Cook

possibly, you never know. England are the best team in the world, no.1 and everyone wants to bring them down.

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Cheers mate

England aren't an average team. True, we were outplayed by Pakistan in alien conditions. Against South Africa we were unlucky not to draw the series. In the second test we would have won if one of the days had not been completely washed out. In the third test we were agonisingly close to winning, but lost by 40 runs. Home advantage is always crucial, and in the sub-continent so is winning the toss. We've already seen that we are capable of learning from our mistakes (well apart from th middle order). I am sure the remaining three tests will be close affairs, especially as Monty will be playing from now on, and with Finn, our fastest seamer, to come back, we will improve. It's going to be a fascinating series.

If England survive this test match, it will be one hell of an achievement. Also viru, this pitch has been re-laid this year from soil from Mumbai pitch. Expect same conditions in next match too

Trueblue,

Agree with you about toss in these conditions. Also, England have shown in the 2nd innings that with abit of application and feet movement, they aren't all that bad. Maybe the Ajmal factor and all the talk prior to this series about spin got to their heads in 1st innings.

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.... ..8bit has got me in stitches.

In the sub continent England are very average. Don't quite understand why you are surprised? Our trips to the UAE and previous toils in India prove this. Not enough spin and guile in the bowling dept (only Swann looks lethal, Monty could grab wickets if played) and a distinct lack of confidence and knowledge of the wickets from our batsmen.

Put us in with green on the wicket, in overcast conditions and we are a very tidy unit. But we need to play more in the subcontinent to improve globally.

As for India? They look fine, they are so good on home turf, they always will be. They haven't raised any eyebrows with this win. If they travelled better they'd be challenging. I want to see Kohli perform though, such a talented player, not as good a batsman as cook though!

England need to take out a seamer, maybe Bresnan as he doesn't have the pace to threaten on lifeless wickets. Bring in Monty to add more bite to our attack. Keep faith in our batsmen, they can do it.

Also crossing fingers for 5 days should work.

where does the cook and kohli comparison come from? cook didnt become a world class player overnight. it took him 84 tests to reach where he is now, and still hasnt passed the ave. of 50. let kohli play a bit more test cricket then compare.