I think India will win the series against England 3-1. I can see Ashwin picking up plenty of wickets for fun. It will be interesting to see how England play him. Of course India have other spin options to. Do they play 2 spinners or 3. England need Anderson back asap to have any chance in the series!

Aleem Dar, the Pakistan umpire, is to be withdrawn from India-England series on security grounds, as possible target of local nationalists.. shame, amongst one of the best umpires about

One umpire won't make any difference especially when we have DRS this series. We have other elite umpires so no need to worry

If these kind of threats being made then England should send their security team pre series to check if some of there players are safe.

Back to Kumar Dharmesena. Poor guy needs to be reducated on what the LBW law is.

Kashy don't worry hon..

We will make sure we have enough security for beautiful ladies and totally agree regarding Dharmesena

Cook confirms Hameed to open and Duckett moved to four. No Ballance.. common sense prevails!

Good luck to the kid. Had no cricket for a month and then without a warm up game has to play on these Bunsen burners.

Agree Kash, not the ideal way to introduce an 18yr old to test cricket... but not a surprise with how England have chopped and changed the top order in the last 18-24 months... let's hope he's given time

It's a tight Tour schedule but that's the way things are these days - unfortunately, some would say. All the best to young Hameed.

Baptism by fire. He'll get thrashed.

Surprises choice but the lad is averaging over 50 this season.

I still think Ashwin will prove too much for the England batsmen and skittle them with ease

India will whitewash England with absolute ease. Not one of our senior players can play tricky spin on a dusty pudding.

Not really cricket, is it.

Why isn't it cricket? Preparing spin friendly pitches is about as "cricket" as it is preparing green pitches for the quick bowlers at Trent bridge or ed'baston... gotta expect and accept home teams will prepare pitches that favour them.

Also, absolutely no excuses for England not to perform.. have recently been playing spin vs pak and bangla so not like it's a shortage of practice

comment by A14 - Cornered Tigers (U2805)
posted 8 hours, 1 minute ago
Agree Kash, not the ideal way to introduce an 18yr old to test cricket... but not a surprise with how England have chopped and changed the top order in the last 18-24 months... let's hope he's given time
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Tbf, the chopping and changing has been due to the batsmen being utter syhte.

Folks talking about pitches should look no further than India vs New-Zealand series. It was good for seamers, spinners and for batsmen.

I won't be surprised if same style pitches are given against England. Hate those flat roads at U.A.E or bloody nasty turners recently by Bengis against England!

However any home team has the right to make pitches suitable for their team to win.

Variety is the spice of life. Or at least the spice of cricket.

Well said Jspurs..

Cook out, if he had reviewed he'd still be in. 51-1.

Huge advantage for England winning the toss.. Dropped catches, good batting conditions, still lost three wickets so what now they will complain for!

Blame DRS or the weather/food

Facty happy with the election result?

How did Cook not realise that was going down leg?

Mixed emotions Kashy! This time we had two lousy candidates..

Thanks to Hameed as he was instructed by BCCI to mess up Cooky

Doubt it was the BCCI. Their cash supply has finally dried up.

Years of buying off umpires and officials is obviously costly.....

Just tuned into Test .....not many in ....

After playing best spinner in the world like Yasir Shah, Joe Root and modern can easily tame the likes of ashwin and Mishra

This stadium is out in the sticks though isn't it. Meaning it only caters for India's upper class who make up about 0.5% of their population...

It's fine though, the BCCI can charge $300 a ticket whilst the rest of India looks on and ignores...