Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

was looking really good for Ind with the openers but 4 quick wickets have put Ind under pressure - also no Jadeja batting in the lower order today - a couple more quick wickets for SL and they will be well on top

Kuldeep Yadav has a fc ton and an average pushing thirty. At number nine! Number eight, Hardik Pandya has a similar average and a good limited overs record (I thought he was a bit of an all rounder, but he doesn't have a fc ton). Indians can always bat.

I wondered if Jayant Yadav might come in as he was the third spinner against England and did ok with the ball- and scored a ton with the bat.

Pushpakamura plays his second Test at 30, with a fca of 20.0 over 100 games! Showing what he can do today, after waiting a long time for the ball.

King Kohli goes. This is rated as a spinners pitch that will prove hard to bat on later, so India in a very strong position

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Kuldeep Yadav has a fc ton and an average pushing thirty. At number nine! Number eight, Hardik Pandya has a similar average and a good limited overs record (I thought he was a bit of an all rounder, but he doesn't have a fc ton). Indians can always bat.

I wondered if Jayant Yadav might come in as he was the third spinner against England and did ok with the ball- and scored a ton with the bat.

Jayant did, but he seems to have slipped out of the thinking as they are looking for a wrist spinner

Arthur Crabtree wrote: Number eight, Hardik Pandya has a similar average and a good limited overs record (I thought he was a bit of an all rounder, but he doesn't have a fc ton).

He's got one now.

Loads of talk in the last test about England having best lower order batting but India must be in contention as well, personally think India and England lower batting is the same only really conditions favouring one team over the other.
India on spinning decks and England on seaming decks.
Both bat deep to crazy levels.

Not a bad time to get a first FC century! Great hitting and also some sensible strike rotation.

The pitch was quite juicy this morning as well even though dried out by the time Pandya went on the attack.

Will SL put up a good batting performance now - maybe they'll take some confidence from their 2nd innings in the last game

Also pandya is a find if he continues to improve he would help India massively overseas considering he could give India an extra seam option and still keep 5 bowler and have the long batting line up.
Most likely bhuvi will be batting 10 with shami 11 and shami no mug with the bat.

bhaveshgor wrote:Loads of talk in the last test about England having best lower order batting but India must be in contention as well, personally think India and England lower batting is the same only really conditions favouring one team over the other.
India on spinning decks and England on seaming decks.
Both bat deep to crazy levels.

Bairstow is a far better bat than Saha

Ashwin is the next best test batter in the group although Moeen is fast changing that.

Stokes is the best batter amongst the seamers although Pandya is showing promise.

Bairstow, Ali, Stokes and Woakes edge it over Saha, Ashwin, Pandya and Jadeja at the moment for batting.

Could change if Psnt gets in and does a de kock and Pandya keeps developing

When you put it that way England look better but they do lose points though when stokes has to bat 5, bairstow 6, Ali 7 and woakes 8.
When they do that it make the batting look weaker especially when top order weak.
India stronger top order makes it far easier to make India lower order bat more lower down.
Personally think Ali needs to bat at 8 but not sure Bayliss sees it that way.
If he bats at 7 or 6 it makes it weaker to a notch, although woakes is no mug with the bat at 8 but the team feels way stronger with Ali at 8.
Although in terms of average it must be pretty close between all 4 players although pandya is early in career

Think the position they bat makes a difference.
If woakes is 8 and only Toby or broad to follow at 9 and then India has lets say jadeja or kuldeep yadav at 9 that makes a big difference in the strength of the lower order, in spinning decks kuldeep yadav could be at 10.
Which is why I said conditions plays a part since in spinning decks India realistically bat till 11 and England can't because of personnel and the vice Versa where in seaming decks India only likely to have one spinner so chances are india will have bhuvi at 9 and England have a stronger lower order with woakes and stokes.
Hard to pick one over each other, England got the better players but they bat more higher up or are needed more because top order are awful or India where the top order is good and so the bats could come in at 7-8-9 or 10 and basically have a license to hit.
India lower order isn't under pressure to score 50s like the England players.
In summary England top order weakens the lower order pontential.

pandya with the wicket now.
his bowling more crucial than his batting.
he really needs to be at best 4th seam option and he will be very useful in the team, he would be a world class all rounder if he can improve to be a 3rd seam option as well since that gives india more option overseas.

bhaveshgor wrote:Also pandya is a find if he continues to improve he would help India massively overseas considering he could give India an extra seam option and still keep 5 bowler and have the long batting line up.

India already have Ashwin to balance the side, and in some conditions, Jadeja. They only really benefit from a seam bowler all rounder if they are going to play four of them. And surely the second India spinner is almost always going to be a better bet than the fourth Indian seamer.

overseas india needs a 4th seamer though, you can't really play 2 spinners all the time.
basically it allows india to have 4 seam bowlers overseas and a spinner in the same team overseas, india haven't able to pick 4 seam bowlers overseas because it would mean a very weak tail.
basically gives them option if they need an extra seam option, lets remember india picked binny last time around in 2014 because the team wanted a 5th bowler but they couldn't fit one in.
pretty difficult for india to play 5 bowlers outside asia without an seam all rounder.
unless they want 2 spinners + 3 seam bowlers.