2nd Test (Edgbaston) - July 2nd

[the big bambino]

Bazball only know how to play on roads so there's no chance Australia giving them roads, lets be honest.

Curators will prepare mostly good balanced pitches with probably a couple of green tops.

I think green tops are a greater risk for us. I'm not wanting roads either. Just the type of bouncy pitches that offer a bit of movement.

 

[Nintendo]

Ive just watched the highlights. What the **** where the English lower order doing? Smith, tongue, woakes and Bashir all got out to rank shots, and carse nearly got out playing as bad a shot, but got dropped.

It didn't look like the pitch was doing much aside from the turn outside the rough, and you need 300+ to win and only need to bat 20-30 overs. It's just shocking cricket.

Now India are 1-1 up and have momentum with bumrah to play two of the remaining three games minimum. FFS.

 

[cascade]

Bazball only know how to play on roads so there's no chance Australia giving them roads, lets be honest.

Curators will prepare mostly good balanced pitches with probably a couple of green tops.

Perth and Sydney are prob both as likely to be roads as minefields. I don't think the curators know what they're doing in either of those places.

 

[centurymaker]

Yeah, I'm not sure electing to bat first on roads can be justified because it worked once or twice before. The risk of conceding a mountain of runs and tiring your own side out mentally and physically is to great then all for the joy of batting last when the pitch finally does start playing up. The risk is amplified with an inexperienced bowling attack. Could be a different situation at Lords but I'm not sure they'll produce the expected green top there if England insists on playing this type of cricket.

It's gonna be very hot in London before and during the entire test match so I don't think green top will even work out. IMO England will just want a bit of life in the pitch. Like a good balanced wicket ideally with par around 280-350. That gives them a good chance. Indian batters may get found out.

 

[honestbharani]

Stokes calling this road a SC pitch

No wonder they sucked in India. Guy has no idea what actually is a SC pitch.

 

[Burgey]

Almost as good as the WTC Final

This is better but that was a cute result too

 

[Kirkut]

Bumrah to play at Lord's and The Oval.

The Oval for sure since the abrasive pitch there may offer reverse swing.

 

[Kirkut]

I think green tops are a greater risk for us. I'm not wanting roads either. Just the type of bouncy pitches that offer a bit of movement.

Seamy roads...

 

[Xix2565]

Nope. I'd much prefer the kind of true to road Aussie wickets before the most recent home series we've played v SA, Eng and India. Our bowlers know how to exploit the conditions better than touring teams.

Yes, I get what you prefer to see, that doesn't mean the pitches haven't suited Australia's bowling a lot more recently.

 

[Prince EWS]

Ive just watched the highlights. What the **** where the English lower order doing? Smith, tongue, woakes and Bashir all got out to rank shots, and carse nearly got out playing as bad a shot, but got dropped.

It didn't look like the pitch was doing much aside from the turn outside the rough, and you need 300+ to win and only need to bat 20-30 overs. It's just shocking cricket.

Now India are 1-1 up and have momentum with bumrah to play two of the remaining three games minimum. FFS.

They were saving Test cricket.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Yes, I get what you prefer to see, that doesn't mean the pitches haven't suited Australia's bowling a lot more recently.

Australian pitches have been consistent across both shield and test cricket. There's been no evidence pitch characteristics are being changed to suit us vs whoever we are playing.

 

[Xix2565]

Australian pitches have been consistent across both shield and test cricket. There's been no evidence pitch characteristics are being changed to suit us vs whoever we are playing.

They've always suited the team though? Like do you think they're out there making low bounce, slow wickets all the time? That it's not as deliberate as other sides doesn't mean Aussie curators are out there making pitches that don't help Australia at all.

 

[Spark]

Yes, I get what you prefer to see, that doesn't mean the pitches haven't suited Australia's bowling a lot more recently.

You are ironically doing the exact same thing you criticise where the standard of "doctoring" is purely based on whether the home team is doing well or not, leading to every possible type of pitch being called "doctored".

 

[Son Of Coco]

They've always suited the team though? Like do you think they're out there making low bounce, slow wickets all the time? That it's not as deliberate as other sides doesn't mean Aussie curators are out there making pitches that don't help Australia at all.

You don't have to doctor your pitches for them to suit the home team. They should be better in the conditions simply due to them being used to them as that's what they play on most regularly.

The difference is when you change a pitch's characteristics for a game because you know it will give you the advantage over the other team. E.g.: if we had pumped out flat tracks vs India despite greener wickets being the norm for the past 2-3 years because we wanted to nullify Bumrah's threat. We didn't do that, and he dominated.

Obviously anytime you play around with a pitch to amplify one of your own strengths you risk it backfiring if it also helps out the other team, as England found out here. Over the 2 tests so far, their bowling hasn't been strong enough to capitalise on the benefits a flatter pitch provides their batting. India's bowling surprised many in this test, and England got rissoled as a result. By rights, England probably should be 2-0 down.

They did the same thing in the Ashes there vs us, and then went with different pitches for the last 3 tests. If they had never started ****ing around with the decks, they probably would have beaten us.

 

[Daemon]

Literally the only team that cheats on a regular basis:

“we have the moral high ground”

 

[Spark]

I think there was a pretty obvious attempt to cook the Perth pitch this time around tbh. But as cascade said, the people there aren't especially good at their jobs so it backfired massively.

God only knows what the SCG lot are going off of.

 

[Burgey]

I just saw TGC lads summing up this and the Aus-WI test and they were on point with something.

After the WTC final, they like many of us had the ***** with our bowling unit for not getting it done against SA, and fair enough too.

But then they’ve arrived in the UK and seen the utter ****ing dross being dished out by both of these teams’ bowlers (save Bumrah, ofc) and they’ve penned a heartfelt apology to our blokes, as we probably all should.

 

[morgieb]

I think there was a pretty obvious attempt to cook the Perth pitch this time around tbh. But as cascade said, the people there aren't especially good at their jobs so it backfired massively.

God only knows what the SCG lot are going off of.

SCG I think were left scared by how many draws happened there in recent years so cooked the pitch in order to force a result. Which admittedly could count as doctoring, but I don’t think that was in our favour.

 

[Spark]

SCG I think were left scared by how many draws happened there in recent years so cooked the pitch in order to force a result. Which admittedly could count as doctoring, but I don’t think that was in our favour.

Quite frankly I think they're just incompetent and there's no particular value in going much deeper than that. It's not as if cricket is even the only sport affected by their rank ineptitude as we saw last week

 

[OverratedSanity]

I just saw TGC lads summing up this and the Aus-WI test and they were on point with something.

After the WTC final, they like many of us had the ***** with our bowling unit for not getting it done against SA, and fair enough too.

But then they’ve arrived in the UK and seen the utter ****ing dross being dished out by both of these teams’ bowlers (save Bumrah, ofc) and they’ve penned a heartfelt apology to our blokes, as we probably all should.

Siraj and Akashdeep have been great tbh. 17 wickets on a road decks is kinda amazing

Prasidh and Thakur and co have been diabolical