England v India 2021 Cricket Test Series

As said on separate thread, this is a seriously uninspiring English bowling lineup. Surely space for a genuine paceman if you're going with four seamers.

Have sympathy for Root and Silverwood though, given the injuries to Archer and Stone.
 
Very even so far. India should've bowled a bit fuller. Beat the bat too much without taking the edge.
Reckon they missed a trick not giving the new ball to Siraj. He and Bumrah look like an ideal new-ball combo.
 
Pretty uninspiring selection from England bowling wise. 4 x mid 80's quicks and no spinner, hardly preparation for the Ashes is it.

This series is going to be low scoring. Anyone who scores 350+ first innings consistently will win it.
Agree mate. Surely could have given Wood or Mahmood a go. As you say, we'll end up throwing in a totally different attack in Brisbane and expect miracles!
 
To be honest I'm not sure from an England perspective the focus should be completely on the Ashes. India are the 2nd best Test side in the world and have a better team than Australia. England should be focused on beating them first of all before focusing on Australia, this isn't some kind of glorified warm-up.
 
To be honest I'm not sure from an England perspective the focus should be completely on the Ashes. India are the 2nd best Test side in the world and have a better team than Australia. England should be focused on beating them first of all before focusing on Australia, this isn't some kind of glorified warm-up.

The Ashes will always be the end goal in this country.

I'd be delighted to beat India but i'd take losing 5-0 if we won the Ashes (we wont).
 
Can’t see Dan Lawrence getting another test match any time soon, he’s been abysmal since his debut knock.
 
Can’t see Dan Lawrence getting another test match any time soon, he’s been abysmal since his debut knock.

Ollie Pope the obvious replacement but seems to have a knock.

Touch and go if we get 250 here.
 
England's test side is just dreadful.

Factor in Broad and Anderson being mid-late-30s/all the somewhat competent batters being 30+ and it's only going to go downhill you'd suspect.
 
Ollie Pope the obvious replacement but seems to have a knock.

Touch and go if we get 250 here.
Yeah, we're pretty much out of batters now aren't we!

Wouldn't be surprised if James Vince got a recall.
 
Buttler looked awful there didn't he. Hopefully it's just rustiness and not a reversion to his previous struggles.
 
How do you bat like that for 64 runs then miss that delivery Joe?

Anyway same old from Englands batting. We will be lucky to make 400 at all this summer.
 
Love Buttler as a player but his innings was one of the worst I've seen from a top batsman in quite sometime. Could have gotten out five times in ten balls or something.
 
The media will go to town on the prep for this series and rightly so TBH.

India have bowled pretty well but nothing special
 
How do you bat like that for 64 runs then miss that delivery Joe?

Anyway same old from Englands batting. We will be lucky to make 400 at all this summer.
These look like really bowler-friendly conditions tbh. The old cliche about waiting until both sides have batted comes to mind.

Have to say Thakur has looked decent. I know he's good in the IPL but he's bowled some lovely deliveries today.
 
These look like really bowler-friendly conditions tbh. The old cliche about waiting until both sides have batted comes to mind.

Have to say Thakur has looked decent. I know he's good in the IPL but he's bowled some lovely deliveries today.

India prep has been pretty shoddy itself, but atleast they weren't all messing about playing 100 ball Cricket for a month. It's going to be a horrible year for our test side. I don't see much light.
 
This batting lineup is to trash , what is worse is that they keep playing the same guys . If you play so many games then you are bound to play 1-2 good knocks and then they get even more games
 
Sam Curran is a proper all rounder. 25 ball faced in 27. As much as I like Jadeja, he doesn't know how to play with the tail sadly. In fact one can argue Ashwin is a better batsmen in crunch situation than Jadeja.
 
This batting lineup is to trash , what is worse is that they keep playing the same guys . If you play so many games then you are bound to play 1-2 good knocks and then they get even more games

Who should be playing instead?

Hameed for Sibley and Pope for Lawrence is pretty much it. There's nothing else.

None of them play enough red ball cricket.
 
Sam Curran is a proper all rounder. 25 ball faced in 27. As much as I like Jadeja, he doesn't know how to play with the tail sadly. In fact one can argue Ashwin is a better batsmen in crunch situation than Jadeja.

Was that even a debate? :lol:
 
Who should be playing instead?

Hameed for Sibley and Pope for Lawrence is pretty much it. There's nothing else.

None of them play enough red ball cricket.


Well why is Vince not in the reckoning, it's crazy that they go to Bairstow again . I love Jonny B but he has somehow managed to play 75 test matches which is crazy . Sibley ,Burns and Crawley all average 30 after 20 tests which is genuinely abysmal
 
Well why is Vince not in the reckoning, it's crazy that they go to Bairstow again . I love Jonny B but he has somehow managed to play 75 test matches which is crazy . Sibley ,Burns and Crawley all average 30 after 20 tests which is genuinely abysmal

So you want to argue Vince who averages 24 after 13 tests?
 
India make 300 and that will be the test match. Even with the rain around.

Big hour coming up
 
Crawley is a definite to keep around at 23 years old. We can't drop him when there's no-one pushing for inclusion and he does have talent. He's being shown up as he's been thrown in. He would usually be gradually introduced whilst the older openers ease him into the team. Unfortunately we're not in a position to be able to do that.

Burns has shown that he probably has enough to be given a chance and Root is obvious. Outside of that we've got nobody really making it easy for the selectors to play them as batsmen.
 
So you want to argue Vince who averages 24 after 13 tests?

Vince got dropped after that though and has done reasonably well . He is just one of the names I would consider . I just can't understand playing the same guys again and again . It's ridiculous that Hameed didn't play this game for example