England v India, 1st Test, Trent Bridge, 4-8 August, 2021

Looked pretty out live. Maybe the ump though it hit the bat?

And just like that, the Burnley Lara is at the crease with an hour of the day still remaining.

It’s just so predictable. I’m barely exaggerating now when I say I’d back our T20 team to get 200 more than I would our Test side.

The ECB have had their heads in the sand for years as Anderson and Broad and the inability of overseas batsmen to play swing have kept us more than competitive on home soil. I’ve always thought the crisis point would come when we start losing home Tests and series more often than not, and ticket sales potentially become an issue. That point may have arrived. It looks like a four or five year rebuild now, as per 1999. And that means tackling domestic structure as well as captaincy, coaching and the make-up of the side.

And still Sky don’t give us a debate show and go straight to a 16.4 over ZX Spectrum slogfest instead. Well, Charles, this is just abject, once again. The cricket channel is still rebranded as Hundred despite a Test being on, which shows that Sky’s priorities are in line with the ECB’s.

Watched quite a bit of this. The Bannies bowled well and with great discipline. Neph aside, none of the Pom bats looked in. Good work from Curran saved beetroot red faces.

Missed the Bannie batting. Admit to surprise Nohit Sharma is still there. He seems to play better when nemesis e-kohli is out.

Still the Bannies are deservedly on top after D1.

By the way it surely must be time the Poms moved on from Buttler and 'Here's Johnny'.

horace wrote:By the way it surely must be time the Poms moved on from Buttler and 'Here's Johnny'.

Did you not see Bracey in the Snoozer series?

There’s literally nobody else. In the absence of Stokes, and leaving wicketkeeping aside they’re our second and third best batsmen. That’s how bare the cupboard is. Even if Foakes was fit to take the gloves they’d probably both be in the side.

Hmm, not a great day for Blighty.

They'll need to fight hard from here not to be chasing a big total.

The Bannie pace attack is really excellent. If Bumrah were a Pom, he'd have 250 wickets by now.

Yeah, class act. Barely gives any hit balls.

George Dobell pretty much echoed my comments above about the England situation. Vaughan says Sibley and Lawrence are out of their depth, maybe so, but they’re products of the system. There aren’t obvious experienced fallback options to shore things up. Denly and Malan perhaps, but they’re players in their 30s averaging 30.

No matter what your allegiance, everyone who cares about the traditional game has a vested interest here. Test cricket can’t survive an uncompetitive England in the ‘20s, as it could in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Worth congratulating Root on becoming England’s record run-scorer across all formats. Though to do so at just 30 highlights his workload and the fact he’s going to burn out physically and/or mentally in a couple of years if that is maintained.

Any chances for England? Half chances?

skully wrote:Any chances for England? Half chances?

Haven’t watched any of this morning, but rain looks like the best one.

Tommy gets the breakthrough just before lunch.

Joffrey ruled out for the winter. It just gets better. Shall we just stick to sports we’re good at, like cycling, horse dancing and white ball slogging?

Yeah, just got a text from a mate saying Joffrey had a fracture below the elbow.

Smudge will be smiling.

That looks like two thirds of our genuine pace attack ruled out. All hopes now with the not at all injury-prone Wood

Kohli still can’t bat in England…

Jimmy matched Apple on 619 wickets with that one, that came around quickly! Jinky run out, India pressing the self-destruct button here. Half an hour ago they’d have been eyeing up an innings victory tomorrow.

Wow. 4-15 turn around!! Go Jimmeh!!

C'mon England - stick it to the Bannies.

Light and then rain intervene.

Damn the English weather.

I had settled in post-Olympics-night to watch some quality Jimmeh cricket.

Ripped off.

Tommy gets the key wicket of Pants as the rain threatens.

Michelle for Tommy but a lead of 95 should be enough for India, after a host of missed chances.

More rain keeps the draw in the equation despite a low-scoring match.

Well done Jadeja. Go Bannies.