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***Official*** England in India

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
SS is right dude, Sir Geoffrey may be way off base here about what is distracting the Indian players. Maybe it's the fact that Kohli has been getting them all laid by a different chick every night, or maybe that Che gives neo-socialist revolutionary speeches in the dressing room, or maybe that they all just really miss young braveheart Umesh Yadav, or maybe the physios are threatening to cut off their chicken-tikka supplies, or maybe all the wives-&-girlfriends have formed a club to keep an eye on-***-bitch about the guys. My point is, such a lack of imagination is disturbing to see in a Sir Geoffrey article, really.
 

Pup Clarke

Cricketer Of The Year
Boycott's just become a parody of himself really. Only worth a listen when a batsman 'does a Bell' and he can off on one.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
No what he is saying is that the bookies have India as favourites, which is correct. India are favourites with the draw and an England win similar odds.
 

centurymaker

International Captain
India - Favourites to win the 4th test. FMD.
what are they exactly?

quite a few occasions in the recent past india have somehow managed to square the series at home after giving away a lead, so I suspect the bookies reckon history will repeat?

it's always hard to call a winner before the game.

although atm the odds are perhaps 55 to 45 in england's favour.

we'll get a much much better idea after the first couple of sessions on day 1.

i feel that when sehwag gets a ton, india invariably go on to win, so if england can keep him quiet again i'd back them 75-25.
 
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Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Would not be at all surprised if India win.

If they managed to produce a wicket that actually does deterioate then it could become a bit of a lottery towards the end and we know, despite Cook's heroics, that England are anything but secure.

Just really hope we can actually win a toss for once, would quite happily watch Compton and Trott for 3 days if it means a series win.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
I don't think it's nearly as much of a lottery as it's made out to be. People who usually travel have no technique to bat so they say it's a lottery - but it isn't. Usually India wins on those wickets even if they bat last. And as we saw, England dominated even though they lost the toss. It's because they adapted better than most tourist sides and their spinners outbowled Indian spinners and their batsmen outbatted Indian batsmen against spin. It's still going to be about the same things. There is a difference, but not a massive one, between the third and the fourth innings.

As a random thought: the best player of spin in India that I have ever seen in my lifetime was Andy Flower. Better than Lara, better than almost anyone. One of the very few people touring who I'd say 'conquered' Indian spin. Other people have done exceptionally well, but not like Flower. He was brutally effective. He dominated even when I thought the spin bowlers were bowling really well (different from this tour, without taking anything away from England - in the past touring teams have collapsed even against pretty poor Indian spin). Interesting what effect he might have had on this tour.
 
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silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Yup. Takes some time maybe. Maybe has no effect. Hence the random thought.


In the end it's still the guys in the middle who have to put in the time.
 

Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yeah maybe lottery was the wrong word. Real point though was that from what we have seen so far both sides are very capable of collapsing in a heap.
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Don't think i commented on it here after the announcement, but Jadeja is a gun pick. As i said before, he is in great form at the moment and is a solid enough batsman and bowler. Though, i can see him doing better with the ball probably than the bat initially.

Don't mind the axing of Zaheer either as he has been really unfit and probably carrying some sort of injury. Would have picked Pankaj ahead of Awana though.

Harbhajan for Piyush Chawla is a strange move as you are replacing one non performing spinner with another. Even though there is a chance that Chawla may do well against the English but he doesn't deserve a place AFAIC. Probably would have even recalled Mishra ahead of him or given another left arm spinner a call up who is in good form like Nadeem, Bhatt etc.. Hell even another medium pacer as Jadeja is not really currently a worse a bowler than Chawla.


Would have aditionally also liked to see Mukund replacing one of the openers, Saha replacing Dhoni and Pankaj Singh replacing Ishant but that's probably asking for too much. :p (And that's discounting the selections of Vijay + Dinda earlier which could have been better).
 

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Anybody else thinks Rohit Sharma should be the one batting at number six for India right now?
No, for me Rahane deserves the go ahead of him at whatever batting position.

But he should certainly be in the squad ahead of the likes of Raina/Yuvraj. Has been Odi'd twice now like Badri was when he was just a whisker away from his test call up.
 

Black_Warrior

Cricketer Of The Year
The problem with India is simple - lack of preparation.

Test cricket is all about preparation.. I dont think Indian cricketers prepare as much for big test series like England and Australia..which is not exactly their fault..they just don't have enough time from all the different cricket they play.

Back when IPL and CL were still new, the flag bearers and usual suspects Bhogle, Manjrekar and Shastri would claim, hey if IPL is so bad, how come India are the number 1 test side?

Well now that IPL and CL are a few years old, I think the effects are starting to show.

I am not saying that playing T20 makes you a bad player.
I am saying lack of proper preparation makes you play badly and for preparation, you need time...which multiple T20 leagues will not allow you to have.



As for the 4th test, I still think India have a chance...simply because England can have a brain freeze and implode any time...
 

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