England vs India 4th Test Debate

England line-up:

1) Andrew Strauss (C)
2) Alistair Cook
3) Ian Bell
4) Kevin Pietersen
5) Eoin Morgan
6) Ravi Bopara
7) Matt Prior (WK)
8) Tim Bresnan
9) Stuart Broad
10) Graeme Swann
11) James Anderson

India line up:

1) Gautam Gambhir
2) Virender Sehwag
3) Rahul Dravid
4) Sachin Tendulkar
5) VVS Laxman
6) Suresh Raina
7) MS Dhoni (C,WK)
8) Amit Mishra
9) Ishant Sharma
10) Sreesanth
11) RP Singh

Liam
i was going to start a thread myself.
anyways thanks Mate

Doesn't really matter who starts it Shanky, I'd have merged them anyway.

Predictions lads?

I reckon an England win on the 4th day again.

As Sainty said doesn't really matter who does it as long as a thread is created.

4-0 England (Innings and 74 runs to be exact)

What othr fit players do India have in the squad if they choose to experiment and mix things up?

RP Singh, Virat Kohli

Hmm so you thnk theyll stick by Raina and not give Kohlu a run out? I dont see much to be gained form going with Singh other than sparing one of the three more embaressment...and 5 bolwers cant really be an option if your side cant make 300.
Injured Yuraj means they cant even risk no specialist spinner, and although he got carted Mishra was no worse than other Indian bowlers have been.
Cant see any point in recalling Mukund despite Sehwags disasters on this tour...so yeah they could well end up with a largely or compltley unchanged side after one of their biggest spankings ever.

Weather forecast looks dire for today....

Draw for this test, I reckon.

We could do with a win though, to give ourselves some leeway at the top of the rankings, just in case of the odd blip in the sub-continent this winter.

Just seen that ....lookin athe 5 day forcast we will likely get little or no play today, have 3 days over the weekend then an affected last day. So draw looking probable, dull.

i think india will go with ojha and mishra to be honest

I reckon Kohli will come in for Raina. Raina has struggled with the short ball and Kohli probably has the better technique. I think they should also bring in RP for Sreesanth

BBC forecast for later today looks shockingly bad - there might be a chance of a little play this morning (although north-east of London it's been wet all morning, so I'm wondering about the forecast) but after lunch it looks like heavy rain all afternoon. Next 3 days look pretty good though, then Monday looks a bit iffy (although forecasts that far in advance are always questionable).

I definitely fancy us to win the match if there is enough time between the bad weather - at least if the first day is a wash out there's more time to make up the losses than if say day 3 is rained off.

RP Singh in for Praveen Kumar!

Where does that leave the Indian attack? Praveen's been the only real danger man so far. I wonder if bowling first might help mitigate that, however.

cricketfan90 wrote:i think india will go with ojha and mishra to be honest

2 seamers and 2 spinners? really? or do you mean drop raina and go with 5 bowlers?

either way it would be odd surely

Morning lads

This test has draw written all of it i am afraid but it all depends on just how the Indian batsmen perform. If they fail like they have the whole series then England could mop them up very quickly. I personally cant see many (if any) big scores in this match.

I am still not convinced that Bopara should be stating either

England batting then, I've not seen the conditions but it seems strange given that bad weather is expected today.

Massive loss for India in that Kumar is out...he has been far and away their best performer, and that's just with the bat

Bopara?

Its nice of us to play 10 vs 11!

Taylor is light years better than Bopara.

know i should'nt question the selectors as they know better than i do, i would'nt have started Broad this series but i am really struggeling to understand Bopara's inclusion.
We all knew Broad could perform but i just cant for the life of me see that Bopara will perform.

OK Singh in for the one bowler whos been of any use? Is he injured or are they just feeling sorry for the amount of overs he bowled?
Raina kept his place.

I 'd have rather seen the extra bowler for England today rather than Ravi, what with Anderson not being 100% fit before the game. Also if there is time lost having the 5 bowlers might have helped in shooting out the indians.

Always surprised by the Indian selections , Kumars been a good bowler in this series with his swing bowling and yet he gets dropped.

Gregers wrote:Bopara?

Its nice of us to play 10 vs 11!

Sehwag would have killed for those 7 runs

But Sehwag has got the talent to go and score triple hundreds and destroy us...

I doubt Bopara keeps the indians up at night

OK so Kumar was injured because he cant bat properly, couldnt beleive it was for any other reason he wanst playing.

Easy so far for England

Fists of Fury wrote:England batting then, I've not seen the conditions but it seems strange given that bad weather is expected today.

Massive loss for India in that Kumar is out...he has been far and away their best performer, and that's just with the bat

I'm assuming that England are batting first because they know they'll lose quite a bit of play over the five days. I think England are looking to bat first, post a massive total, and only bat once. Given that India's attack has been weakened by the loss of their best bowler, I don't think it's such a huge risk.

that first over from RP singh was awful

eirebilly wrote: know i should'nt question the selectors as they know better than i do, i would'nt have started Broad this series but i am really struggeling to understand Bopara's inclusion.
We all knew Broad could perform but i just cant for the life of me see that Bopara will perform.

I wasnt disagreeing with you.In fact I have been saying for the past month or so that Bopara is CRAP.

no pace in this indian attack

Stuck at work so i cant see the action until later unfortunately but i really hope that Strauss was right in saying that the track was dry and good to bat on.

So far the Indians have made it look a bit slower than usual.

eirebilly wrote:Stuck at work so i cant see the action until later unfortunately but i really hope that Strauss was right in saying that the track was dry and good to bat on.

http://cricbud.blogspot.com/2011/08/channel-11.html

i wonder if india might wish UDRS was avaiable

In other news (But relating to England's one day plans) Michael Yardy has scored a sensational 130 in the championship.

Yardy>Bopara

Let's not get too daft, Gregers

Gregers wrote:In other news (But relating to England's one day plans) Michael Yardy has scored a sensational 130 in the championship.

Yardy>Bopara

Patel>Yardy

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:

eirebilly wrote:Stuck at work so i cant see the action until later unfortunately but i really hope that Strauss was right in saying that the track was dry and good to bat on.

http://cricbud.blogspot.com/2011/08/channel-11.html

Cheers mate but it will be blocked at my work

Agreed that Patel is better than Yards.

Patel>Yardy>Bopara.

Right end of Ravi bashing for now.

RP Singh looks about as dangerous as a wet paper bag atm

Is anyone else as amazed as i am at just how 1 sided this series has been?

Eire
In a word, yes.

Expected more from the Indians, but so far they've not shown anything to suggest they'd even give us a game in Indian conditions

The batting has not lived up to expectations (6 innings, highest score <300)
The seam bowling has lacked any sort of penetration
The spin bowling has been little more than pie-chucking
The fielding has been really poor, with no intensity from most of their players.

As I put elsewhere, England have played well, but I'm not convinced we've played THAT well - I think mostly we've been at about 8/10 level, but it's been plenty good enough.

[quote="eirebilly"]Is anyone else as amazed as i am at just how 1 sided this series has been?[/quote]

In brief , I wonder if Zaheer had been fit would India have tested England or would he like the rest been reduced to pie throwers by now ?

Morning all.

Conditions looking really murky, anyone else think England would have fancied a bowl but maybe Anderson not 100% so give him an extra day or two (hopefully)?

Having said that just looked at the pitch, it does look dry so if sun over the week-end we should get plenty of turn later on. Maybe giving Swann a chance?

India have been poor and i honestly expected alot more from them. I honestly believe that the IPL is killing Indian test cricket.

I imagine that Zaheer would have made a slight difference Stellar but not match winning contributions. India have not looked like a number 1 side at all.

Morning lads, England going along nicely here.

Gregers wrote:In other news (But relating to England's one day plans) Michael Yardy has scored a sensational 130 in the championship.

Yardy>Bopara

Really? Come on now. Yardy was good in T20's till he got the boohoo's but Bopara has a far better ODI record and better First class record as a batsman and a bowler, which is much more relevant to test cricket. One century in a county game doesnt make Yardy a test player, anymore than 3 tests centuries in a row makes Bopara one. Im not saying the guy is awes inspringly good, but to comapre him unfavourably to Yardy as a test player is daft.
Patel I suspect will prove to be pretty mediocre cant bat cant bowl test player like the sort Australia are so enamoured by.

The boohoos? Id like you to take that back. Depression is a very serious illness and Yardy has yet to fully recover.

I didnt say Yardy should be in the test side, but should be turning the corner towards getting back into the one day mix.

Bumble asking where the houses of parliament are! Classic

And not understanding the London Eye!

Typical Bumble