***Official*** England in India

[Jono]

Yeah that was a good thread.

Dare say no one at that time expected this from India at home though.

[Arachnodouche]

Wonder how Zaheer must be feeling with the whole country calling him a fat bastard

Lambs to the slaughter or not, it has to be done. We are getting beat anyway so it just seems logical to put in a young lot and let them develop some game sense and camaraderie in the process. It's not going to be pleasant viewing, but if we start with a decent core group of players in their early-mid 20s and actually stick with them if the talent and drive is there, then I'm sure we'll be far better off 5 years down the road.

[Spark]

Yeah that was a good thread.

Dare say no one at that time expected this from India at home though.

I think I called at least one of England or Aus beating India at home, tbf, on the "India just isn't a very good cricket team" justification.

[CricAddict]

Happy to see that Jadeja is in the squad, always been a supporter of him. Hope he does well.

[Xuhaib]

I think I called at least one of England or Aus beating India at home, tbf, on the "India just isn't a very good cricket team" justification.

yeah England with their spin resources were always the better shout but it was how they batted against Ajmal, Rehman and Herath that casted doubts in a lot of people's minds.

[smalishah84]

yeah England with their spin resources were always the better shout but it was how they batted against Ajmal, Rehman and Herath that casted doubts in a lot of people's minds.

yeah....they were horrible in the UAE.....I mean I can't remember when I had seen worse batting against spin bowling.

Difficult to believe this is the same batting line up.

Even Bell was smashing a few boundaries in the final innings of the last match

[Jono]

Wonder how Zaheer must be feeling with the whole country calling him a fat bastard

Lambs to the slaughter or not, it has to be done. We are getting beat anyway so it just seems logical to put in a young lot and let them develop some game sense and camaraderie in the process. It's not going to be pleasant viewing, but if we start with a decent core group of players in their early-mid 20s and actually stick with them if the talent and drive is there, then I'm sure we'll be far better off 5 years down the road.

This literally only works if we don't hang the new young captain (Pujara, Kohli or Ashwin) out to dry after they lose to Australia and then get owned in South Africa.

That has to be the deal. Otherwise just sacrifice Gambhir or Sehwag or whoever has been around a while to front the media and don't ruin Kohli or Pujara's careers.

I can imagine Indian captaincy is ****ing draining,

[Jono]

I think I called at least one of England or Aus beating India at home, tbf, on the "India just isn't a very good cricket team" justification.

You honestly picked England to beat India after the England vs. Pakistani series?

Australia beating India at home isn't as big a pick, they've always been competitive in India.

[Jono]

yeah England with their spin resources were always the better shout but it was how they batted against Ajmal, Rehman and Herath that casted doubts in a lot of people's minds.

Really? Always thought Australia were the better shout (as stated above). Never looked woeful in India. Even when they lost 2-0 in 2008 they played well in 2.5 of the tests.

2010 series they were competitive in both and were a whisker away from winning Mohali.

[Spark]

You honestly picked England to beat India after the England vs. Pakistani series?

Australia beating India at home isn't as big a pick, they've always been competitive in India.

You'd have to dig up the posts (they'd be in the Aus/Ind tour thread) but I might have.

I'm certainly not overly shocked by the result, let's say.

[smalishah84]

You'd have to dig up the posts (they'd be in the Aus/Ind tour thread) but I might have.

I'm certainly not overly shocked by the result, let's say.

Even after the first test of this series you are still not surprised that the series has panned out the way it has?

[Jono]

Yeah fair enough. PEWS picked Eng pre-series too so I guess there are some who expected this.

[Spark]

Oh, I'm surprised post 1st Test (mostly at Cook's insane form - you look at the other contributors and it's really just the usual suspects), but on a scale of "not surprised" to "holy **** a giant robot iguana just erupted from the ground", this is pretty low down.

It's the sort of surprise you expect to get fairly often when watching int'l cricket, let's say.

[smalishah84]

Oh, I'm surprised, but on a scale of "not surprised" to "holy **** a giant robot iguana just erupted from the ground", this is pretty low down.

I think the only way you will be surprised that much is if the bangers beat SA in SA these days in a 5 match test series

[ProteasFan]

these types of performances have been on the wall for India for a while now. Alot of players are there on Rep and not performances.

They need to shake the team up but I hope they don't damage Kohli's or Pujara's careers.