comment by Neo (U9135)
posted 1 hour, 32 minutes ago
That’s down to the fact some moron decided to start the test match on a Wednesday. Has nothing to do with test cricket itself.
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Yeah, some moron who's hell bent on destroying test cricket.

What was the reason for that exactly...especially as it was never likely to run past four days...such a wasted opportunity

Exactly as we said yesterday, 30-40 runs too many which was precisely the winning margin. This was Kohli vs England. No help from any of the other batters at all. Pandya not able to bat with the tail..wasn’t harbouring the strike until the last man was in.

And to top it all off, I was at the game today sat in the Barmy Army stand.

Worrying fact about the Indian squad is that apart from Yadav, a last minute addition, they are all 28+. No youngsters. Very worrying.

Can’t really criticise any of the bowlers because they competed very well with their English counterparts despite missing Bhuvi and Bumrah. The batsmen have to bear the brunt of that loss. 30 odd run defeat is not much and we fell short in support of the skipper. Rahane, Vijay, Dhawan and Karthik need to have a long hard think and hone their technique because this was a very winnable Test match. Kohli’s heroics mean nada because the team lost. I want to see a response at Lords and some changes.

Cramming 5 tests into 6 weeks is the reason for Wednesday starts. Surprised India agreed to it as England can call up players from the county championship to replace injured or tired players. Should have started 2 weeks ago, no world cup or Wimbledon yet here we are starting a 5 match series when the football season starts. No idea why they played that stupid one day series against the Australia b team.

Like I said up above somewhere, the lack of ticket sales was due to the Wednesday start and the price. Perhaps counties and the ECB should stop trying to rip Indian fans off. £56 for the majority of tickets is a faaacking joke and they can do one. Sadly the love of the game overpowers prices for most Indians and extorionate prices are often paid. Lords and Oval will be rammed.

India will probably win at Lords, we are always rubbish there. Think they won there last tour as well.

comment by Kav H (U19426)
posted 1 hour, 48 minutes ago
Like I said up above somewhere, the lack of ticket sales was due to the Wednesday start and the price. Perhaps counties and the ECB should stop trying to rip Indian fans off. £56 for the majority of tickets is a faaacking joke and they can do one. Sadly the love of the game overpowers prices for most Indians and extorionate prices are often paid. Lords and Oval will be rammed.
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I'm told it was 80 quid in the Hollies Stand.

When Kohli took over captaincy, the talk was generally from both him and Shastri about the fact that this team can win in any conditions and I would hear them 2 say that this team will be part of many victories and this bunch of players will play together for another 10 years.

Now the tone has changed slightly from both Shastri and Kohli. The focus is more on being able to compete, and bla bla. Deep down it’s very clear with this batting and Kohli probably knows this himself is we can’t win many matches in those conditions let alone draw.

The biggest culprit in all this is Shastri being the coach. I reckon by end of this year once we have played the Eng series and Aus series we will slowly realise how big a mess we have created for ourselves. The ODI team is also a one team man in only Kohli capable of scoring in testing conditions and the test team is almost similar in many ways.

Even the Aus series, it should on Paper be one of the golden opportunities for India to win their first test series, but even that looks an improbable task.

You won didn’t you? Well played.

Was that the quickest cricket game ever? I ask as my grandad died waiting for the results of the 1888 ashes, believe it’s just not long finished.

comment by Baz tard (U19119)
posted 13 hours, 10 minutes ago
You won didn’t you? Well played.

Was that the quickest cricket game ever? I ask as my grandad died waiting for the results of the 1888 ashes, believe it’s just not long finished.
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So sassy.

Wow. Malan has been dropped, I didn't expect England to be quite so ruthless with him and expected him to at least get another go on his home ground.

England have called up Ollie Pope, he's a huge talent, and means we have yet another wicket keeper in the squad but surprised we didn't go for Clarke.

Woakes in for Stokes so I assume those will be the changes to the XI unless as well.

Malan as had his fair share of chances. Hes average over the last few test as been horrendous.

Agreed but thought they would give him one more game. I'm glad they dropped him as I never thought he should have been in the side in the first place. However his performances down under meant he deserved a chance to keep his place after a poor run.

I've heard only good things about Pope and he's in superb form so maybe it is the right time for him. I think Curran's performance probably helped his case as well.

At least hes right handed will be better against Ashwin. You never feel Malan will get a run against any spin bowler. Anyway Malan doesn't look up to it am afraid.

Yeah, England obviously wanted to get another RHB to counter the threat of Ashwin and have picked the most in form right hander in the country.

Those calling for Ian Bell to return. Its not gonna happen. He wont play for England again. The selectors have moved on and quite rightly.

Aye, he scored a few runs this season in division 2 but he will get torn apart by better bowling and people will be calling for his head again. He's been a great servant to England in the past but he's done. Let him enjoy his final years scoring runs in County cricket.

Still early days but I think the new selectors are already making decent choices with regards to personnel. We need changes in the coaching set up as well though.

comment by The Candlestick Maker (U8959)
posted 4 hours, 17 minutes ago
Wow. Malan has been dropped, I didn't expect England to be quite so ruthless with him and expected him to at least get another go on his home ground.

England have called up Ollie Pope, he's a huge talent, and means we have yet another wicket keeper in the squadbut surprised we didn't go for Clarke.

Woakes in for Stokes so I assume those will be the changes to the XI unless as well.
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Pope is only 20 years old. Another "young gun".

Viru, Shastri's position seriously needs be to evaluated. $1m a year for doing absolute faaack all and carrying Kohli's kit bag around. He really is a shocking tactician as well. Needs to get back into the commentary box screaming "trace a bullet" every three seconds. A real annoyance that Kohli forced Kumble out because he was a top top coach.

Also, they should seriously consider moving Dravid up to senior coach in the near future as what he has done with the 19's including the World Cup win has been phenomenal.

comment by Kav H (U19426)
posted 4 hours, 37 minutes ago
Viru, Shastri's position seriously needs be to evaluated. $1m a year for doing absolute faaack all and carrying Kohli's kit bag around. He really is a shocking tactician as well. Needs to get back into the commentary box screaming "trace a bullet" every three seconds. A real annoyance that Kohli forced Kumble out because he was a top top coach.
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He does bloody love to say that!

I notice that Stokes is homophobic as well as being a massive twonk. Hope he gets jailed especially as a fine is very unlikely to affect him being quite a wealthy man. Affray also considered worse than assault in the eyes of the law. No doubt he'll get off with something suspended and some nonsense community service order though.

Yeah can’t see him getting more than a slap on the wrist. Community service is likely.