India in England, summer of 2021

[Omkara]

Problem is you need Jadeja because he is good with the bat. So do we need two spinners? Maybe not. Feel bad for Ashwin because he is a better bowler than Jadeja. Way better.

Absolutely. I am not suggesting that Jadeja should not be selected. The question is how valuable is Ashwin with his bowling and some more runs than Thakur or Siraj. The team seems to think, in these conditions, the pacers are better. I do not have enough yet to say whether they are right or wrong.

I am not entirely in disagreement with the decison to play Jadeja. I just feel bad for Ashwin. Jadeja batted really well. But bowled only 3 overs.

[Kumar]

If i remember correctl, !He has the best average in england among SENA countries.
Very likely he has bowled less overs in english conditions resulting in less number of wickets. England does not play off spin as well with their plethora of left handed batsman. That may be reasons for his better performance.

I also have no problems with Ashwin non selection. Probably Ashwin and Jadeja walks into this team as pure batsman on current top order form.

[PKBasu]

Sorry I've been away, although posting a lot on cricket and tennis on my FB page (our forum is only available for me using a particular laptop on which my password for SI is saved; I've forgotten the password, so cannot log in using other devices).

Our bowlers, as usual, are dominant. Pant and Jadeja have been superb. I have been a huge advocate of playing Jadeja in all conditions in all formats for at least the past 6 years. (Only in T20Is, he should play as a bowling all-rounder than the batting all-rounder he was tagged as at the start of his career: I can never forget the horrible knock he played in the 2009 T20I world championship against England, but it was Dhoni's fault for sending him in at #4). Ashwin should have played ahead of Thakur, although the latter had success last year in this series and so was difficult to leave out. I think there will be purchase for the spinners in the final innings, and we will need Jadeja to be bowling well in that innings. Of course, if we manage to set a target of 400, the pacers should be able to do the trick.

[PKBasu]

Bright start this morning, especially from the normally-dour Pujara, and the lead is now 285 (one more than England scored in the first innings).

Heck I jinxed him. Out playing an uncharacteristic stroke for 66. Iyer needs to hunker down and get a score. The lead is 291, with six more runs added since Pujara's dismissal.

[PKBasu]

With the exception of Pujara in the second innings, all our specialist batsmen failed in both innings of this test. This is definitely a worrying situation for Indian cricket, even if we manage to win this round of the WTC. Rohit is technically in good test form, but he has been injured almost continuously since being appointed Indian captain; age isn't on his side either. We have a problem -- although the Rahul-Rohit combine is quite reliable at the top when both are fit.

[PKBasu]

233/8 now, for a lead of 365 as Shami falls immediately after lunch. This is not a safe total with five sessions still to play in this test. India needs another 50 runs if possible from Jadeja and the allrounder captain (holder of the world record for most runs in an over in test cricket...).

[PKBasu]

Jadeja is always a confused man when batting with tailenders, and he loses his wicket amid the mental confusion. Let's see how much the last wicket pair can add. India still in the driving seat, but it is going to be a nerve-wracking chase. The pacers will need to prise out the early English wickets quickly to wrest the advantage.

[PKBasu]

India have set England a target of 378 to tie the series. Bumrah and Shami need to get England 3 down by tea to wrest back the initiative. England will have their tails up as they start the chase, given the successes against NZ.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Shreyas Iyer who was brought in for 2018 ranji performance appears to be useless in SENA. After Raina, he is the one who has chance of getting out 10 out of 10 in bouncers.He simply can't play bouncers. Extremely lucky guy to get the test cap when middle orders like Sarfaraz is doing great in domestic since 2018.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Thakur needs to play at 3/4 for Mumbai and CSK to become a serious allrounder, else he can't deliver when its required with bat in test matches

[ssp]

Fully expected this course of events once Bairstow got his first innings century. Our batting in the 3rd innings was awful and the bowling in the 4th terrible. Conceding at 4.5 an over is pathetic.

This is why I was hoping for rain. England are playing with incredible confidence and belief. Only another 140 to get. Who knows if we'll even get another wicket

Too many passengers in the team. Again, that's the norm. Batting has been very weak for 3+ years and no real effort made by selectors to try youngsters. It's a closed shop as far as that is concerned.

Less than 120 to defend. That's likely to be knocked off in 20-25 overs. What a turn around. Our lower order did well in the 1st innings but we returned to normal service in our 2nd innings. The bowling has also reverted to the poor level seen in South Africa and WTC final.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

7 wickets for just 120 runs put India in backfoot. Gill, Hanuma, Shreyas with Kohli completely flat. Batters except Pujara is big
"Zero" in this test, only batting service given by allrounders and lower order, such a pathetic show. Excuse of being new players is on the cards

[prasen9]

Jadeja is always a confused man when batting with tailenders, and he loses his wicket amid the mental confusion.

Which is why Jadeja should have been sent before Iyer. Stupid thinking by the team management. Here are the contributions of the top order in two innings together:

Gill 21
Pujara 79
Vihari 31
Kohli 31
Iyer 34

Iyer was slightly better than the rest of the nincompoops but not by much. Given the pattern England has shown against New Zealand, we should have batted with a bit more intent (meaning intent to stay at the wicket and score runs) and tried to get 450-ish.

Retain Pujara. And, maybe Gill, Vihari, Iyer although we may have seen enough of Vihari already. Yes, he has been unlucky in that he did not get very many matches at home. But, our objective is to get someone who can bat in SENA and Vihari cannot really. He may be slightly better than the Gills of the world but that is not saying much.

[arjun2761]

Sorry I've been away, although posting a lot on cricket and tennis on my FB page (our forum is only available for me using a particular laptop on which my password for SI is saved; I've forgotten the password, so cannot log in using other devices).

PKB, you can always go to the settings in most browsers to see what the stored passwords are. In Chrome, for instance, you'd click on the Autofill button.
I recently migrated my mobile phone from Android to iOS and found that my laptop browser had the most recent passwords for most of my apps which I needed since the migration tool did not migrate the apps from Android to iOS.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

In last 6 test matches in SENA countries, India's batting is all about openers, Risabh Pant and lower order. Middle order has been tourist, not a single dominating big innings from the middle order since Rahane's ton in Melbourne. Selector needs to take harsh decision if Kapil, Azhar, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman can be dropped for their poor show, why not Kohli ?