2nd Test: India v England at Visakhapatnam on Nov 17-21,

[rich1uk]

England have brought some pretty useless batsmen on this tour. Duckett, Balance and Buttler are hardly inspiring alternatives in the middle order. It seems that including Woakes as an extra pace option is unlikely to weaken the batting when you look at the alternatives.

we dont need 7 bowlers, we dont need 6 bowlers tbh

the batting options may be uninspiring but pick one of them and back them to do what they are in the squad for

I wouldn't bowl Stokes as he's proved expensive so Woakes would be the third pace bowler. The big Question for me would Buttler come in at 7 and leave out Ansari. This is assuming Broad plays which England desperately want to happen.

even if we dont use him as a frontline bowler we would still have 5 bowlers with him as an option

if you cant win a test with your best 5 bowlers and stokes and root as backups then adding a 6th bowler isn't going to help

maybe we end up having no choice because Ballance should never have been in the squad and Duckett has struggled but its still the wrong decision

[meninblue]

Duckett gone without scoring, was expected he will struggle.

4 down and India continue to be favorites.

[Dr Cricket]

what a tweet.
"India bowled 19.4 overs in the first hour. On that basis England still have another 98.2 overs to survive"

[hopeforthebest]

England have brought some pretty useless batsmen on this tour. Duckett, Balance and Buttler are hardly inspiring alternatives in the middle order. It seems that including Woakes as an extra pace option is unlikely to weaken the batting when you look at the alternatives.

we dont need 7 bowlers, we dont need 6 bowlers tbh

the batting options may be uninspiring but pick one of them and back them to do what they are in the squad for

I wouldn't bowl Stokes as he's proved expensive so Woakes would be the third pace bowler. The big Question for me would Buttler come in at 7 and leave out Ansari. This is assuming Broad plays which England desperately want to happen.

even if we dont use him as a frontline bowler we would still have 5 bowlers with him as an option

if you cant win a test with your best 5 bowlers and stokes and root as backups then adding a 6th bowler isn't going to help

maybe we end up having no choice because Ballance should never have been in the squad and Duckett has struggled but its still the wrong decision

That's exactly it rich, very little choice. Bringing in Buttler adds a right hand bat to the line up which is a bonus. Bayliss has a lot of faith in Buttler so it's odd that he's not played in this game in place of Duckett. It's all very well giving chances to new batsmen but Asia is not the place for it, where even our better batsmen struggle.

[Gingerfinch]

I'd bring in Batty for Ansari, and Buttler for Duckett, if all are fit.

5 hours left to survive.

[rich1uk]

I'd bring in Batty for Ansari, and Buttler for Duckett, if all are fit.

5 hours left to survive.

depending on broad's fitness i'd swap woakes for ansari and buttler for duckett

i dont like dropping duckett after just 4 tests given he earned the right to be in the team after his domestic performance last year but it becomes a balance between what is best for him, taking him out of the firing line or saying you back him to come good

[Dr Cricket]

Wouldn't it be better to take him out of the firing line so he can come back again next summer, the bigger worry would be duckett playing again and doing badly which makes it harder for him to come back again next summer.
either by not getting in the team, or confidence being shot and he fails in county cricket and doesn't perform to justify inclusion to the test team.

At the moment at least he can work on his game in the nets and hasn't played that many test so can still come back in the future without the added baggage of he failed before with a good sample size like Vince or ballance got.
hard to see vince playing much in the next 12-24 months even if he does brilliantly in county cricket because he failed in 7 test last summer, whereas can see Duckett playing again if he gets dropped in the next test during the same time span since it quite easy to make a case for him.

[Dr Cricket]

wow what a beauty from yadav to get Stokes out.

[Gingerfinch]

The end is nigh.

[Dr Cricket]

The awkard moment when people think england can bat in india when the ball turns a bit.

[Dr Cricket]

Boom root gone.
Start the rickshaw india win this.

[Gingerfinch]

Oh well, 1-0. I did live in very faint hope whilst Root was there.

[meninblue]

I'm waiting for that one session where 5 or 6 wickets will fall/ collapse and even out the wicket less session played by Cook and Haseeb

There is enough belief in what 3 spinners can do on day 4 and 5 and especially in our team in these conditions.

Seems this is the session which i was expecting. 4 wickets already down.

[rich1uk]

Oh well, 1-0. I did live in very faint hope whilst Root was there.

after bangladesh i thought 5-0 was guaranteed tbh

we can all argue about who should play, what the balance of the team should be etc etc, but without genuine test quality spin bowlers we aren't going to win many games in these conditions, and playing 3 average spinners isn't the answer to not having 2 good ones, it just wastes a spot in the XI

[Dr Cricket]

Good spell from Shami this.
thought Ashwin was going to bowl all day and try to get 10 wickets in the match as well.