Fourth Test: India v England, 8-12 Dec.

[hopeforthebest]

Those last posts from fluffylemon and Arthur have pretty well summed this tour perfectly except I would add, we have the wrong coach in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Asia a coach should preach patience rather than positivity.

[Dr Cricket]

lol just catching up on day 1.
Can't believe what I said 3 or 4 months ago was correct did say to english fans going to mumbai and Chennai to buy tickets before hand mumbai will sell out.
was quite funny hearing the stadium was half empty on day 1 but many english supporters were not allowed in the stadium because the game is a sell out.
bit annoyed really since I was hoping this was going to happen so the english press can moan and actually make this stop happening in india.
quite laughable how the games could be sold out but stadium empty.
although the weekend crowd was good.
issue is that people buy season tickets and people don't turn up.

Did make me wonder why the number of english supporters were low in Mumbai, thought it was down to being outnumbered in the stadium might also be because they couldn't get any tickets either.

Suspect Chennai would be the same and made worse with 3 of the stands shut down.

[bigfluffylemon]

Those last posts from fluffylemon and Arthur have pretty well summed this tour perfectly except I would add, we have the wrong coach in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Asia a coach should preach patience rather than positivity.

Another good point. But I think Bayliss should stay in place given that now we're going home and then to Australia. His approach will serve us better in his homeland, one would assume.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe patience and positivity, but each at the right time, both with bat and ball.

[rich1uk]

Maybe patience and positivity, but each at the right time, both with bat and ball.

i agree, the two aren't mutually exclusive, its all about good decision making

we seem to keep going around in circles here with assumptions being made that playing reckless shots in isolation is an argument against being positive

in the context of test cricket being positive is about looking to rotate the strike and punish the bad ball, neither we have done very well, but people assumed being encouraged to be positive meant going into t20 mode which it quite clearly never did.

[Making_Splinters]

Hmmm, surely it would be better just to let the batsmen go out and play their natural games rather than bringing in ideas such as positive and negative cricket? After all they're supposed to be the best we have, so, perhaps they know how they are most likely to succeed? What works for Root and Cook are very different kettles of fish, Bayliss should learn to pipe down unless he's actually got something worthwhile to say.

[Arthur Crabtree]

He is the coach so it's reasonable he has some input. If he is addressing obvious flaws then that's his job. Who knows why, but Bairstow and Stokes have improved over the past year, and Stokes has become a less one dimensional bat. I'm not saying he should necessarily give technical info, but he should be involved in how the batter reacts to match situations and the risks and rewards of his options.

[Making_Splinters]

Input on the field and in training, yes, that's what a coach's job is. Coming out and making daft comments in the media? No.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Well, I'm not advocating he makes daft comments in the media!

He hardly says anything to the media. Probably his comments away from the mic have more light and shade. But this comment by Bayliss doesn't really do much for public relations, because we probably misunderstand his philosophy.

[hopeforthebest]

Input on the field and in training, yes, that's what a coach's job is. Coming out and making daft comments in the media? No.

Exactly splinters, which what I've been trying to put across for days.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Ramprakash is the batting coach, but he isn't mentioned much. Bayliss said Cook had been in charge of the batting plans, and suggested he (Bayliss) was going to have greater input himself.

[sussexpob]

Coaches and captains spout cliche's as standard. Bayliss saying he wants England to be aggressive is just another of those.

If you want to give it serious merit, then it can be taken either way, aggression doesnt have to be 95mph bouncers and slogging every ball, it can be daring to pitch the ball up a fraction fuller or not being static in a crease to spinners.

But I am pretty sure its just a press conference filler. We live in a age where every single match a room of people come to listen to you for 2 hours, and ask boring and generic questions to fill the time. Statements like this are just the byproduct

[Making_Splinters]

The issue is, Sussex, that these sound bites have been shown to have a negative impact. Take for example Compton who had a very good first Test in South Africa only for the old aggressive line to come from the coach and Compton completely forgot how to play. Heck, Cook getting out stumped last test, playing a shot he never normally would.