*Official* India tour of England 2025 General Discussion

[Molehill]

Just another think, I did say the other day that I really enjoyed the two non-road tests (i.e Lord's and the Oval) and that the three other games really rather bored me. So although an obviously really tight series, I don't quite get the "greatest non-Ashes series of all time" stuff that has come out.

Agree with that. The pitches favoured the batsmen too much over the bowlers and OT was just unacceptable. Also, the fielding at times was abysmal.

 

[OverratedSanity]

The flat pitch tests were also fantastic imo. The India rearguard after 0-2 at Manchester was one of my favourite things about the series.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Was Ahsan Raza the best umpire of the series? I like his style.

 

[GIMH]

As if Headingley was anything but a great Test

Edgbaston was a bit dull but who cares that was oasis comeback weekend

 

[GIMH]

Was Ahsan Raza the best umpire of the series? I like his style.

Umpires were largely excellent. Can’t think of many shocking decisions. Think Joverton got sawn off and overturned yesterday, and maybe a catch given to England in an earlier test that was immediately overruled?

Plenty of Umpire’s Calls on stumps. Obviously they should just be not out but can’t be too harsh on the umpires for those

 

[govinda indian fan]

Was Ahsan Raza the best umpire of the series? I like his style.

Saikat was great too

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

Thrilling England-India finale attracts a million viewers

Audience dwarfs typical weekday numbers for non-Ashes Tests as Brendon McCullum praises Mohammed Siraj and Chris Woakes for memorable roles in Oval Test match

www.thetimes.com

More than a million people watched the gripping 56 minutes of play on the final day of England’s narrow Test match defeat by India at the Oval.

A usual weekday session of non-Ashes cricket attracts about half a million viewers but Sky, which showed the finale live across both their Main Event and Cricket channels, attracted twice that. Viewing figures generally peak at weekends but a thrilling climax at the end of a brilliant series brought far higher numbers than usual.

As well as a surge in viewers on Monday morning, almost 1.5million watched across the Sky channels on Sunday — day four of the Test, when England began the start of their attempted record 374-run chase. Video clips of the winning moment and immediate post-match interviews have since been viewed close to two million times across social media platforms.

 

[Spark]

The flat pitch tests were also fantastic imo. The India rearguard after 0-2 at Manchester was one of my favourite things about the series.

Ehhhh the Manchester rearguard was very impressive but I can't have been the only one thoroughly bored by long stretches of play at Manchester and Edgbaston in particular (and times at Headingley too), especially when that awful "only bouncers for the next hour" tactic got rolled out.

 

[centurymaker]

The 3 tests outside London had significant boring stretches where you weren't really glued to the match because there was very limited assistance to the bowlers.

 

[honestbharani]

Yeah the flat tracks produced results and some memorable games (and the hard fought draw at Manchester obviously) mainly because the two sides were flawed. England didnt even Bazball for most of those tests. In the end, the teams being evenly matched and both fighting to the very end made this series great IMO, much more than the pitches.


Most of them were just meh. Even the Oval seemed to be different only when the overhead conditions changed than much in the actual pitch. Still guess the London wickets were the best in the series obviously.

 

[Chin Music]

Yeah the flat tracks produced results and some memorable games (and the hard fought draw at Manchester obviously) mainly because the two sides were flawed. England didnt even Bazball for most of those tests. In the end, the teams being evenly matched and both fighting to the very end made this series great IMO, much more than the pitches.


Most of them were just meh. Even the Oval seemed to be different only when the overhead conditions changed than much in the actual pitch. Still guess the London wickets were the best in the series obviously.

That was pretty much my take too. I'm not trying to be down on the series, because there was plenty of intrigue overall because of what you have set out, but the "best" non Ashes that I have seen in England is a bit of a joke. I know that most of the England v India games that have been 5 test series have otherwise not really been that interesting or have ultimately been very one sided, but the best series I can remember between India v England was 2006 and England fighting back to take the last test in Mumbai with Flintoff's 'ring of fire' performance.

The best non Ashes series that I remember in England would be the 1991 West Indies series and the 1998 South Africa series where in the first instance there was one of the greatest innings played of all time by Graham Gooch (v Marshall/Ambrose/Walsh) and the latter with the Atherton/Donald battle and a couple of games that really could have ended up going either way. That's just my opinion though.