England Versus India - 1st Test (9 Nov - 13 Nov)

[Dr Cricket]

Anderson might play the 2nd test and will arrive in india on tuesday.

[alfie]

Anderson might play the 2nd test and will arrive in india on tuesday.

Good news. I did think the suggestions that he would miss the whole series were overblown , as he was reputedly bowling in nets weeks ago ; but the problem may be lack of match practice,

Rather have him there than just relying on Finn and Ball as pace backup.

[Dr Cricket]

Yeah found it crazy he had to wait till December to prove his fitness.

[Making_Splinters]

England have a bad reputation for bringing players back before they're fully fit again, and for a player who is as vital to the England side as Jimmy is, personally I would have him sit out the entire series and get 100% ready for the home series against the Windies and South Africa. Given he's not going to be part of the ODI side there would have been plenty of cricket for him to play domestically to get overs under his belt.

[Dr Cricket]

England have a bad reputation for bringing players back before they're fully fit again, and for a player who is as vital to the England side as Jimmy is, personally I would have him sit out the entire series and get 100% ready for the home series against the Windies and South Africa. Given he's not going to be part of the ODI side there would have been plenty of cricket for him to play domestically to get overs under his belt.

England don't play a test till august so they probably think he will have a long rest anyway, plus guessing cook needs him as well.
Berry reporting a 5-0 loss and top order failing again might make Cook call it a day as a captain, hard to see that happening though, will Root really lead England to an away ashes series and a tough SA home series.

[Making_Splinters]

England have a bad reputation for bringing players back before they're fully fit again, and for a player who is as vital to the England side as Jimmy is, personally I would have him sit out the entire series and get 100% ready for the home series against the Windies and South Africa. Given he's not going to be part of the ODI side there would have been plenty of cricket for him to play domestically to get overs under his belt.

England don't play a test till august so they probably think he will have a long rest anyway, plus guessing cook needs him as well.
Berry reporting a 5-0 loss and top order failing again might make Cook call it a day as a captain, hard to see that happening though, will Root really lead England to an away ashes series and a tough SA home series.

I'm not worried about him having time to recover post India, I'm worried about him coming back and injuring himself further because he's not had time to properly rehabilitate. As for Cook as Captain, it's an interesting one as he could stand down and not really worry about his place in the side given we've not found anyone to replace Strauss still. I could see him walking away from the Captaincy if England are whitewashed and letting someone else take over as captain.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I've not seen any of the traditional moaning by England supporters about the venues. The travel between the first and second Test by train looks pretty arduous, across country west coast to east, with only three days between games. Then up to Mohali... back west to Mumbai and south to Chennai.

[Arthur Crabtree]

A friend's going to Mumbai and Chennai. I'm suddenly envious.

[hopeforthebest]

The return of Anderson to the squad just adds to the complexities of selection and won't raise the confidence of the other pace bowlers. Woakes in particular will feel his place in the team is now even more uncertain. Cook seems to be desperate to get him in the team on the assumption that he's the same bowler that had success 4 years ago, that's a long shot
It confuses my FL team selection as well.

[hopeforthebest]

It's just dawned on me that maybe England are planning to take Swann's advice and go with only two spinners and revert to 3 quicks plus Stokes. If you have Anderson in the side especially alongside Broad that will be necessary to cover for injury during a game.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I thought Anderson was still out of the first Test.

[alfie]

Don't think Anderson is any chance of playing the first Test. Maybe possible for the second ? Think this will depend on not just his fitness but how things go for the attack that plays match one.

Certainly a more attractive option for "rotation" than Finn

[hopeforthebest]

Who said he was playing in the first test, certainly not me.

[Dr Cricket]

I've not seen any of the traditional moaning by England supporters about the venues. The travel between the first and second Test by train looks pretty arduous, across country west coast to east, with only three days between games. Then up to Mohali... back west to Mumbai and south to Chennai.

Think most of the fans are doing the last two test and majority of the people doing the early games are the ones that enjoy the travel aspect of india.
Think i read it will take 22 hours to travel from Rajkot to Vizag and their so many ways of travelling there.
read a story in the barmy army forum that some are taking a train to Hyderabad, spending a day there and then taking a flight to Vizag.
only doing that route so they see Hyderabad, so some are using the opportunity to see new places of india.

been to Rajkot 12-13 yrs ago nice place.
Was about 8 though remember climbing a mountain in Jamanaghar or Junagadh can never really remember the name though.

Surprise the English players are not complaining though considering this must be the first tour ever where they actually don't have practice days after a test in the first 3 test.
read it will take the player 2 days to reach Vizag and the test starts the next day, same with travelling from Vizag to Mohali.
Can't see the fans having too much of an issue considering most would like the travel and seeing new parts of the country and they will still make it in time for the test, but not sure I would like to spend 12-14 hours travelling if I am playing a test match in 2-3 days time.

Berry reported earlier England players got a long domestic flight after the first two test and only get easier when they travel to Mumbai and Chennai.

[Dr Cricket]

Think Reverse swing going to be hard in Rajkot considering the outfield is lush.