India tour of Eng, June 20 - Aug 4

[Durhamfootman]

It might suit SA to play as little test cricket as they can possibly get away with, but it would cost the ECB a fortune and then they might have to shoehorn another ridiculous domestic competition, THE FIFTY into an already packed season just so they can flog another team to Indian and American owners to recoup the money they lost trying to make a WTC final

[Arthur Crabtree]

Looks like rain may enter the equation.

[Durhamfootman]

Rain might save England from themselves?

[sussexpob]

Looks like rain may enter the equation.

Depending on the source, India might lose the morning session or some overs up to midday, but after 12 o clock it looks set to be ok. Overcast, humid conditions might make their task easier.

[sussexpob]

In a way, maybe it's a fair deal if they throw away some games using the same tactics that win them some. But attempting to chase this total was folly. A senior player/coach might have realised

Better teams are going to punish your bad decisions more than average ones, and England's tactical successes have to be quantified along with their major priorities in test cricket. If England lose this series and the away Ashes, no one is going to remember winning at home to Zimbabwe, Ireland, WI or SL, the whole era will default to a giant failure. So I ask myself, given that context of priorities, where does England's Bazball attitude pay, and where does it cost? The Ashes are the prime series for England. England did not beat Australia in 2023, which given the context of how tough it is to beat marquee sides away in modern test cricket, is a bad result for England - Australia haven't won a series in England for 24 years, so England failed to win a series they were favourites in.

You ask, why? Well, in the first test they unnecessarily and surprisingly declared on day 1 with the world's number one ranked bat on 120* and in a late order partnership of 50 odd runs that Australia were struggling to break - Australia then won the game by 2 wickets. A tight match decided by England leaving free runs on the board that should/would have probably changed the result. In the test that followed, when faced with chasing Australia's target of 380 with bad weather around and not much play expected on day 5, they came out blazing and lost 4 wickets in the first 10 overs...... the match ended at 18h35 on Day 5 with England all out, and the best part of 250 runs scored by batsman slogging. Literally only minutes from safety on a dark, wet day where only 35 odd overs have been bowled. So yeah, England's top priority series - they were 2-0 down as a result of these decisions. It cost them the series.

What else do we judge England on? India test series.... well we drew at home in 2022, and got thumped 4-1 away recently against a crumbling old side that the Kiwi's whitewashed. We are now being outplayed over two tests by a side supposed to be at the start of a deep transition - given how badly modern day India have played at stages in England, not to beat this side would be worrying.

After that, I'd say England sides are judged on winning against Asian sides away - we just lost to a Pakistan side that had gone 7 odd matches defeated, and who have been beaten at home in the last 2-3 years by NZ, AUS and BD. This was failure - worth noting England won the test with Stokes not in the side, and lost both after he came back. After that, maybe ending England's poor run in the Windies away? Again, lost in 2022.

Getting to a WTC final? Failed in the last cycle.

Beating a good side of the moment in a less than important series in historical context (Ie New Zealand) - yeah, we did well out there and won the series recently, this is a tick in the box. Worth noting however we did play NZ under Stokes/McCullum twice - the first series was thrown away when England lost by 1 run in a match they again unnecessarily and idiotically declared their first innings over with runs still on the board. So even that comes with an *****

[sussexpob]

Currently raining. Weather map indicates rain maybe for the first 30 minutes, after which its pretty clear

[Arthur Crabtree]

Though England are probably not going to make that kind of mission statement declaration again.

From the media, I get the impression than when England lose, they are playing bazball. But when they win, it is playing intelligent bazball.

There is a fair amount of dice rolling going on in these tactics. Smith and Brook got away with plenty for a long time in the first innings. Others didn't.

[sussexpob]

Bucketing down now

[Arthur Crabtree]

Was supposed to be an inspection right now.

England's attack will probably be shuffled. No idea who another spin option is likely to be from the players who fill the squads on tours of Asia. Hope they don't pick Bethell or Jacks to do the job though. If Bashir does get rested.

And though Cook is in the squad, I bet the selector/s have gone cool on him. And is there much enthusiasm for Overton? Presumably Archer will come in, probably for Tongue.

By the way, Bashir's extra height could have been designed for harder Aussie pitches.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Given it's light up until 9pm right now, must be possible to make up quite a lot of time.

[backfootpunch]

Given it's light up until 9pm right now, must be possible to make up quite a lot of time.

They dont play after 7pm though

India may well be left rueing batting for way longer than was necessary

If they dont win they will somehow go to Lords 1-0 down after dominating both games

I hope there's more in the wicket for the rest of the series because these games have been boring for the most part

[Arthur Crabtree]

On the last day? I thought they went on until dark on day 5...

Though that might be 20 years ago!

Or 40...

[Arthur Crabtree]

Makes that England run chase even harder.

[backfootpunch]

Makes that England run chase even harder.

Sussex may explode if they try to get 530 in 65 overs

I do have a feeling 65 overs may be enough for india if its cloudy

Though there is a significant drop off in quality from akash deep and siraj to prasidh and reddy

Stokes likely won't last long. Just bring jadeja on and bowl into the rough. His defensive technique against spin is so poor he will likely try to reverse sweeps every ball again.

[sussexpob]

Given it's light up until 9pm right now, must be possible to make up quite a lot of time.

Yeah, but if its still raining at 12h00 (which has now been passed) the number of overs in the day will be reduced.