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*Official* 1st Test - England v India - Keep all Discussion Here Please!

scorpio

U19 Cricketer
Anil: Good summary..cant agree with you more.
Hope agarkar is not retained coz he made a century.he deserves to be dropped after his bowling, same with nehra.

A_B: Good one dude...but i thought i had the sole right to making parodies on this forum.. :D
 

The Argonaut

State Vice-Captain
Let's not be too hasty here. It is only the 1st test. The XI should be largely unchanged though I couldn't believe that Kaif was not included in the side on form. Ganguly is the one that needs to be dropped but that would lead to great instability in the side and they don't need that. Keep him for the series and if he doesn't perform get rid of him.

Agarkar's century will probably keep him in the side but the Turbanator needs to come in somewhere either for Kumble or Agarkar.

My 2nd test side would be:
Sehwag, Jaffer, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly, Ratra, Agarkar or Kumble, Singh, Khan, Nehra

It's not the end of the world. The same Indian fans that raved about the one day performances are sinking the slipper into the side for their test performances.
 

aussie_beater

State Vice-Captain
A_B: Good one dude...but i thought i had the sole right to making parodies on this forum.. :D
Parodies are the only way I can keep myself from yelling at I don't who, seeing this pathetic Indian display at Lords. :(!

I think Kumble should be dropped from the lineup for the next one at Trent Bridge.He just doesn't have it in him anymore.His bag of tricks has run out and now he just isn't good enough....not outside the sub-continent.
 

scorpio

U19 Cricketer
Argonaut: Ur post reflects my thoughts exactly. We should give them one moretry, most were good in patches ..lets see if they can put it together for a whole match..

A_B: Kumble didnt do badly. He is just a support bowler here. But in guess harb would do better. But agarkar should go.May be youhannan can get a look in.
I hope the century doesnt blind the capt and coach.
 

aussie_beater

State Vice-Captain
Absolutely....this isn't the time for a witch hunt.As for Kumble being a support bowler, well I don't buy that.He is past his prime or a more apt explanation would be that most of the batsman have figured out what he's got and unless he gets a picth with an uneven bounce his plain line and length medium pace won't really bother them much.

Agarkar's bowling was absolutely crappy but if Trent Bridge's history is looked at, that pitch behaves more like an English one then Lords in recent times and maybe Agarkar can redeem himself there.His century helps his case.....but I am not sure if its a case of the Poms doing the Aussie trick....letting him make some runs and get himslef selected and be there to be flogged again at TrentBridge :D
 

Anoop

U19 12th Man
:cry:

Can't find words to describe India's "performance".

England just played naturally, didn't make mistakes and they won easily...

Anyway, this didn't surprise me though. Indians are known for zigzagging performances.

So over is over, what next?

I'll be surprised if India levels the series, let alone win it...

:cry:
 
MY 11 would be

Sehwag
Laxman(better send in as an opener than waste him at no 6)
Dravid
Tend
Gang
Kaif
Ratra??
Agarkar
Zaheer
Harb
Kumble

INdia can still win the series, don't lose hope!
 

jaspalsinghrana

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
India need to give their 100 percent performance, if they do that, they will easily thrash England.

How can u expect them to win matches, when ur captain, ur main batter, ur senior pacer all performed pathetically??

However India re slow starters, so don't get depressed, they will bounce back with a BANG!
 

oyesachinoye

Cricket Spectator
The way India chased the runs in the fourth innings, it proved one thing.They are a class act and will strike back!

Never suspect the spirits of ur gladiators!
 

lord_of_darkness

Cricket Web XI Moderator
yea okay i just wished india was a team like that.... fighting back , at the wrong moment .. when they are losing the 4 test 3-0
 

scorpio

U19 Cricketer
Looks like lot of guy have started watching cricket recently.

For nearly 12 yrs now we have been experimentting with with makeshift openers and have failed consistently.

Atleast in the last couple of yrs we have ensured that atleast one of the two is a specialist opener. Jaffer looks like a good prospect. He should not be dropped. The only change we need to make is push the inform laxman above tendulkar and ganguly . (when azhar was in similar form the same was done)

As for the bowling agarkar despite his century has to be canned the guy doesnt even have potential. After 5 yrs we just cant keep hoping that he will come good. He just doesnt have the discipline at this level. and does not have the pace to blow away any opposition.

And we have to consider the fact that england might have relaxed a bit or might have let agarkar get a century to make the indians pick him again.

Nehra needs one more chance despite sucking as badly. I guess Youhannan didnt do badly in tests and is a line lenghth bowler...so he should come in instead of agarkar along with Harb.


cheers
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Don't worry boys, im betting that Tendulkar will pull off at least one win by himself & then save your a$$ another time.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
I honestly cannot see the Indian attack from Lords taking 20 wickets.

Before his ton, I suppose the one logical change would have been Agarkar out, Harbhajan Singh in... but can you drop your best batsman? :D
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
The ideal team for the second test should be:

Jaffer
Sehwag
Laxman(He has to be at no: 3)
Tendulkar(too good to fail for too long(I really don't have a measure of "too long"))
Dravid(He can do his "wall" thing here as well as no: 3)
Ganguly(should pull up his socks and lead from the front)
Ratra(with subtle hints of replacing with Patel if he doesn't perform adequately)
Agarkar(should be ideally replaced with Yohannan, but his 2nd innings batting will make them think)
Khan
Nehra(should be warned of dire consequences for another non-performance)
Harbajan(Kumble should be 2nd choice unless Harb really does something horrible)

This attack is really not good enough to take 20 wickets against determined and good batsmen. The best they can do is bowl a good line and length day in and day out, field well and let the pressure get to the batsmen. England are almost as notorious as India in the matter of collapses, it is a question of applying the right pressure at the right time. However, I realise that all this is easier said than done.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
The only reason that England won the first test was the way their disciplined line-and-length bowling in the first innings showed the lack of patience in the Indian batsmen.

I honestly do not think that India have a single seamer who would get in the England side (even without arguably England's first 3 choices being absent), and that they have nothing to lose by placing much more emphasis on spin.

This means playing Harbhajan and Kumble, and giving Tendulkar a lot of the ball too.
Trent Bridge has offered a bit of bounce for the last season or two, and Andy Harris (splitter) has been in the wickets for Notts, but so too has Nicky Boje recently.
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
The problem with playing Kumble is that unless the pitch is cracked up or has variable bounce, he is really nothing more than a reasonably accurate slow medium pacer. When batsmen play him as such, he is very rarely a threat and that has been demonstrated again and again in India's away matches. At best, he can think of bottling up the runs at one end, but I feel he has lost a bit of that consistent accuracy he used to display. So, Harbhajan and Tendulkar(with his leg breaks) ans Sehwag should suffice in the spin department. If we really want another specialist spinner, we should have tried left armer Murali Karthik quite a while back. Since, he is being shelved for unknown reasons, I think this is the best spin option we have.
 

aussie_beater

State Vice-Captain
Why are we even talking about the Indian bowlers when the main reason for this disaster were the Indian batsman.Isn't it time that the famed Indian batting order started to deliver on overseas tours ? For other teams a batting collapse is an exception that happens sometimes here and there but for the Indian team it has become the rule.This Indian batting order has lost so many matches that there should not be any other point to talk about except their acute inability to bat.Once these guys fix up their act then only India will start drawing matches abroad...forget about winning for now.That will give the bowlers to have something on the board to try out their wares.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
The reason is...

a side with great batsmen and no bowling attack to speak of will win the odd test match, but no more than that. This probably highlights the difference between the Indian side's relative success in ODI's compared to the 5-day game.

India showed in the second innings at Lords that they can bat (almost 400 in the 4th innings is no mean achievement), but as to whether they can take enough wickets to win any game of this series, I rather doubt.

Sure, if a side scores enough runs to set (say) 500 to win, then any bowling attack will look a little more dangerous, because you can always have another couple of close catchers for a couple of hours.

It's whether you can bowl a team out in the second innings for a score below 250 which dictates whether you have a bowling attack worth speaking of.

England probably don't, India certainly don't.
 

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