First Test: England v India at Edgbaston, 1-5 August 2018.

[Dr Cricket]

thanks goodness I had the weekend break.
would have been a nightmare waiting for the test series.

Hopefully india do well in this series or I would really need a 7 week break to get away with the cricket.

So nervous now hopefully india do this.

[Dr Cricket]

so far the surprising aspect is that none of the english journo not said anything stupid yet.

[Dr Cricket]

England's home advantage is generally pretty strong. They don't lose a lot at home, and when they do, it's by narrow margins. However, in recent years their home form has been largely supported by favourable wickets and the Broad-Anderson combo dealing with hapless batsmen.

India has the strongest batting line-up in the world, and the weather and late summer conditions are such that swing and seam appear to be a lot less likely to be the key factor than they used to.

I think England will need to win at Edgbaston. India often start slowly in test series, and their lack of red-ball practice, Edgbaston's generally favourable conditions for the home side and the history of England-India at the ground suggests England should do well there. But on a Lord's flat deck, I think India are likely to win, so if England don't get a victory at Edgbaston, it could be a long uphill struggle, and a potentially chastening loss.

You do realise england got a poor home record yeah.

[Arthur Crabtree]

England have left out Mo and Porter.

Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (c), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (w), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

[Arthur Crabtree]

Buttler is now VC ahead of Anderson.

[Arthur Crabtree]

That looks a weak side.

Who was it that called WI mediocre?

[mikesiva]

That looks a weak side.

Who was it that called WI mediocre?

I would have picked Moeen instead of Curran.

[alfie]

Logical enough XI given the squad selected and likely conditions , which are unlikely to call for two spinners. (Different for India , who have better spin options and aren't overloaded with pacemen so will presumably go with a more balanced mix)
Guess there was a case for Porter but with Rashid - whatever you might think of the fuss over his selection - inarguably at least a bit of a gamble , it makes sense to stick with the bowler with slightly more experience. And young Sam can bat better too...

Buttler as VC is interesting ; one , because I recollect England used not to nominate a Vice Captain at all for home Tests - though they may have recently started to do so ? And two , because I would not have thought Buttler was exactly secure in his Test place...two handy efforts with the bat against Pakistan are a start ; but hardly nails him in place , surely ? Especially if he is not thought good enough to bat in the top six. (I do think he's improved , and would like to see him at least tried at five with a view to the long term) At the moment it rather looks as if he's being shoe-horned into the team at the cost of balance and this appointment suggests possible fears for Root's long term viability as leader - or am I jumping at shadows ?

As to strength of the team I think I've seen worse : a lot depends on the top three firing , but if they can get them off to a decent start I think there are enough potential middle order runs there to put up a good total. And the bowling , while it may lack a tried and trusted third seamer or spinner , at least cannot - for once - be accused of lack of variety , with a left armed pace man , a wrist spinner , and a lively maverick all rounder all backing up the two stalwart openers...and even young Joe's magic arm to lend a bit of off spin...

India haven't had a lot of lead up with the red ball. And are still missing their best pace men. I think this looks an interesting contest. Won't be astonished whichever way it goes.

[Arthur Crabtree]

None of the less experienced players (Jennings, Curran, Malan, Rashid) obviously carry the all-time-great gene. But I suppose they might. Anderson is unexpectedly extending his peak, but all the rest have declined recently, even if only temporarily.

Good points though Alfie.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Cricinfo's suggested India side.

1 Shikhar Dhawan/KL Rahul, 2 Murali Vijay, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 R Ashwin, 8 Hardik Pandya, 9 Ravindra Jadeja/Mohammed Shami, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Umesh Yadav

[Durhamfootman]

That looks a weak side.

Who was it that called WI mediocre?

I would have picked Moeen instead of Curran.

unless Stokes is not yet fully fit to bowl his quota in a 3 seam 2 spin attack

[Dr Cricket]

Berry talks a lot crap doesn’t he.

[bigfluffylemon]

England's home advantage is generally pretty strong. They don't lose a lot at home, and when they do, it's by narrow margins. However, in recent years their home form has been largely supported by favourable wickets and the Broad-Anderson combo dealing with hapless batsmen.

India has the strongest batting line-up in the world, and the weather and late summer conditions are such that swing and seam appear to be a lot less likely to be the key factor than they used to.

I think England will need to win at Edgbaston. India often start slowly in test series, and their lack of red-ball practice, Edgbaston's generally favourable conditions for the home side and the history of England-India at the ground suggests England should do well there. But on a Lord's flat deck, I think India are likely to win, so if England don't get a victory at Edgbaston, it could be a long uphill struggle, and a potentially chastening loss.

You do realise england got a poor home record yeah.

Two series losses at home in the last 10 years, one of which was a 1-0 loss to Sri Lanka where both test matches came down to the final wicket (i.e. could easily have been 1-0 the other way). That loss was in 2014 and England haven't lost a home series since. They've beaten Australia, South Africa and India at home in the last four years (plus West Indies and Sri Lanka). They might have poor individual games, but they don't lose series. How is that a poor record, exactly?

[Dr Cricket]

Compared to other home teams it is a poor record.
they lost a test to pretty much every team at home in recent times.
that is a poor record.
lost 5 in last 10 at home as well.
you really can't spin that as good.
in home terms I believe england are 5th or 6th in the table.
that isn't good, it is more average or below average.

[Dr Cricket]

in terms of home advantage i actually put england last at the moment they probably got the least amount of home advantage considering Sri lanka, bangladesh, india and pakistan are basically unbeatable at home.
SA would beat most teams at home same as Australia.
only really NZ and England are left and in recent times NZ got a better home record than england.

if you think being last in the home conditions table in my personal ranking is good then that is your opinion.

I really can't think of any reason why people would think england got a good home record though definitely wouldn't call it strong.
Strong is something like india or Australia win percentage of 85-90% +.
Strong is certainly not losing 5 out of the last 10 test and losing a test match to 80% of the test playing nations in recent times only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe haven't won a test in england in recent times and that is because they haven't played in England.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... -dissected
this should be a good read.
in the last four years england lost 10 games at home.
Suspect that is the most number of losses for an home team in the time period.
doubt Australia, India, SA lost that many at home, Sri lanka pakistan and Bangladesh got very good home records as well and in recent times WI have played really well at home as well.
so in all likelihood england lost the most games at home in the period.
they certainly the only team to lose the most number of games at home to a variation of teams.
India only lost a game to Australia, likewise SA only lost to England, India and Australia.
england got NZ, WI, India, pakistan, Sri lanka, SA, Aus.