarke for two years. The only reason he’s played limited cricket is because Worcestershire had a front loaded draw.

 

[ANTiLAG]

They’ve been grooming Clarke for two years. The only reason he’s played limited cricket is because Worcestershire had a front loaded draw.

Yeah - Eng does do this - Sam Curran an obv example - but they played contenders in that A game vs Ind. And made Burns captain.

Foakes was at Ashes in Aus but Pope got the gloves in that A game and is now in the test team.