England vs India 4th Test Debate

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England line-up:

1) Andrew Strauss (C)
2) Alistair Cook
3) Ian Bell
4) Kevin Pietersen
5) Eoin Morgan
6) Ravi Bopara
7) Matt Prior (WK)
8) Tim Bresnan
9) Stuart Broad
10) Graeme Swann
11) James Anderson

India line up:

1) Gautam Gambhir
2) Virender Sehwag
3) Rahul Dravid
4) Sachin Tendulkar
5) VVS Laxman
6) Suresh Raina
7) MS Dhoni (C,WK)
8) Amit Mishra
9) Ishant Sharma
10) Sreesanth
11) RP Singh

I think England should have played 5 bowlers and dropped Bopara.

Prior at 6, Bresnan at 7, Broad at 8 would have been fine

The answer to that will be presented when it comes to us bowling. If we rattle them out for under 300 again then 4 is fine!

Sreesanth deliberately bowling leg-stump half-volleys? Is this some sort of cunning plan?

I would of played Taylor and keep 4 Bowlers. India haven't reached 300 all series only the 4 Bowlers are really needed. I'll take that back though if India score 500!

Liam

Taylor>Morgan>Bopara

Nasty ping for Capn Straussy on his helmut !

They'll probably improve but at the moment india don't look like taking many wickets today - or tomorrow !

Fist bouncer i've seen all morning!

Want would England have gained by 5 bowlers? They have needed all 6 batsmen at times in the series, never a 5th bowler. If the pitch looked like a spinners paradise Id buy it, but it isnt. As it is they have 3 batsmen who can chip in with some overs of non bowling to stall out the old ball or tempt settled bastmen to play reckless shots and more than enough upfront to bowl India out cheaply.

It would have been very hard on Bopara to have dropped him after the situation he found himself in last test.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Want would England have gained by 5 bowlers? They have needed all 6 batsmen at times in the series, never a 5th bowler. If the pitch looked like a spinners paradise Id buy it, but it isnt. As it is they have 3 batsmen who can chip in with some overs of non bowling to stall out the old ball or tempt settled bastmen to play reckless shots and more than enough upfront to bowl India out cheaply.

It would have been very hard on Bopara to have dropped him after the situation he found himself in last test.

What do we gain by picking Bopara?He is a shocking terrible batsman.He is awful.

Plus the fact bopara shouldn't have been picked for the last test anyway..

Well obviously hes been picked because the selectors dont think he is shockingly bad/awful.
His record is no worse than Morgans.

His ability as a player is subjective. But surely you can agree on the logic of sticking to the 6 batsmen versus bringing in Tremlett just for the sake of it.

Change for changes sake, that's what it'd be, and that's what this England team doesn't like to do, thankfully.

It isn't needed, and I really don't understand why you're talking about changing it up as if we are struggling for inspiration.

As things worked out they could have risked the extra bowler , with Prior batting well along with Broad , Swann and Bresnan scoring too.

I'd have liked to see either Finn or Onions mainly as the cover for Anderson if he's not bowling as fast as in the previous games.

In my view they could have stressed our batting line up to see how well they could play with a different balance. No matter the opportunity has passed.

Well if Anderson wasnt fit enough to bowl fully he shouldnt have been picked, see Zaheer Khan.
So why risk a fifth bowler? England havent needed one in this series in any innings. They have needed 6 batsmen a couple of times, even more so with one of the biggest run accumlators gone from the side. Id see a stronger argument if it were Morgan missing. But I wouldnt be comfortable of the batting depth with Morgan at 5, Prior and then a 5 man tail. That edges too much into assuming the low order players will produce.
Theres more to gain from decideing if Bopara is worth risking on the winter tours or not. England need to decide who their reserve batsman is (some would even argue the first XI has a weak link that could be improved upon), they know who their reserve bowlers are.
To me the argument shoudl be ablout whether that player should have been Bopara or Taylor or Chuck Norris, not if they should have been a bowler.

Raining heavy at the Oval.

I don't think Bopara should be in the team, but the Selectors have decided to stick by him as they have done with others previously.

They brought him in for the last Test as he was the "next cab of the rank" in term of the top six. To drop him after the last Test would have been harsh, considering he only got one knock. Giving him another go, gives him the chance to stake his claim but another failure and I am sure Taylor will bypass him in their thoughts.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Well if Anderson wasnt fit enough to bowl fully he shouldnt have been picked, see Zaheer Khan.
So why risk a fifth bowler? England havent needed one in this series in any innings. They have needed 6 batsmen a couple of times, even more so with one of the biggest run accumlators gone from the side. Id see a stronger argument if it were Morgan missing. But I wouldnt be comfortable of the batting depth with Morgan at 5, Prior and then a 5 man tail. That edges too much into assuming the low order players will produce.
Theres more to gain from decideing if Bopara is worth risking on the winter tours or not. England need to decide who their reserve batsman is (some would even argue the first XI has a weak link that could be improved upon), they know who their reserve bowlers are.
To me the argument shoudl be ablout whether that player should have been Bopara or Taylor or Chuck Norris, not if they should have been a bowler.

Chuck Norris would dismantle any opposition single-handed, both with the bat and ball. You'd only need 1 batsman at the crease and he could bowl from both ends too.

Liam_Main wrote:Raining heavy at the Oval.

Uh oh. England Denied Whitewash by Washout?

india shouldnt have played RP singh lol

dyrewolfe wrote:

Liam_Main wrote:Raining heavy at the Oval.

Uh oh. England Denied Whitewash by Washout?

Seems a very likely headline.

cricketfan90 wrote:india shouldnt have played RP singh lol

To be fair what was the choice ? Patel.....

I think you should edit that to "india shouldnt have played"

Singh actually hasn't bowled to bad compared to Sreesanth.

lol the sri lankans put up a better fight than the indians.

this has been a superb test summer for the mighty england

cricketfan90 wrote:lol the sri lankans put up a better fight than the indians.

So did Bangladesh last year. At least the Pakistanis had the excuse that they were rubbish on purpose.

Rain's doing a fine jobfor India, at last we have something to celebrate!!!.

msp83 wrote:Rain's doing a fine jobfor India, at last we have something to celebrate!!!.

I thought you said Raina for a second and nearly spilt my coffee.

TMS off air bnot a good sign :~(

Just cot up with the game now only, and first thing Praveen Kumar, the only Indian bowler other than MS Dhoni who looked like picking up a wicket is out injured. And who has come in? RP Singh!, just because he bowls left arm like the now back home leader of the attack Zaheer Khan!. And oh, he picked up some wickets in the 07 tour even though he was terrible before and after that!. Didn't Sunil Gavaskar score some runs in England some time ago!?

cricinfo reported a while ago that the mopping up operations had started.

There was a brief moment when it looked like it would be ok but then the rain returned

That will be it for today

This match might reach day 5!

About 35 miles south of London - not a drop of rain all day.

so to sum up this short day, england dominated the session again!

Was at the Oval today. Sharma bowled well, I counted 6-7 play and misses of his bowling. Bowled a brutal bouncer at Strauss, broke the lid!!! Sreesanth was dreadful and Singh seemed to get better the more he bowled. One must remember that this guy hasn't played a Tet in 3 years or a first class game since January!

Strauss and Cook looked pretty decent, a few slip drives early on, but a few better shot towards the lunch break.

Terrible weather was annoying. Twice the covers where ready to come off and it smashed down again.

Forecast for tomorrow is good, looking forward to 98 overs of great cricket!

Pity it's 98 overs and no more , I'd like to see them catch up more of the 60 overs lost from today.

Perfect batting conditions today then.

England to look at scoring 400 today?

Have we won yet?

Well, it looks glorious here today.

England need to be watchful for the first hour or so while the pitch settles down after the rain yesterday.

England to bat, and bat, and bat, and bat....

Cue collapse to 100-7!

Dont worry if its 100-7 we'll still have Broad, Bresnan and Swann to save us

PSW: Yep.

gregers: Ah, bottyparps. You stole my punchline.

Cook gone!

Great bowling from Ishant

Here we go. Did the ball move? Or just not moving feet early?

man sausage.

India proving they are the number one test side, lethal bowling and excellent fielding. The England batting lineup cannot cope with this, embaressing.

If you merge Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler and Trebell, do you get a TreWheeler?

Bottom edge from Strauss, not convincing so far

Seems we are playing too many shots too early.

I guess that Indias slip fielding preperations werent as bad as Flintoff made them out to be

Flintoff has jinxed this match

I hope that India dont start to get confident here

Apparently Cook only need another 30 or so runs to get his career average to 50. What a goose.

Anyone who critisized England for not getting on with it in the last test, watch cooks wicket and both Strauss and Bell nearly giving theirs away playing loose shots already this morning.

Now it looks like theyll be shutting up shop altogether, frustrating.