England in India 2024-25 : The Pataudi Trophy

[Kumar]

Two possible reasons. One he is nursing a injury and second is that he is not mentally there. Ashwin also needs some help from pitch. Most disappointing is his economy rate. He is going for runs and that tells me that he has not built up a good rhythm.

This match is goner. I see them reaching at least 400. If not more We need to take the new ball. Will go for runs. But the new ball can result in a wicket.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Akash Deep is looking best with his indippers, has got pace but tk sustain in test cricket he needs to develop outswing & reverse with the old ball.

[SaniaFan]

English "eye-test" pick Bashir is doing a real good job today. Stokes specifically picked him again for this match. He does have an eye for talent a la Imran and understanding of conditions.

[rajitghosh]

This match is gone.

[Kumar]

We lost it when we let them score 250 for last 5 wickets and 100+ for 8th wicket. We wrap their tail up, this game looks different

But why no aggression from Sarfaraz. Bad decision to promote Jadeja having two left handers at crease.

Patidar is looking more and more like a lost cause. Even a 50 runs lead on this pitch is difficult. So 100+ ball game over.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

England's luck ruled against Indian batting. Bashir's mediocre off spin is hitting the shin on Day 2. Game will now depend on how much close we come to England's total.

[prasen9]

English "eye-test" pick Bashir is doing a real good job today. Stokes specifically picked him again for this match. He does have an eye for talent a la Imran and understanding of conditions.

I don't think it was an eye-test pick per se. Did they have any off-spinner better than him? The eye-test pick may be equal to the best stat pick. Wrt picking him, Rashid had personal problems and left the team. They did not have any other spinners. Plus, this is also basic. They suffered in the hands of Yashasvi and Jadeja, both left-handers. They needed someone who spins the ball in different directions to get variety. That is, if there is a rough on either side, the spinners would be able to utilize it. So, this was a rational pick. Not a intuitive pick. We will see if he has an eye for talent or simply choosing horses for courses. He does have a very good understanding of the conditions and the situation.

In other words, his only choice was to go with another pacer. And, seeing that the pacers not named Bumrah and Anderson have not done well in this series, there was simply no choice. So, let's applaud him for a good read of the game but not laud him for eye-test, intuition, etc. Eye-test, intuition, talent scouting comes into play when a) you have the choice, and b) you choose a younger, emerging player who has worse documented performance. In this case, he did not have a choice.

[prasen9]

I hope Sarfaraz learns that he needs to be a bit more proactive on such pitches. He cannot bat at 2 runs per over or whatever and hope to score big. In innings 2, the pitch will be worse.

I have criticized Gill. But, he has played well on this pitch. Sad that he did not get a slightly bigger score. But, he has been good in this series. Good for him and good for us. Kuldeep has been fantastic. Jurel shows promise.

Rohit, Jadeja, Sarfaraz, Patidar all failed. Hope at least 3 of them score a bit big in I2.

At the end of the day, the problem has been that Ashwin is out of form and Rohit will not bowl Kuldeep more and treat Ashwin as the third spinner. Sad.

[Kumar]

I am not convinced Sarfaraz is a real deal and i hope i am completely wrong. Where was team mgmt ? They should have given him rein to play freely like his debut test. Players like Patidar and Sarfaraz who are exceptional players of spin to struggle and get out to off spinner does not portend well. In this pitch staying long appears to absolutely counter productive and run is important. Guys who don’t know how to hit like Kuldeep can defend, but others should have been aggressive.

The only way for india to draw this game is for this pitch to become slower and slower that low bounce does not matter

Rohit is woefully out of form. I think he and Ashwin will be the next domino to fall.

[Atithee]

The only way for india to draw this game is for this pitch to become slower and slower that low bounce does not matter

Rohit is woefully out of form. I think he and Ashwin will be the next domino to fall.

I thought you said that’s how Root prospered—going back to his roots. The Rohit domino should have fallen a long time ago. That he’ll will be playing the T20 World Cup is travesty.

[Kumar]

The problem is Root did not have to resort to bazball. He is there best player who can anchor and let others play freely holding up one end. I never understood why he has to playun orthodox strokes. It makes them even more threatening when they do that. U don’t really need players at both ends to go bonkers.

On the other hand, Sarfaraz had lot of success the last few weeks playing aggressive game. U have to play to your strength. In indian team, i trust only Jadeja to play sheet anchor role. There is no one else in this team that stodgy defense. Jadeja appears to be vulnerable to offspinner especially at beginning of innings

[SaniaFan]

English "eye-test" pick Bashir is doing a real good job today. Stokes specifically picked him again for this match. He does have an eye for talent a la Imran and understanding of conditions.

I don't think it was an eye-test pick per se. Did they have any off-spinner better than him? The eye-test pick may be equal to the best stat pick. Wrt picking him, Rashid had personal problems and left the team.

It was an eye-test pick. I have already told the story before. Stoke saw a video of him bowling some 30 balls to cook and shared it with Macullum. He has played very little FC matches(just 6 with average of 65). Also he was going to be picked even if Rashid was there. The picked the team even before Rashid became unavailable. He was picked because Stokes thought the there were cracks and with his height he'll be able to exploit it most.

Also eye test for me is picking some one who does not have documented performance by just looking at him. That is how Waqar and Wasim were picked. Picking up player with worse record is stupidity.

[prasen9]

Thanks for the explanation.

They did not have any offspinner worth his salt. So, he picked by quality. Height and maybe a bit of line and length.

Yes, the lack of an offspinner was obvious in the last test. Yashasvi and Jadeja made merry. They wanted to address that too and even if the pitch did not have cracks, they would have chosen him perhaps. Also, because Rashid was ineffective in the series throughout. So, they wanted a change.

[Kumar]

We lost this match when we could not bundle them out for less than 200.. Can we at least get the deficit to below 100? All I want to see if we can fight .Would be happy if we loose by less than 50 runs.

[Atithee]

Kumar, what’s gone into you? You’ve been so negative even before the series started. Now you’ve already declared the match lost. In the last match also every single day, you declared a loss. The fact of the matter is that we should have been up 3-0. We had no business losing the first match. We may yet lose this match, but your daily proclamation is strange. There’s still a lot of the match left and lots can happen.