India v England, 4th Test, Nagpur, 13-17 December, 2012

Changes for India.

Zaheer, Yuvraj and Harbhajan have been dropped and been replaced by Awana, Jadeja and the mighty Piyush Chawla (who's been doing more with the bat).

Anything has got to better than those they're replacing. Although Ishant Llama seems to have escaped much criticism. India could easily win this match - England haven't turned to genuinely imperious in two weeks.

They need to be far better though, England are imperious in comparison to our lot. Just that a lot of the success for both teams has revolved a bit around one batsman.

Some nooz fellows reporting that Dhoni's performance will be monitored, would make sense considering Sandeep Patil's finger wagging

The change from Test 1 to Test 2 (and to an extent, Test 3) was a giney-normous, montstrous turnaround: unusual surely even for cricket, with all its sea changes.

Panesar, absence of Bell, latterly Finn ... any other factors?


Strategic error in wicket preparation for Mumbai, I suppose.

India's one good batsman not scoring a 200.

PeterCS wrote:The change from Test 1 to Test 2 Panesar, absence of Bell, latterly Finn ... any other factors?

Although Panesar probably won't do a job. Patel's extra batting and plucky non-turners should do the trick. Also Bresnan's good for 20 runs... bolstering his dobby and wide bowling. I reckon we'll make at least 190 runs in the first innings.

Acerbic to the point of an ace.

The only change England might consider is Bairstow or Morgan for Patel. Can't see it though. Reckon they'll stick with the plump one.

Can't see England making a change. Has Broad gone back to England?

taipan wrote:Can't see England making a change. Has Broad gone back to England?

Don't think so, he was doing his share of 12th ma duties inthe test.

England should be unchanged. This is the best team we've got for these conditions.

Why would England have to consider changing a team that's just f*cked the opposition in two straight matches?

Very happy to see Zaheer out, at times i felt he was almost disrespecting the game by not trying hard enough.

tricycle wrote:Why would England have to consider changing a team that's just f*cked the opposition in two straight matches?

Patel is in last chance saloon and could potentially be dropped, but I suppose he did okay in the last Test, at least when compared to Bairstow's efforts in the 2nd Test. Bairstow will surely bat 6 in NZ. Patel will be very lucky to play another Test for England after this one, barring something special from him here. TBH, he hasn't batted terribly and has had some rum luck, but it's his own fault he didn't capitalise on the two starts he had. IMO, he's done. Tough sh*t. Deserved a chance but hasn't taken it.

PlanetPakistan wrote:Very happy to see Zaheer out, at times i felt he was almost disrespecting the game by not trying hard enough.

And the competition for "Halfbaked Post of the Year" is now closed.

You're mistaking jadedness for lack of effort.

Basil wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:Very happy to see Zaheer out, at times i felt he was almost disrespecting the game by not trying hard enough.

And the competition for "Halfbaked Post of the Year" is now closed.

You're mistaking jadedness for lack of effort.

err not so much

Even in AUS i noticed ZAK was clearly running away from the short pitch bowling and constantly threw his wicket away.

PlanetPakistan wrote:

Basil wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:Very happy to see Zaheer out, at times i felt he was almost disrespecting the game by not trying hard enough.

And the competition for "Halfbaked Post of the Year" is now closed.

You're mistaking jadedness for lack of effort.

err not so much

Even in AUS i noticed ZAK was clearly running away from the short pitch bowling and constantly threw his wicket away.

He's a tailender FFS!

Who is vice captain by the way, in Sturat's absence? Could be any of Belf, Matty P, Jimmy or Swanny.

Agreed Fat Sam has to get some runs if he isn't to be discarded from the Test squad, his bowling hasn't been effective (or used much at all when we have two spinners) and there's plenty of batsmen queuing up for another go in the middle order.

Jimmy's the senior player, but my hunch is that it would be Prior.

I'd say Prior is the closest thing we have to a vice captain? He should be the vice captain permanently, imo. He looks like excellent vice captain material, even if it's unlikely he'll ever captain on a full time basis. Broad doesn't need any extra burdens at the moment. I'd even consider relieving him of the T20 captaincy and tell him to concentrate solely on getting his nip back.

Have they named the T20 squad yet? I hope Cook and Broad aren't in it. And btw why the f*ck are they playing two T20s at the end of this test tour and not at the start of the ODI series after Christmas?? Bizarre scheduling.

Anyway, 'the word on the street' is that Sachin will be having a chat to India's selectors at the conclusion of this test, with the proposal of retiring from test cricket, and having a final farewell in the ODI series versus the old enemy Pakistan.

Well, hark at the Notts boys saying Samit is a done deal. Well well.

Old Chiv comes out with the 'deserved his chance' line though. Did he deserve it on his batting (402 @ 25 last year) or his bowling (16 @ 40 last year)?

Decisions...

He's actually been lucky to keep his spot - once it was apparent that his innocuous bowling wasn't going to get a look-in, surely the man who has done something (Bairstow - with his 149 runs in a Test versus SA) is the one that actually deserved the chance.

OK, he's a concrete-footed prodder against spin bowling and would have likely shat his bits, but if we're actually talking who deserved the shot at it then it should be pretty clear.

Henry wrote:Anyway, 'the word on the street' is that Sachin will be having a chat to India's selectors at the conclusion of this test, with the proposal of retiring from test cricket, and having a final farewell in the ODI series versus the old enemy Pakistan.

Is that slang for "Twitter", Trev?

Chivalry Augustus wrote:

tricycle wrote:Why would England have to consider changing a team that's just f*cked the opposition in two straight matches?

Patel is in last chance saloon and could potentially be dropped, but I suppose he did okay in the last Test, at least when compared to Bairstow's efforts in the 2nd Test. Bairstow will surely bat 6 in NZ. Patel will be very lucky to play another Test for England after this one, barring something special from him here. TBH, he hasn't batted terribly and has had some rum luck, but it's his own fault he didn't capitalise on the two starts he had. IMO, he's done. Tough sh*t. Deserved a chance but hasn't taken it.

Aye, and I meant for this series. Looking at the replacements (if Morgan is still considered), Patel should play the next test. He's not been great, but he did look okay in his 30 odd in the first innings,

skully wrote:

Henry wrote:Anyway, 'the word on the street' is that Sachin will be having a chat to India's selectors at the conclusion of this test, with the proposal of retiring from test cricket, and having a final farewell in the ODI series versus the old enemy Pakistan.

Is that slang for "Twitter", Trev?

It would be funny seeing you go under a Rorsasch test. Everything would be iProducts and twitter.