1st Test England v Pakistan, Lord's 14-18 July

[hopeforthebest]

Forecast looks good for all five days.

I thought Aidan was the official weather man for England tests.

[Arthur Crabtree]

It says that in the Guardian.

[backfootpunch]

Pakistans batting line up looks more reliable than ours does

Root at 3 should be a good thing, at least he will be coming in at 40-1 not 50-2 this series

Pakistan look like a useful side to me, we are going to have to play very well

Unless ball has already been confirmed I reckon roland Jones may play

[Arthur Crabtree]

I've got

Cook
Hafeez
Root
Younis
Misbah
Shafiq
Sarfraz/Bairstow
Broad
Amir
Yasir
Finn (or Anderson)

Which balances towards Pakistan. But the conditions will give England a huge advantage. And in cricket, 2-3 players can win you a match.

[Aidan11]

Forecast looks good for all five days.

I thought Aidan was the official weather man for England tests.

Gloomy outlook for the Pakistan batsmen.

[KipperJohn]

It says that in the Guardian.

Best take an umbrella then.

[Arthur Crabtree]

It said that Ball was going to open the bowling in the Guardian. In two articles. I was answering Hope, but Aidan split our posts.

[bigfluffylemon]

I'm a lot more pessimistic than a lot of the other posters here about England's chances. I think that Pakistan winning the series, or at least a couple of games, is a strong possibility. A line-up featuring Amir, Riaz and Shah is fearsome, all the more so if the Lord's wicket is slow and there isn't much lateral movement for England's bowlers to exploit - pace and legspin take wickets on slow, low pitches. Add in to that England's flaky batting line-up, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of low England scores again in this series. The one saving grace is that the Pakistani batsmen won't be used to facing much swing, so if the wickets and conditions are conducive to it, it could be yet again a very bowler dominated series.

I don't like moving Root to 3. He's had so much success at 4 and 5, not so much higher up the order, so why put our best batsman somewhere he doesn't want to bat? Still, England have effectively had no number 3 for the last 12 months, so it doesn't make an awful lot of difference. But it would be nice one day to turn on the coverage and see the score go above 100 with 0-2 wickets down, instead of the 30-3 or 80-4 that have been regular features of England scorelines for the last two years since Ballance had a good summer. England have had a lot of wins, but they've been on the strength of skilful bowling exploiting favourable home conditions, and being bailed out by the lower-middle order.

[Dr Cricket]

Idiotic botham calling England number 1 and the best test team in the world and then forgetting england will not even win a game in Asia right now lol or they lost 2-0 to pakistan last winter in the UAE.

[Dr Cricket]

Newman now claiming he blocked O'brian because he was attacking Scyld berry lol.

[Dr Cricket]

Surely speed gun is wrong no way is ball a 90 mph bowler.
he normally low 80, mid 80s bowler.

[hopeforthebest]

What a waste of a referral obviously pitching outside leg. From Cook's face he didn't like that review but gave in to the new man.

[backfootpunch]

Surely speed gun is wrong no way is ball a 90 mph bowler.
he normally low 80, mid 80s bowler.

That's what I was thinking

It is very possible the adrenaline of his first game will add 5mph

Golfers routinely gain a club of yardage when the adrenaline gets pumping

[hopeforthebest]

That drop by Vince wasn't difficult at all Bumble and Botham are overly kind about it.

[budgetmeansbudget]

That drop by Vince wasn't difficult at all Bumble and Botham are overly kind about it.

Second drop from Vince, hasn't caught anything in between.

Will start to nag at him.