England vs India 4th test

I agree. Anderson's time is coming to an end. He's still very good but when you look at the other 3 seamers playing I that test, is he really adding anything extra? If we'd had Wood, Carse or Mahmood (or Fisher bowling like he has the last 2 days) then we would have been able to ask more questions of the India batters in the 2nd innings.

I did think we needed Moeen to balance the side but as he's proved still to be a total liability with the bat, and we now have Woakes back, I'd rather have Bess or Leach who are both better bowlers and actually much more sensible batsmen in test conditions.

 

I do feel sorry for Moeen. His best role is to play as an attacking spinner who bats at 8 and does damage on a wearing pitch, and we play him at 7 and bowl first. If Root doesn't feel that he can hold up an end while he rotates his seamers at the other end, then I can't see much reason to pick him. Yet they've made him vice captain!

 

England at the minute has regressed back to the dark days of the mid nineties as a test nation. Silverwood is even starting to look like Ray Illingworth.

 

I didn't see any of the cricket, didn't even see the scores until today.

What I did see though was the incredible sight of indian cricket fans swarming what I can only assume was the team bus. Was driving by the Oval at around 5:45pm yesterday on my way back home.

They spilled into the road, oblivious to traffic, were clambering on the side of it, over people, all with phones out filming, trying to climb in through the drivers window.... absolutely insane. Literally like a swarm of bees covering the bus. Bonkers.

 

16 man squad named for Friday. Not sure why they need so many. Surely Pope can’t be dropped to play both Bairstow and Buttler.

 

they weren't like that when the team bus arrived at Headingley!

 

Pick as many batsman as we can and hope we win the toss and at least three of them click. Our only hope is scoreboard pressure just like the third test.

 

The way he threw his wicket away in the first innings was absolutely pathetic, I can forgive getting out to a good ball all day long, but lazy slap sweeps? You;re not playing 20/20 you plank. Shouldn't play again for England, had more chances then anyone, maybe with the exception of Bairstow - another serially failure in test cricket.

 

I just hope they don't play that 1 dimensional pace attack again. If they do then Root and Silverwood really do need and deserve to be removed from their positions.

Woakes, Curran, Robinson, Wood & Leach for me. Add in Root and you have so much variety in that line up and all of them can bat to some extent too

 

That swipe infuriated me more because he was well in control of the Indian attack. You should have seen India's body language as the ball was being milked round the park. He should have had his century and England should have been in control of the match.

 

It was crazy. It was literally like they didn't care if they were run over in their pursuit of a snippet of video.

 

come on Stephen, don't know exactly where we were in the 'dark days of the mid nineties' but if it was 4th in the rankings is that terrible?
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1043815/cricket-test-countries/
we have just lost 2 tests to a very strong test side. Thats it, no disaster.

 

there was us and one Indian family we'd been talking to when we realised the buses were pulling up. Don't think Virat was feeling particularly sociable getting off the bus!

 

Curran has offered very little with the ball in this series. I wouldn't bring him back for the last test.
I still think Anderson has a lot to offer but could understand it if he was left out for a rest. If so, I'd go for Robinson, Wood, Woakes and Mahmood as the four pace bowlers.
As for a spinner we may as well toss a coin between Ali, Leach and Bess. Not much between the lot of them although I'd probably lean towards Leach.
Think Ali will get the not for his batting (lol) and the fact he's been made vice captain.

 

Mahmood not an option as he's not in the squad.....

 

Just on the bowling front... Despite probably having an abundance of medium pacers knocking around, it surprises me we don't have someone who can turn their arm over at that sort of speed.

You look at say Collingwood and though he didn't have much pace, in the right conditions, he could often get more out of a pitch than those charging in trying to reach mid 80mph. Towards the latter part of his career, he was often turned to on the road pitches and managed to get his cutters going.

 

Yeah just run their fingers down the seem to give the ball some revs to jag back.

 

They cannot leave out Jimmy at Old Trafford, just imagine.
Robinson, Anderson and Woakes have to play, they may pick Wood for something a little different. Chance of one of our spinners skittling India? Can’t see it , pitch would have to turn square and heaven help our batsmen if that’s the case. Maybe Leach if Root thinks he will give more control than Ali.
Realistically we need to win the toss and pile on some runs.