***Official*** England in India

[Spark]

Yeah, but 55 with the ball.

So he's basically Ashwin.

[benchmark00]

Looks like a tub of Neapolitan ice cream.

[Spark]

wtf is with the pitch. Never seen anything like it.

Haha yeah changes colour completely just past the batting crease

[silentstriker]

Haha pitch definitely looking a little weird.


No bounce either. At least from this end.

[centurymaker]

at colour of the pitch

[Cevno]

They've been watering after the batting crease but left it dry in the middle it seems.

[Spark]

Haha pitch definitely looking a little weird.


No bounce either. At least from this end.

It's as if the curator was busy preparing a greentop then realised halfway through that they were in India.

[benchmark00]

Surely this pitch won't take much spin on day one. Will slide on.


On day four and five those jigsaw pieces will crumble.

[silentstriker]

It's as if the curator was busy preparing a greentop then realised halfway through that they were in India.

Haha Nagpur sometimes does serve up greentops (relatively speaking). He probably didn't want to deal with the ****storm that would inevitably follow.

[silentstriker]

Surely this pitch won't take much spin on day one. Will slide on.


On day four and five those jigsaw pieces will crumble.

Probably quicker than day four I think. Maybe by the end of the day tomorrow the spinners should get something. Definitely day three.

[zorax]

And it's Ojha who gets the new ball!

[Cevno]

So he's basically Ashwin.

haha A FC ashwin.

And Jadeja who has been picked as a batsman here presumably is averaging 21 with the ball.

[Cevno]

Surely this pitch won't take much spin on day one. Will slide on.


On day four and five those jigsaw pieces will crumble.

Not a great toss to lose, with so many spinners in the team also.

[centurymaker]

unique field setting that

[SJS]

India's bowling attack hasn't been great but they have not been the main reason for the two losses - its the miserable batting. This is the most ridiculous selection possible. To replace Zaheer and Yuvraj we should have had one bowler (Amit Mishra if you wanted a spinner) and another batsman - Rahane, Badrinath, Rohit Sharma . . . take your pick. Not just because they scored big hundreds in ranji last week (Jadeja scored a triple) but because all of them are better batsmen than him and if Dhoni cant see that then he SHOULD be sacked.

In Ashwin we already have a batting all rounder (yes that is what he truly is. Jadeja is not even that at the Test level.

I hope, for India's sake that Chawla takes bucket loads of wickets but at the time of selection his has to be the lousiest piece of selection in many a year and it is Dhoni who must take the responsibility of that.

I do pray I am proved wrong and Chawla gets ten and Jadeja scores a double hundred though . . .