3rd Test: India v England at Mohali on Nov 26-30

[Dr Cricket]

Cork, saying if they go for the extra pace men then Finn should get selected ahead of ball.
Cork saying england might gamble with the extra seam option just so they hope the ball helps the pace men more and they got 2 spinners anyway even if they are wrong.
Cork thinks it will be slow and dry with help for the spinners.

[Dr Cricket]

Well looks like England plans are gone reports by the english press pitch drier than it is normally here and the ends look very dry and the middle looks good.
So at the moment looks like the pitch would be great for batting, spin for the spinners and not much help for the pace men.

[Dr Cricket]

England to play batty in Mohali.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2016 ... land-test/

[meninblue]

I think most armchair watchers know what to expect from Mohali so it's hard to know why England are implying it will be a fast bowler's pitch. Though never take an ECB XI's words at face value. This might be a fiendish long term plan to discredit someone or other with a devilish Le Carre style plot.

The ball is going to swing two feet to left and two feet to right throughout 5 days. And the bounce is going to be shoulder height.

[Dr Cricket]

Some really good stats from Benedict here on Rashid the one that stands out is that Rashid averages 79 dismissing top order batsman and 15 for the tail.
Considering India got a stronger tail than most international teams, a strike rate of 23 quite impressive, imagine what he would do against weaker teams although I still got doubts on him if he can do it outside asia or when it doesn't spin.
at the moment it looks like rashid needs the pitch turning to get wickets especially against the top order.
be interesting to see Rashid first innings stats to top order batsman.
http://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/1 ... in-prayers

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not much to go on with AR's stats, so a slight weighting probably looks more emphatic than it really is. But the stand out stat is that he averages 68 in the first innings (9w) and 27 in he second (19w). He's been a second innings bowler, which is a possible reason why England may feel they want three spinners.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Though in looking this up I see he has 24 wickets from rhb, and 4 from lhb. Though I couldn't say how many lefties he's bowled at.

His stats regarding top order and lower order depend what you call the number seven, as he gets seven the equal most (same as numbers five and nine). So moving seven from lower to top order completely changes his stats. In the second innings, 12 of his wickets are 1-7, seven are 8-11, which seems a more normal spread. That is, he's about equally dangerous to either (just under 2 wickets per batting position).

[Arthur Crabtree]

Given the batting status of sevens (Bairstow, de Kock, Wade, Sarfraz, Watling etc) it seems reasonable to call 1-7 top order and 8-11 lower order.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Looks like Ansari won't be playing due to injury.

[Aidan11]

Ansari and Broad are both out.

[Gingerfinch]

Looks like Ansari won't be playing due to injury.

Another convenient injury, or are you being sarcastic?

[yuppie]

Looks like Ansari won't be playing due to injury.

Another convenient injury, or are you being sarcastic?

It might work out best for England.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I was aware that there was an opportunity for sarcasm, but I tried to avoid it. I've been too critical of Ansari so far, though he hasn't had much of a chance yet to show what he could do, mainly out of a feeling of bodged selection. I hope he does well. Just it's hard to know why he's there.

[Aidan11]

We could see Buttler, Batty & Finn all playing in the third test.


Kill me.

[Aidan11]

On the plus side it's a good chance to make money. Put everything you have on an India win.