England's Indian Summer - T20s, ODIs & Tests

First topic message reminder :

T20s

A three match series between the 2nd (India) and 4th ranked teams in the world https://www.icc-cricket.com/rankings/mens/team-rankings/t20i

Fixtures

Tuesday 3rd July 2018 17:30
Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester

Friday 6th July 2018 17:30
Sophia Gardens Cardiff, Cardiff

Sunday 8th July 2018 14:00
The Brightside Ground, Bristol


Squads

England: Morgan, Ali, Bairstow, Ball, Buttler, Curran S, Curran T, Hales, Jordan, Plunkett, Rashid, Root, Roy, Willey (Malan in as cover for 1st game, Stokes may join for 3rd)

India: Kohli, Chahal, Chahar, Dhawan, Dhoni, Karthik, Kaul, Kuldeep Yadav, Kumar, Pandey, HH Pandya, KH Pandya, Rahul, Raina, Sharma UT Yadav


Key Men

Jos Buttler - move up the order during IPL has given him much more time to have an impact. While only ranked 26 in ICC rankings, this will improve now he opens.
Alex Hales - Formerly top ranked batter in T20s, has dropped a bit (to 7) and finds his place in the England side under threat.
Rashid/Ali - Englands spinners have thrived in the one day format, but will find the Indian batting lineup a tough test.

Virat Kohli - probably the best batsmen in the world across all 3 forms of the game. Some injury issues recently.
Chahal/Kuldeep Yadav - India look like going with two wrist spinners. England often struggle to score quickly against good spin.



ODIs

Fixtures

Another 3 match series between the the top two ranked sides in the world.  Both teams will be wanting to lay down a marker before next year's world cup.


Thursday 12th July 2018 12:30
Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Saturday 14th July 2018 11:00
Lord's, London

Tuesday 17th July 2018 12:30
Emerald Headingley, Leeds


Squads

England - Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Mark Wood.



Test Series

A form of cricket in which the visitors have been much better than the hosts. The series goes deep into September as India seek to avenge the series defeat in 2014. In a manner we have become used to seeing from touring teams around the world, that series India capitulated in the final 3 tests  having won the second test to take a 1-0 lead. India however look strong enough this time out to put pressure on a faltering home test team.


Fixtures

Wednesday 1st August 2018 11:00
Edgbaston, Birmingham

Thursday 9th August 2018 11:00
Lord's, London

Saturday 18th August 2018 11:00
Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Thursday 30th August 2018 11:00
Ageas Bowl, Southampton

Friday 7th September 2018 11:00
Kia Oval, London

Adil Rashid will make his home debut, with Modern and Porter missing out to ensure Curran gets another appearance.

England v India: Adil Rashid named as hosts' only spinner for first Test - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/45017582

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Geoffrey Boycott labelling Rashid a spoilt brat who doesn’t deserve a call up only strengthens the fact that this is a good decision.

Vaughan and Boycott are both obvious bellends, even if I don’t mind either as pundits. On questions of this ilk, which aren’t aboutnskill or knowledge, both are moron shockjocks

Vaughans whole complaint is about the fact Rashid didn't play for Yorkshire in the last 4 day game (Root,Bairstow,Butler played in the game, Stokes played for Durham to get themselves ready). So given that he hasn't played a red ball game for a year. How is he mentally and physically fit for a 5 day game.
He has a point, you're playing the n1 ranked test team in the world. Are a surprise inclusion, surely you do everything to make sure your at your best and ready to go.1 game wouldn't have hurt him, and would have made him better prepared.

Agree with that XI - and personally like that Buttler has been named vice captain too.

LondonTiger wrote:England v India: Adil Rashid named as hosts' only spinner for first Test - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/45017582

Expected side, no surprise that after all the fuss Rashids in. Given the winter tours, think Malan and Jennings will be given till the end of them to establish themselves.
Agree with Olly, wise to have Buttler as vice captain from the off.

I’d have picked Porter over Curran, but no massive quibbles with that side.

Yeah it'll be interesting to see what the team is come Southampton - Jennings and Malan as Luke points out are on thin ice one would think, especially with players like Burns/Clarke/Pope/Livingstone waiting in the wings...

What an utterly dreadful England side. Comfortably the worst test XI England have fielded since sometime in 2007/2008.

Jennings, Malan, Rashid and Buttler are all passengers. Curran will, one day, be a very good player, but that day isn't tomorrow. Cook and Root are struggling. Anderson is reaching the end. Only Bairstow, Broad and Stokes lend the side credibility.

What a miserable way to bring up 1,000 tests.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:So it is England's 1,000th test on Wednesday - seeing a lot of "top 10 tests" articles floating around, and all seem to be omitting the best one

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/11691/scorecard/667711/england-vs-india-1st-investec-test-india-tour-of-england-2014/

Any test that has James Anderson scoring 81 runs, Alistair Cook taking a wicket and a maiden over of Gary Ballance leg spin should be among the pantheon of greats

A small number - me included - would claim this is actually England's 1,005th test. The 1970 five match series in which England played against an extremely strong and competitive Rest of the World team (replacing South Africa due to apartheid) was originally accredited test status, only to have it retrospectively withdrawn about two years later. This was despite Sobers agreeing to captain the RotW team on the basis that it was a test series, tickets being sold and bought for a test series and Alan Jones being presented with a test cap on his only appearance for England (although records cruelly now show he never played a test). Whilst I was keen on cricket before then, it was this series that got me totally hooked - it has been responsible for a lot of pleasure and pain over the years!

Anyway, that longstanding and mini-rant aside, my very personal top ten which I've listened to and / or watched, mainly on tv, over the years (I'm a bit younger than Sir Fred - I don't say that about many people these days! ):

1. v Australia, the Oval, '68. England won with about 2 minutes to spare after many of the crowd had joined in to help a ground drying operation following heavy rain on the last day. Not sure how much of this I remember from the time or have subsequently read. Anyway, it's certainly said that old ladies put their knitting needles in the Oval outfield to aid drainage!

2. v Australia, Sydney, '70-'71. The last test of a seven match series (yes, seven - although this test was added after an earlier one was abandoned without a ball bowled). England won this Test and the series 2-0 to regain the Ashes. Brilliant captaincy from Illingworth throughout this tour on and off the pitch in face of hostility from Australian players, crowds and umpires plus English officials.

3. v Pakistan, Edgbaston, '71. Personal significance - the first test I went to. Zaheer Abbas dominated the first two days scoring an elegant and composed 274 but the visitors batted too long (until the third morning) and England salvaged a draw.

4. v Australia, Lord's, '75. A 50 on debut for David Steele - ''the bank clerk who went to war'' - in a draw against the might of Lillee and Thomson.

5. v West Indies, the Oval, '76. Unlike Sir Fred, I don't just do triumphs! England were routed by Richards' 291 and then Holding with the best display of fast bowling I have ever witnessed. Bowling on an absolute road (it was the year of the drought), he took the pitch out of the equation with a succession of yorkers to finish with 14 wickets.

6. v Australia, Headingley, '81. ''Give it some humpty, Dills.'' You all know this one.

7. v West Indies, Lord's, '84. Continuation of the Windies' dominance as Greenidge and Gomes (had to get him in!) put on towards 300 undefeated to secure a 9 wicket win and leave Gower with egg on his face following England's declaration.

8. v India, Lord's, '90. Gooch's 333 followed by a further ton in a crushing win.

9, v South Africa, Joburg,'95. Atherton and Russell doing their own version of Rorke's Drift to keep Donald and Pollock at bay.

10. v Australia, Edgbaston, '05. The 2 run win and the Flintoff & Lee embrace.

A very honourable mention as well to the Australia test at Edgbaston in '81, just a fortnight after the one at Headingley. A low scoring affair in which England came back strongly to win by less than 30 runs. Just misses out as Australia were still like rabbits caught in the headlights after Leeds.

Noticeable that so much is when I was a lot younger- guess that's life!

Ind has two variable
1) Dhawan or Rahul as an opener to partner with Vijay

I hope its Rahul
later in the series Dhawan can come in if any of rahul, Pujara or Vijay i.e the top3 fail

2) Kuldeep as 2nd spinner and 5th bowler
or a 4th seamer
given that
Ishant, Pandya and Umesh are the top3 seamer and ashwin first choice spinner

I read UK has 38DegC temperature and if pitches are dry...then playing Kuldeep is a no brainer and Ishant / Umesh are best exponents of Reverse
if Bumrah and Bhuvi were fit Yadav would't have been in the starting 11

KP_fan wrote:Ind has two variable
1) Dhawan or Rahul as an opener to partner with Vijay

I hope its Rahul
later in the series Dhawan can come in if any of rahul, Pujara or Vijay i.e the top3 fail

2) Kuldeep as 2nd spinner  and 5th bowler
or a 4th seamer
given that
Ishant, Pandya and Umesh are the top3 seamer and ashwin first choice spinner

I read UK has 38DegC temperature and if pitches are dry...then playing Kuldeep is a no brainer and Ishant / Umesh are best exponents of Reverse
if Bumrah and Bhuvi were fit Yadav would't have been in the starting 11

AND
the WK is another variable
I would like to go with Pant, straight away.......although I think they will go with Karthik, he will drop crucial catches in first two tests and then they will dump him and get Pant by T3


>On Adil
He is by far Eng's best spinner and it's a good move to play him, red-ball cricket or not, he knows how the longer version is played
and If pitches are dry Ali should also be in as a lower order all-rounder

Eng's strength is their all rounders esp if Stokes, Woakes and Ali are all in the 11, give that their WK is also as good as specialist batsman

Kpf ...weather wise it has been an unusually hot and dry spring and summer in England but the weather has changed. Theres been small flooding in Birmingham over the weekend after heavy rain.

Today its a more normal English summer temperature and theres a fair bit of cloud arou d and some humidity.

The ground was also being watered heavily to keep it in good shape.

This should be a fairly typical English wicket. Although England have been preparing to face Kuldeep theres good reason that they havent picked two spinners.
India might still though....even on a pitch that isnt giving much help England have a habit of imploding against players like him.

Gooseberry wrote:Kpf ...weather wise it has been an unusually hot and dry spring and summer in England but the weather has changed. Theres been small flooding in Birmingham over the weekend after heavy rain.

Today its a more normal English summer temperature and theres a fair bit of cloud arou d and some humidity.

The ground was also being watered heavily to keep it in good shape.

This should be a fairly typical English wicket. Although England have been preparing to face Kuldeep theres good reason that they havent picked two spinners.
India might still though....even on a pitch that isnt giving much help England have a habit of imploding against players like him.

if it's a seaming pitch and likely overcast condition is the worst conundrum India could be faced with
esp if they pick 2 spinners...they'd be almost forced to bat first even if conditions are seam-friendly

England final XI makes sense , given the weather ...Rashid gives variety as Root is always available to turn the ball the other way...as does young Sam's left arm seam . Porter will probably get a turn later in the series.
Buttler as VC I'm not so sure about.  Yes , he seems a decent leadership prospect ; but his actual place in the team is hardly set in stone , surely ? If he is left batting at seven after keeper and all rounder it has a "temporary fill in" look. Don't get me wrong : I think he's a much better player than in his previous time in the side and I'd be batting him at five to see how he goes ; but unless he does move up the order or takes back the gloves I'm left wondering if he is mainly in the team in case they wish to replace Root at the helm... Will be interested to see where he bats as this series develops.

Lots of questions for this bunch to answer.  Jennings and Malan need runs ; Rashid - and indeed S Curran - will need to justify their spots ; and the old guard generally have to stand up if they're to handle this very good Indian outfit. Not long to wait to find out...

Overcast conditions and a bit of green in the wicket. If I were a captain, I would probably want to be fielding. Either a case of giving the brittle English an early examination, or giving the slightly under-prepared Indian team a test.

There is a lot of controversy around Rashid's selection isn't there? I can see both sides of this. Sure it is crazy that Rashid has been selected for England when he is not even playing long format cricket even at county level and after he had said he was done with red ball cricket. On the other side of the coin England have to pick who they think is the best spinner and if they think that is Rashid then I can see why they made that choice.

Hopefully, once the cricket starts the teeth gnashing and controversy will stop as this has the makings of a great series.

England win the toss and will bat first. Bluer skies.

Down to the top order then. As someone else pointed out the last two series started with the top order largely capitulating.

India drop Pujara for Rahul and play one spinner with Karthik having the gloves.

Glad Root batted first - might be a bit of nibble early on as always, but should be a good batting day

India:
Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (capt.), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma

So India play the walking wicket overseas Pujara against everyone but drop him against us? Seems unfair. Joking aside both sides got issues, India with only one spinner not really Kohli's strength. Similarly we've got Curran who's pretty average

England will be hoping Cook and Jennings can form a partnership. The opening partnership is something England have struggled with since Strauss retired. A good day for England will see them close on around 300 for 5. India will be looking to eat into the batting order quickly and perhaps bowl England out for around 250. Anything in between is an even sort of day.

Slightly surprised Pujara left out. You couldn't say Dhawan has been in scintillating form leading up...so perhaps both teams will be a little anxious about their top threes...
Also didn't expect India to go with just one spinner though that seems to confirm what we all thought - that this is not the arid desert strip being contemplated earlier on. Actually looks decent for batting so Root has done the sensible thing.

India spill an early chance off Sharma's bowling; he has looked the most dangerous.

Slow pitch. Low bounce. Plenty of swing. But India not yet cashing in with the new ball.

That was a lovely delivery

And it's spin that gets the first wicket. Cook completely deceived by the turn and is clean bowled.

Corker of a delivery and great captaincy.

The (one) spinner strikes ! What a lovely piece of bowling from Ashwin

Good call from Kohli to get him on early ...although Ishant has bowled well Cook was looking pretty sound against the seamers and that is a big wicket for India.

alfie wrote:England final XI makes sense , given the weather ...Rashid gives variety as Root is always available to turn the ball the other way...as does young Sam's left arm seam . Porter will probably get a turn later in the series.
Buttler as VC I'm not so sure about.  Yes , he seems a decent leadership prospect ; but his actual place in the team is hardly set in stone , surely ? If he is left batting at seven after keeper and all rounder it has a "temporary fill in" look. Don't get me wrong : I think he's a much better player than in his previous time in the side and I'd be batting him at five to see how he goes ; but unless he does move up the order or takes back the gloves I'm left wondering if he is mainly in the team in case they wish to replace Root at the helm... Will be interested to see where he bats as this series develops.

Lots of questions for this bunch to answer.  Jennings and Malan need runs ; Rashid - and indeed S Curran - will need to justify their spots ; and the old guard generally have to stand up if they're to handle this very good Indian outfit. Not long to wait to find out...

Evening / morning Alfie and all - I've never been a fan of Root bowling in Tests. The mantra of - you need to be of Test quality to bowl at Test quality batsmen. That said and without totally going back on it, I wouldn't be too upset if he sent down a few overs in this Test. I was surprisingly impressed when he bowled for Yorks against Surrey at the Oval earlier this season - he bowled Elgar of all people and had him in some trouble before that. He also had considerable success with the ball in the recent Roses mach.

As regards Buttler being VC for this Test, I would hope not to read too much into that. I would again hope it's just a one off decision for here (as someone has to cover when and if Root is off the pitch when we're bowling) rather than a definite marker for the future.

Duty281 wrote:Overcast conditions and a bit of green in the wicket. If I were a captain, I would probably want to be fielding. Either a case of giving the brittle English an early examination, or giving the slightly under-prepared Indian team a test.

Nah, I'm with Olly - think about it and then bat.

alfie wrote:Slightly surprised Pujara left out.  You couldn't say Dhawan has been in scintillating form leading up...so perhaps both teams will be a little anxious about their top threes...
Also didn't expect India to go with just one spinner though that seems to confirm what we all thought - that this is not the arid desert strip being contemplated earlier on.  Actually looks decent for batting so Root has done the sensible thing.

Hi again Alfie - this is more one for London Tiger but I'm pretty sure that Pujara has been near dreadful for Yorks all season.

Anyway, Sam will probably be disappointed he's not playing having enjoyed CC success against him this season.

Duty281 wrote:And it's spin that gets the first wicket. Cook completely deceived by the turn and is clean bowled.

Corker of a delivery and great captaincy.

Totally with you there though, Duty.

guildfordbat wrote:

alfie wrote:Slightly surprised Pujara left out.  You couldn't say Dhawan has been in scintillating form leading up...so perhaps both teams will be a little anxious about their top threes...
Also didn't expect India to go with just one spinner though that seems to confirm what we all thought - that this is not the arid desert strip being contemplated earlier on.  Actually looks decent for batting so Root has done the sensible thing.

Hi again Alfie - this is more one for London Tiger but I'm pretty sure that Pujara has been near dreadful for Yorks all season.

Anyway, Sam will probably be disappointed he's not playing having enjoyed CC success against him this season.

Pujara's form for Yorkshire is some way below dreadful

Joe Root closing in on another landmark of 6,000 Test runs scored. Another 9 needed. England 80 for 1 as lunch nears.

LondonTiger wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:

alfie wrote:Slightly surprised Pujara left out.  You couldn't say Dhawan has been in scintillating form leading up...so perhaps both teams will be a little anxious about their top threes...
Also didn't expect India to go with just one spinner though that seems to confirm what we all thought - that this is not the arid desert strip being contemplated earlier on.  Actually looks decent for batting so Root has done the sensible thing.

Hi again Alfie - this is more one for London Tiger but I'm pretty sure that Pujara has been near dreadful for Yorks all season.

Anyway, Sam will probably be disappointed he's not playing having enjoyed CC success against him this season.

Pujara's form for Yorkshire is some way below dreadful

83/1 at lunch. A bit of luck going Jennings' way but generally England so far justifying my - and Root's - decision to bat.

Indeed so , guildford. Glad to see young Joe is following your instructions

Don't altogether agree with you re Root the bowler ; I think he's better than is generally appreciated , partly because he doesn't bowl a lot in Tests. I wouldn't want him bowling ten over spells ; but if England are using their spinners to bowl the bulk of the overs , in England , against India - they are in trouble. So as the occasional variety I think he can do a job...which of course is dependent on the main bowlers doing theirs !

Anyway 83/1 is England's session despite the bit of Ashwin magic to remove Cook early on. Pleased to see Jennings looking a bit more positive in his footwork ...and his running. He needs to profit from the early drop and turn this into a good score now...

Slow start after lunch...and now Jennings goes ; rather unluckily in fact as that defensive bat goes onto pad and spins back to barely touch the stump...but enough to dislodge a bail.
Shami has bowled well and deserved a reward , I think - but still Jennings can feel a little unfortunate. 42 is neither one thing nor the other. But encouraging,

100/2 , very much in balance and Malan another man who could do with a score...

India lose a review to an over-optimistic shout against Malan...good bowling from Ashwin but that was never likely to be more than umpires call at best.

But now Shami has trapped him lbw...

Yes : was tight , umpires call on both impact and height ; but given on field so Malan has to go.

India on top now...

Malan's average continues to plummet in test matches in England - nearing a rather embarassing 20 now. For me his place is the one that should be under series threat...

Having gone out on the stroke of lunch, returned just in time to see Malan's dismissal. As Olly says, his place has to be under the microscope soon.

I still haven't seen Jennings' dismissal but trust the Sky pundits and Alfie (particularly the latter) that it was unlucky. As Alfie says, 42 is neither one thing nor the other but it should at least guarantee him the next Test.

I appreciate that Sir Geoffrey is not the most popular pundit on this forum. However, his old adage of the batting side adding two wickets to the scoreboard before deciding on how they're doing is again shown to have merit. 83/1 at lunch gave it a good look for England but 134/3 now levels things up and probably even points in India's favour.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Malan's average continues to plummet in test matches in England - nearing a rather embarassing 20 now. For me his place is the one that should be under series threat...

Yes , his lack of footwork is leaving him very vulnerable in English conditions. His place is certainly under threat - especially as he looks one place too high at four , and England seem to want to employ all rounders from five on down...

Meanwhile an important fifty for the skipper ...hope he can go on today. They tell me it is Yorkshire Day : would be a good time for these two to celebrate it. Not easy at the moment with the slow pitch not making fluent stroke play altogether simple. A day for patience.

Malan definitely in last chance saloon I reckon. He comes across as a feast or famine type player. Plays with a heavy bat but his aggressive style leaves him very vulnerable and his style is finding him out at this level.

Fifty partnership up ...

Root has looked untroubled ; just the odd rather flighty dab I could do without. YJB has got away with a couple of false strokes but has always been alert to put away the bad ball.
And of course these two both run so well they are keeping the score ticking over ...run rate back over three.

Important stand , this.

Craig - you used to be quite a supporter of Malan, didn't you? Seem to recall some chat a few months back when Olly and I were first thinking about sharpening our knives for him.

Even assuming I'm remembering correctly, don't take that as a pop at you. Nothing wrong in thinking differently in different circumstances. ''The beauty of the game is that we are always learning'' [or something similar ] - Peter May.

Good partnership from Root/Bairstow so far - game in the balance so far, England will be hoping to see Buttler come to the crease tomorrow morning and not tonight...

Yes I was but I think after failure on NZ tour and early summer series I think his time has run out. I think, if you look back, to earlier this year I did start commenting his time was perhaps up.

Root and Bairstow seeming to be well in charge as they put on 100+, the latter starting to motor as he reaches 64. Meanwhile, Root advances to 80 and the score to 215/3.

Ok, scrap that as Root is crazily run out ....

Just as one thinks England are in complete command, that happens! Doesn't help Root's conversion rate, either.

Root is a clown should've sold Bairstow short. Bairstow screwed him over big time. Root's wicket was worth 150 on the this surface.

Chuffing brainless yorkies


mutter