India tour of Eng, June 20 - Aug 4

[Arthur Crabtree]

India bowled more spin, so it would be odd if they bowled their overs as slowly as England. England 32/194 overs of spin-India 42/175.

[sussexpob]

The ICC don't make much sense when it comes to sanctioning players like in the case of Siraj anyway. The tinniest of nudges irrespective of who instigated it is hardly worth of sanction if they ignore other behaviour. It was ok for Gill to walk over to England's batsman and get in their faces, and ok for them to return it in kind? Duckett on Day 4 walked miles from his fielding spot between a ball to insult Shubman Gill at the end of the day, you could hear him on the stump mic saying to Gill something along the lines of "you may have scored 600 runs in the series, but you are done now mate" (objectively funny to insult someone for having one of the best series in history so far, but there you go).... and on Day 5 Ian Ward had to continually apologise for Ben Stokes launching into a tirade of foul language after every single ball in one spell, again you could hear his f**** and blinding on the stump mic clearly.

I really don't care, my point is not to say all these should be fined or sanctioned. They are adults, and as long as anyone isn't pummelling someone to death with their bat, or being overtly aggressive, some words here or there, some sledging, a little bit of a barge.... all adds to the theatre of the moment.

It just doesn't make sense to me where they draw the line. The only thing that went OTT was Zak Crawley refusing to bat on Day 3. They delayed the game for 3 minutes after the session stared by not coming out - and by the rules both should have been timed out. Then the farce of stepping away 4 times on the same ball as Bumrah began his run up....

I'd rather see fines and demerit points for that, not the other stuff.

[Arthur Crabtree]

India bowled more spin, so it would be odd if they bowled their overs as slowly as England. England 32/194 overs of spin-India 42/175.

I don't include that as an excuse, by the way, but it is perhaps a reason. England's OR will have been infuenced by Bashir's injury. But they still have to find a way to bowl all their overs.

[sussexpob]

One thing that does become apparent when a team pushes England to the max is, how partisan English commentators become in response. Of course, its par for the course for people like Aggers, Cook and Vaughan to consider England at any stage worthy of comparison to Brazil's 58-70 football team that won 3 world cups, but Ian Ward somehow manages to take this to a different dimension all together, and would probably watch a days play where England concede 900/0 with the ball and end the day musing if England can just nip out one of the opens before tea the day after, maybe they can still win.

Even the usually brilliant Mike Atherton got a bit cranky on Day 4; while Dinesh Karthik was chirping away excitedly as India were running through England, Atherton resorted to some rather unnecessary remarks about how crap a wicket keeper Karthik was in his playing days to attempt to curb his enthusiasm. I'd have said Atherton was joking or bantering, but his annoyed tone and on the nose delivery seemed to suggest it was just a rather uncalled for low blow. And when Karthik attempted to then laugh it off and engage in some banter, he didn't get anything back in return.

Of course, nothing can compare to Stuart Broad though. It shows the folly of having commentators who recently retired from the team, as the extent he goes to not to criticise his mates sends him down regular rabbit holes, and his praising of his mates becomes quite testing at times. Especially when it comes to Stokes captaincy. He loves giving his little anecdotes about Stokes leadership, but none of them are interesting. Its just middle of the road cliche stuff. "I remember a time we batted poorly, and Ben said to us bowlers before we took the field - lads, I need you to bowl well today..... I really felt after that I needed to bowl well"..... "What makes Ben so special? Well, he wants to win".....

Highly unique quantity that, Broady. Almost unheard of to find elite sportsman who like winning.

[sussexpob]

Bless Broad. I guess his commentary is better than all the podcast appearances he is doing at the moment, because all he ever does is tell the story about the 2023 Lord's test in pretty much word for word exact details. "I was going to stop, and then Ben told me to carry on"..... Well done Stuart, what a big boy you are. You managed to shout at a few blokes they were cheaters when they in actual fact were just playing to the rules of the game. What a guy...

The amount of pride he has when he tells it is palpable. Played 167 tests, and the overriding positive memory from all of them is the time he shouted at Pat Cummins to **** off a few times. I guess he's not that intelligent either. He credits the balls out hard man approach for his own team, then claims India guys doing the same is the reason they lost the test.

Hopefully the guys at Del Monte notice his dress sense soon, and offer him much more money to wander around orange plantations selecting "only the best oranges" .... at least that will get him off the TV.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Dawson in for Basher, but England resist any other changes.

[sussexpob]

Dawson not having a good season this year. Jack Leach is the only spinner really doing anything in the CC, not a sexy pick but would appear to be the sensible one. Dawson has been on form a while until this year, but hasn't been good with the ball at all in 2025.

[Arthur Crabtree]

With the last two Tests coming together, I thought they might shuffle the pace attack.

[sussexpob]

With the last two Tests coming together, I thought they might shuffle the pace attack.

Longer break between tests this time, so I guess they will try to win the series and rest players in test 5 if its 3-1.

[alfie]

Probably makes sense to play the incumbent trio in this one after a solid break. Regardless of the outcome I'd expect changes for the fifth since it follows immediately after and might be a bit much for a couple of them if they have to work hard this week.

Hopefully Atkinson will be up to speed and ready to play the last if necessary, Not so hopeful about Wood...

Dawson may not be tearing down any trees with the ball but you'd think he might bring more control than Bashir... and certainly he adds to the batting. Actually they bat down to ten now even if you classify Archer as a total rabbit at Test level . (I know about his FC record but honestly every time I have seen him bat for England he has looked pretty clueless. Happy enough for him to save his energy for bowling !)

India will have to change at least two bowlers : might we see Kuldeep ? Or will they go batsman heavy for a change ? I'll be wary of them whoever they pick as they have a knack of finding replacements who excel when key players are injured. This match could go either way as we have seen through the series so far : two well match sides. Hope the rain doesn't mess this one up too much...

[Arthur Crabtree]

BBC says Pant might play as a specialist batter. So maybe Jurel comes in for Reddy. And then there's the issue of which game Bumrah misses.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Jadeja is causing a problem because he gets in the side for his batting (109), but then what to do about the bowling (110)?

Could say that the other way around about Stokes.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Cloudy all day. Bowl first?

Cloudy for the whole game though. Some rain on day 5.

[sussexpob]

Cloudy all day. Bowl first?

Cloudy for the whole game though. Some rain on day 5.

England choose to bowl... apparently no team has ever chosen to bowl at OT and ended up winning, so lets so how that pans out

[Arthur Crabtree]

Win toss yet again...