England got out of jail

Match drawn…. Lucky India!

Shame that the match couldn't come to a conclusion on the field. Would have preferred to have seen a result either way.

England will be pleased not to have lost a game where the posted 183 in the first innings. Plenty to consider ahead of the next game though.

Well played, great test, pity the weather spoilt it.
England came back well, put up a decent chase, albeit 40 runs short.

On to the next test, see you boys there

Time to move England home tests to Multan, Rawalpindi and Sahiwal.Low scoring , rain marred mundane tests not good advertisement for the game.

comment by Lefty (U17934)
posted 15 hours, 57 minutes ago
Well played, great test, pity the weather spoilt it.
England came back well, put up a decent chase, albeit 40 runs short.

On to the next test, see you boys there
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Fully agree, it was nice to see some fightback from England but we have seen it a few times in the past where the second innings is so much better than the first. Often it can be too little too late and I have a feeling that would have been the case here. I think India would have won by 4-5 wickets had the rain not intervened.

The weather is looking a lot better for Lords this weekend so hopefully we can get a result.

comment by Warmonger (U10140)
posted 14 hours, 8 minutes ago
Time to move England home tests to Multan, Rawalpindi and Sahiwal.Low scoring , rain marred mundane tests not good advertisement for the game.
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Nothing wrong with low scoring tests, they are often much better contests as long as the ball doesn't dominate too much.

Has anyone seen the opening batsmen pairings we used to have....can everyone take a good look around, they're here somewhere

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Just to add to your point, if you want to look at the top 3 since Trott and Strauss retired, the following have all been tried in the last 5-8 years since they both respectively retired with and after Cook.

Crawley
Sibley
Roy
Denly
Burns
Stoneman
Westley
Jennings
Hameed
Duckett
Vince
Hales
Lyth
Robson
Ballance
Compton
Carberry

Lawrence, Bairstow, Moeen and Stokes have all had goes there too and Root has had several goes at 3 as well.

As your point shows, it's not easy opening or even batting in the top 3. It's why I would personally persist with Sibley and Burns for now, they average 32 and 30 respectively but in England they are both averaging just under 34. I don't think that's good enough but at the same time, I don't think there's anybody better save for Hameed who I'd bring in at 3.

The only other name I've seen as a potential option due to his form this year is Jake Libby as he's averaging 60 odd in 15 innings in the county championship for Worcestershire. However his overall average is 34 so I'm not convinced he's the one to make the step up but could be worth a go.

Blimey, that's a lot of openers and different no 3s.

Burns looks okay, strange technique but he's not bad.
Sibley just looks like he's in survival mode from the get go, score doesn't move, let's the pressure build up.
Crawley apart from his double century against us looks bang average

Sibley at least usually takes up some time and protects later batsmen such as Root from the new ball for a while. It's limited but it's something.

Crawley I'm not sure about. One terrific innings can only keep you in the side for so long.

As for Hameed I wouldn't want to rush him back into the team.

My guess is the top 3 will be unchanged though it could be the last chance for some.

comment by T.J (U15973)
posted 1 hour, 51 minutes ago
Blimey, that's a lot of openers and different no 3s.

Burns looks okay, strange technique but he's not bad.
Sibley just looks like he's in survival mode from the get go, score doesn't move, let's the pressure build up.
Crawley apart from his double century against us looks bang average
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Yep, and it's a real mix of players who have performed in the shorter forms at international level to players who have performed well in county cricket with a mixture of styles in terms of aggressive openers to ones who value their wicket.

Burns is definitely worth preserving with as he does have the ability to bat more fluently as he builds his innings and move the score along. Sibley I think has a template you can work with, he's got mental resolve and won't do anything rash if he's not scoring runs. Needs to add a couple of scoring shots to his locker though and ones that can get him off strike as bowlers will happily bowl maiden after maiden at him to build pressure. Also his mindset means he will probably miss out on punishing bad balls by sending them to the boundary.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Cook had a lovely cover drive too, but he only brought it out when he was feeling the ball well. That's the difference between Cook and Sibley. Cook had enough shots to keep the scoreboard ticking by punishing bad balls, and then if he was feeling good he could open up the extra option of the drive. Sibley doesn't tick over enough, and even when he is seeing it well, he lacks the more expansive options. Which means bowling pressure builds on him in a way that it never did with Cook.

Yeah, Cook and Trott knew their strengths and you'd often see teams bowling to this because it could present the best chance of getting them out. I remember listening to Cook talking about Sibley last year saying he'd love to work with him because he's got things in his game that you can't really teach but there are things that you can teach him that would improve him quite a bit.

If we isolate Sibley's performance in this game though, he did his primary function as an opener in both innings, lasting 70 and 133 balls to see off the new ball. I'd also say that whilst the top 3 didn't manage many runs between them, the time they batted meant that Root came to the crease after 21 overs in the first innings and 17 in the second.

The problem is that the top 3 in 6 innings managed to get 4 starts between them but only mustered a highest score of 28. 1 or even 2 of those innings needed to make at least a 50 in this game, especially in the first innings.

Also this makes for pretty depressing reading.

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/batting/highest_career_batting_average.html?class=1;id=2021;team=1;type=year

Root obviously doing great but then only Burns and Buttler averaging in the 30s for 2021.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Not too much to fix then

As TCM says, at least Sibley is doing part of his job as an opener - i.e. seeing off the new ball. The bigger problem at the moment is Crawley who just doesn't seem to be a good fit for #3 in any way. He's just too reckless. The trouble is he's the setup's promising-youngster-du-jour in that position, which means they'll persevere with him past the point at which it's obviously not working, and I get the sense Sibley might be dropped before Crawley. Either way, Hameed MUST come back in for the 2nd test. My preference would be for Crawley to make way, but in all honesty I'd drop both, albeit I'm not sure who steps in to open in Sibley's absence. I would've said Malan could come in at #3, but even his white-ball form has deserted him now, which leaves us kinda stuffed.

The middle order looks excellent on paper, but Pope has really not kicked on (constant injuries obviously haven't helped) and Buttler always looks an innings or two away from a complete implosion of form. There's plenty of options here even if the selectors manage to see past their weird obsession with players like Bairstow or Vince, but the trouble is you have to pick one and give them a fair crack. Pope being in-and-out due to fitness hasn't helped here because it's meant in turn that Lawrence has had the same lack of consistency as his replacement.

And of course, a lack of a solid platform of runs from the top 3 is always going to hurt the middle order the most.

At least Robinson looks like a worthy inclusion for the foreseeable. Heck of a job replacing Anderson (no-one ever will most likely) but at least we're OK for useful med-fast swing bowlers.

comment by Emile Death Rowe (TCM) (U8959)
posted 1 hour, 13 minutes ago
Also this makes for pretty depressing reading.

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/batting/highest_career_batting_average.html?class=1;id=2021;team=1;type=year

Root obviously doing great but then only Burns and Buttler averaging in the 30s for 2021.
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Pretty shocking that we've only had 5 centuries in 9 tests, and Joe Root has scored 4 of them.

Also pretty shocking that Rory Burns is the 4th highest run scorer for the calendar year, and he's missed half the test matches... and some people still want him dropped

And there we have it: Zak Crawley averaging 11.14 from 14 innings this year... take out his single 50 and his average drops to under 8

In fact... jeez, I just looked up Crawley's 2021 batting stats and they're even worse than I'd realised. His scores for the year:

9
8
5
13
53
0
9
5
2
2
0
17
27
6

If I say why england loose this game than people will say things that are nasty and evil to India

comment by Amanda Hugginkiss (U11574)
posted 15 hours, 50 minutes ago
As TCM says, at least Sibley is doing part of his job as an opener - i.e. seeing off the new ball. The bigger problem at the moment is Crawley who just doesn't seem to be a good fit for #3 in any way. He's just too reckless. The trouble is he's the setup's promising-youngster-du-jour in that position, which means they'll persevere with him past the point at which it's obviously not working, and I get the sense Sibley might be dropped before Crawley. Either way, Hameed MUST come back in for the 2nd test. My preference would be for Crawley to make way, but in all honesty I'd drop both, albeit I'm not sure who steps in to open in Sibley's absence. I would've said Malan could come in at #3, but even his white-ball form has deserted him now, which leaves us kinda stuffed.

The middle order looks excellent on paper, but Pope has really not kicked on (constant injuries obviously haven't helped) and Buttler always looks an innings or two away from a complete implosion of form. There's plenty of options here even if the selectors manage to see past their weird obsession with players like Bairstow or Vince, but the trouble is you have to pick one and give them a fair crack. Pope being in-and-out due to fitness hasn't helped here because it's meant in turn that Lawrence has had the same lack of consistency as his replacement.

And of course, a lack of a solid platform of runs from the top 3 is always going to hurt the middle order the most.

At least Robinson looks like a worthy inclusion for the foreseeable. Heck of a job replacing Anderson (no-one ever will most likely) but at least we're OK for useful med-fast swing bowlers.
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I think that's the problem with dropping players in the top 3, we're just not blessed with alternative options. However Crawley's form is horrible. If you take out his 267 vs Pakistan then he averages 18.8 in 25 innings in his test career. He also seems unwilling to try and put in the hard yards to earn the right to go out and play some shots once he's in. Hameed is a must for me as well and for now I'd just drop Crawley and give Sibley another go with Burns simply due to the lack of options.

Bairstow will get to play the series and it's a decision which the pundits seem to back in the absence of Stokes. He's electric in the field so if he can deliver with the bat then he's a good player to have in the side. Hopefully he can build on his scores of 29 and 30 because he's going to play this series whether we like it or not and we need more than Root to deliver for us if we are going to win.

Agree on Robinson, he has stepped up to test cricket extremely well and seems to have a lot of confidence and belief that he belongs at this level. Just need a couple of batsmen to come in with that same belief (and quality).