India v England, 1st Test, Rajkot, 9-13 November, 2016

After England's humbling in Dhaka, we can be sure of 2 things - a turning wicket and unmerciful sledging from India.

But who will they call Monkeh?

No KP, so expect the Poms to be flogged. ...only some will enjoy that.

Congratulations India on an easy win.

skully wrote:After England's humbling in Dhaka, we can be sure of 2 things - a turning wicket and unmerciful sledging from India.

When Stoke stokes, I’m sure there’ll be a few who poke Stokes.
Cook must choke the bloke or else the Indians will find ample use for the cracker leftovers from Diwali - the festival of lights could turn into a festival of fights.

I suspect England is top-heavy on pace and after the greentops dished out in the home series, I’m afraid the Indians will be out baying for blood. The BD tour is likely to find some mention on the field too. Are Rashid and Moeen in a position to counter Ashwin, Jadeja & Mishra? The time of year might help England a bit. The caliber of Swann and Panesar will be missed surely. Batting-wise the two teams seem to be on par, but will the jangling nerves hold up after the tour of BD?

Actually, I’m quite looking forward to this tour although my sense of allegiance is in a quandary. I think I’m going to sit on the fence for a while.

The only greentop they offered, we won on. Long live the green-tops.

jim rich wrote:

skully wrote:After England's humbling in Dhaka, we can be sure of 2 things - a turning wicket and unmerciful sledging from India.

When Stoke stokes, I’m sure there’ll be a few who poke Stokes.
Cook must choke the bloke or else the Indians will find ample use for the cracker leftovers from Diwali - the festival of lights could turn into a festival of fights.

I suspect England is top-heavy on pace and after the greentops dished out in the home series, I’m afraid the Indians will be out baying for blood. The BD tour is likely to find some mention on the field too. Are Rashid and Moeen in a position to counter Ashwin, Jadeja & Mishra? The time of year might help England a bit. The caliber of Swann and Panesar will be missed surely. Batting-wise the two teams seem to be on par, but will the jangling nerves hold up after the tour of BD?

Actually, I’m quite looking forward to this tour although my sense of allegiance is in a quandary. I think I’m going to sit on the fence for a while.

Pace is the way to go in India. Unfortunately the English quickies are probably not good enough.

tricycle wrote:The only greentop they offered, we won on. Long live the green-tops.

Lords was the only greentop? Were we watching the same series? Compared to what you get here, every farking pitch is a greentop. And if that were the case, methinks England should be rejoicing

Cook was sounding like Capt. Desperate on the radio.

Not an auspicious start.


Get Haseeb in there. Even if he fails dismally, he won't be doing any worse than Barry Gallants. And he has better technique and temperament. If starts with low scores, they won't crush him.

I'd probably drop Rashid - where's he going to get the necessary bounce from? - and stick Ansari at 8. Quicks? Who's standing (never mind running)?

Does that lot sound desperate? More hopeful than Chef, I'd say.

Clarification: that's what I'd do.

Who knows, they may well stick with a losing team ...

jim rich wrote:Are Rashid and Moeen in a position to counter Ashwin, Jadeja & Mishra?

I get that this is a tongue-in-cheek rhetorical question, but Ashtray will tear England a new arsehole.

As regards spinners in their team, IMO England need someone who can turn it (a little's enough) but with control and at a fastish pace. The speed, more than loop or flight or spin, has tended to get Indian bats these last few seasons. IIRC Panesar did the job when he was here last, not that he's up for it this time.

We are going to miss Wood more than Jimmy in this series for his pace and ability to reverse the old ball. I find it unfathomable that Plunkett has not been called up.

That said, I'm still going for four seamers and two spinners as I think that the quicks are more likely to get wickets than the spinners.

Can all 6 of them bat?

This looks a juicy series, especially just after England went within 22 runs of losing 2-0 to Bangladesh.

The best an even-handed Australian fan can hope for is five fluctuating and frustrating monsoon-calibre washouts within sight of alternating victories, together with a series of impartially-distributed career-ending injuries.

So that's 5-0 India, then.

lardbucket wrote:The best an even-handed Australian fan can hope for is five fluctuating and frustrating monsoon-calibre washouts within sight of alternating victories, together with a series of impartially-distributed career-ending injuries.

That's a quality sentence.

lardbucket wrote:This looks a juicy series, especially just after England went within 22 runs of losing 2-0 to Bangladesh.

The best an even-handed Australian fan can hope for is five fluctuating and frustrating monsoon-calibre washouts within sight of alternating victories, together with a series of impartially-distributed career-ending injuries.

So that's 5-0 India, then.

Wishing injury on a player - nice!

Oh come on, Bas.

I'll never complain if the better team wins.

(Or wish ill on anyone of decently good will.)

I feel that the more they go India'llkikyerass! India'llkikyerass! India'llkikyerass!, they forget how $hit we are at Tests, and how we actually have very few even decent Test class bats (forget bowlers)  and how badly we've performed when an unimpressed oppo sticks to what they do best. Plus fastish spin.

But if they want to knock 'emselves over in a heap over Ashwin and Jadeja and Mishra, hey, go for it.

jim rich wrote:

skully wrote:After England's humbling in Dhaka, we can be sure of 2 things - a turning wicket and unmerciful sledging from India.

When Stoke stokes, I’m sure there’ll be a few who poke Stokes.
Cook must choke the bloke or else the Indians will find ample use for the cracker leftovers from Diwali - the festival of lights could turn into a festival of fights.

I suspect England is top-heavy on pace and after the greentops dished out in the home series, I’m afraid the Indians will be out baying for blood. The BD tour is likely to find some mention on the field too. Are Rashid and Moeen in a position to counter Ashwin, Jadeja & Mishra? The time of year might help England a bit. The caliber of Swann and Panesar will be missed surely. Batting-wise the two teams seem to be on par, but will the jangling nerves hold up after the tour of BD?

Actually, I’m quite looking forward to this tour although my sense of allegiance is in a quandary. I think I’m going to sit on the fence for a while.

The only Greentop on offer was at Lords and you so-and-so's won that one! You're not differentiating between movement off the seam (Greentop) and movement through the air (anywhere given the right atmospherics)

Here's a mad idea:

England need another righthander in the top order, possibly between Moeen and Stokes. Step forward Chris Woakes - he has a tidy defensive technique and looked quite comfortable in the first innings at Dhaka. Do that and there's room for another seamer thus reducing Stokes' workload.

See, I told you it was mad.

Baz - you're mad.

You'll be bigging up Liam Livingstone next. Or Borthwick.

Or Pete Trego.

@Basil:
“The only Greentop on offer was at Lords and you so-and-so's won that one! You're not differentiating between movement off the seam (Greentop) and movement through the air (anywhere given the right atmospherics)”

I took the liberty of sending a copy of your post to my old coach in Surrey (Just for the fun of it and an e-mail was due anyway). The bugger hasn’t changed since the last time I saw him some 20 years ago. His reply wasn’t very kind, so I won’t quote him verbatim.

FWIW (and from experience, I agree with him): A ball can seam on any surface, even on an abrasive one. What matters is the position of your wrist and fingers (true for the swinging ball as well), the seam position at the point of impact on the ground and pitch moisture along with a few other convergent factors are decisive as far as the degree of deflection off the ground is concerned. You’ve got the swinging ball right though.

But thanks for the effort

So you get more seam movement off a moist wicket. I.E. a greentop..

You are obviously getting confused with the late seam movement after the ball has passed the batsman.

jim rich wrote:@Basil:
“The only Greentop on offer was at Lords and you so-and-so's won that one! You're not differentiating between movement off the seam (Greentop) and movement through the air (anywhere given the right atmospherics)”

I took the liberty of sending a copy of your post to my old coach in Surrey (Just for the fun of it and an e-mail was due anyway). The bugger hasn’t changed since the last time I saw him some 20 years ago. His reply wasn’t very kind, so I won’t quote him verbatim.

FWIW (and from experience, I agree with him): A ball can seam on any surface, even on an abrasive one. What matters is the position of your wrist and fingers (true for the swinging ball as well), the seam position at the point of impact on the ground and pitch moisture along with a few other convergent factors are decisive as far as the degree of deflection off the ground is concerned. You’ve got the swinging ball right though.

But thanks for the effort

Best wishes to your ex-coach, but on the matter of what pitches were served up in our last home series, I know I'm right so am not inclined to give way, and thanks for cutting and pasting the bit about bowling techniques - I'd like to say I learned something - but not anything I hadn't gleaned some 40 years ago.