England vs India Test Series

To be fair on Bethell he's a 1 day player with 25 first class matches and a batting average of 27 and barely any cricket for months. It's not his fault that he was thrown into a situation where he's completely out of his depth. He has no defensive shots, the ball was moving all over the place, and the only success he'd seen other players have in that situation on this pitch was to go on the attack and knock the bowlers off their length. He just wasn't good enough to do it.. but also not good enough to stay there and defend.

 

If you can't get 42 with 6 wickets left you don't deserve it. Bethell not up to it and took all the momentum out of the innings and Smith's awful wide waft this morning were the big ones for me but everyone who came out this morning looked like a scared bunny (the brave Woakes accepted). Unfortunately Bethell continues a long English tradition of all-rounders who aren't up to it with either bat (yet) or ball in Test cricket. The few great all-rounders like Stokes, Botham and Flintoff are/were world-class in at least one discipline and not far off in the other. Should have gone in in with a specialist batsman at 6.

Fair play to India though and a captivating series.

 

Unfair on Atkinson. If everyone this morning had gone out full blooded swinging like he did there's a much better chance we would have scraped home.

Edit: and we have an in form spinning allrounder in Ahmed who is a year younger than Bethell. Averaging 50 with bat and 15 with ball this season.

 

73 needed with 6 wickets. Although with no Woakes it's as good as 5 wickets, and Tongue wasn't likely to get many either.

 

Bethell has been fast tracked before his time. As you say he’s not played enough cricket. Needs some championship matches under his belt and he definitely doesn’t want selecting for the Ashes tour. The Aussies would be all over him.

 

We were definitely in the ascendency and should have probably won. And if India hadn't made a fight of it, we would have won. I just think anyone knocking their contribution to the test and result is being a bit disingenuous.

 

In all honesty I don't think he should have come out today either.

 

I agree, Helen, as I posted at the time. It was one thing if we just needed a run or two and all he had to do was stand at the non-striker's end to make up the numbers, but once it became obvious we needed 17 and he was going to have to run and more than likely face deliveries (thank goodness it didn't come to that) it all went a bit far for me. Imagine if he'd stumbled and fallen on it, or got struck on it. Nothing but kudos to him for stepping up, but I for one would have applauded if the team had decided to take the drawn series on the chin and leave a badly injured player out of it.

 

Yes it needed someone to say no to protect him. Most sportsmen and women would do the same especially in a team game. Sometimes someone else has to say no.

 

It would have been better all round had it actually rained.

 

One thing is certain. A great test series and we've had our fair share of dramatic comebacks. India could have taken the foot off the pedal but once Root got out. you could see the mood change. Gutted we didn't win the series. But give me that excitement any day over drab draws and walkovers. Even if it shatters the nerves.

 

Just got over it. I won't watch the highlights though. Knew yesterday they wouldn't do it. Shame really as those two tons mean nowt other than to record scribers.

 

Just like goals change football games, wickets can change cricket matches. India were never getting a wicket until Brook charged down the pitch and swung so wildly that he couldn’t even keep hold of the bat. It was a terrible shot, and poor understanding of the state of the game.

The players to come in after his wicket were even worse. Odd that England wanted to win enough to send out a batter with an arm in a sling, but not enough to get a message to batters 6-8 to at least try and see out the spell from Siraj last night rather than swinging at everything

 

Regarding this series and the Ashes series down under. Were we undone by our conditions without a savvy bowling attack? Also will the struggles our batsmen encountered be negated by the wickets in Australia? There isn't much movement down there and I can see it favouring Crawley, Pope and Smith in particular.

 

Bazball just isn't working. 4 series in a row we haven't beaten India and in the home and away series of the Bazball era against India and Australia we haven't won any of the four.

Next up Australia where we've lost 13 of the last 15 tests.

 

But we’ve won 2 and drawn 1 of our last played series.

 

I would, argue the McCullum/ Stokes tactics have been effective considering where England were when they took over. My main issue is with selection. Persisting with Pope who is ultra inconsistent and has a 4th innings average of 15 when this side relies on 4th Innings chases. Trying to shoehorn Bethell despite him being a very inexperienced 1 day specialist. Being obsessed with Bashir when he cant get in a county side so basically only plays cricket in Tests. Being obsessed with Pace when out most effective bowlers of the past two decades have relied far more on skill and accuracy than pace.

Plus Ignoring in form proven players like Ahmed, Cook & Leach

 

Bazball will be judged mainly over how well they do against the other two of the top 3.

 

Fair point but we can’t ignore a victory in NZ