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

England and India have played six Tests in Birmingham, with the home side having won five and the other a draw.

In the single Test there this century, England won by an innings and 242 runs (!) in 2011. Cook scored 294. This was the Dravid series, and even he didn't have a great game.

History isn't on India's side.

My hunch though is that India will win this five Test series with a little to spare and England's poor run will continue. I can't see why a team which is struggling against pretty average teams should overturn the best around, even given home advantage.

Any thought on the India team? Will it be...

Rahul/Vijay/Pujara/Kohli/Rahana/Karthik/Ashwin/Jadeja/Ishant/Shami/Umesh?

Reports that Anderson and Broad will be rotated through the series, so Porter is bound to make an appearance.

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.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Reports that Anderson and Broad will be rotated through the series, so Porter is bound to make an appearance.

Well if England are playing 6 bowlers I don't think any rotation is needed. There was talk about rotation in the 5 Test series in Australia which took place in 6 weeks but Broad and Anderson were fine. They have played seven 5 Test series each. It just depends on injuries rather than rotation for the sake of it.

Nervous about England's batting line up.

Slipstream wrote:

Arthur Crabtree wrote:
Nervous about England's batting line up.

I think an awful lot is going to depend on Cook and Root.

Slipstream wrote:

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Reports that Anderson and Broad will be rotated through the series, so Porter is bound to make an appearance.

Well if England are playing 6 bowlers I don't think any rotation is needed. There was talk about rotation in the 5 Test series in Australia which took place in 6 weeks but Broad and Anderson were fine. They have played seven 5 Test series each. It just depends on injuries rather than rotation for the sake of it.

Nervous about England's batting line up. :scared

I think England feel the series is unusually condensed (didn't think of changing the itinerary though!). If I remember right, A&B were rested during the India series away.

So if it's one spinner who will it be? Surely not our second spinner when we have a specialist?

Will India pick one or two?

I'm guessing India will pick two because of the weather. And England will pick one because that's their comfort zone.. Which must be Rashid, otherwise, what's the point.

Cook
Jennings
Root
Malan
Bairstow
Stokes
Buttler
S.Curran
Rashid
Broad
Anderson

Not sure Malan will survive without a ton in Birmingham. Or a good score anyway.

Apparently ticket sales have been very bad.

Surprising. Edgbaston is usually well-attended, as are India games, due to the large ex-pat community who support the away side.

The Wednesday start doesn't help, I guess. Stupid trying to cram five test matches into six weeks.

Geez, this makes for depressing reading:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... -dissected

Just goes to show how inconsistent England are, and how reliant on a few top performers. Cook appears to be on the decline, and it's hard to imagine either he or Anderson staying on beyond next year's home Ashes as their final hurrah. Broad may have a few more years, but could easily be cut short through injury. Without those three, England will have Root as a consistent world class performer (who still faces legitimate criticism for his conversion rate), Stokes as an inconsistent X-factor who is occasionally a brilliant matchwinner but has struggled for consistency and fitness, and a bunch of inexperienced and/or inconsistent also-rans.

Look at the last three years and how many players have forced their way into the side to make a position their own? Given Cook, Root, Stokes, Broad and Anderson were established in the side by 2015, who else? Third seamer, spinner, batsmen 2, 3 and 5, all no. WK is about the only one - Bairstow has gone from in-and-out in 2013-14 to established player over the last couple of years, but even then he's only had one year where he's averaged over 35. Hardly a model of consistency either.

I can see England in 2020 needing to fill 8 slots in the side.

bigfluffylemon wrote:Surprising. Edgbaston is usually well-attended, as are India games, due to the large ex-pat community who support the away side.

Any seats with a decent view are £70 that probably explains it

yeah misleading claims saying prices are 29 pounds.
many don't want to sit in the family zone for those prices.

Nasser Hussain cricket in mumbai doco is a good watch, based on Atherton article during the last tour when he did the south mumbai cricket walk and said mumbai is the real home of cricket.

when I went to mumbai stayed near the maidens and Wankhede stadium and boy it breathes cricket, all you see is just cricket matches everywhere.

Next time I go india I really need to go during IPL.