great day to bbe a pakistani cricket fan, amazing achievement to beat a team like england in their home conditions, on the side note the way england play spin is embarrassing, if they dont sort it out they will be in a mess in india on square turners. Its a cardinal sin to play spin on backfoot but they keep doing it
It's sinful the way they played most of your bowlers. When Riaz was bowling really well they managed to avoid
all his good balls. Then took silly swipes at shite/average balls and threw their wickets away.
But over 4 days the better team won, so i hope you don't think that's sour grapes.
great day to bbe a pakistani cricket fan, amazing achievement to beat a team like england in their home conditions, on the side note the way england play spin is embarrassing, if they dont sort it out they will be in a mess in india on square turners. Its a cardinal sin to play spin on backfoot but they keep doing it
There wasnt much home conditions in this test, the sun was out most of the test so no cloud cover to aid the swing bowling, the pitch was dry and woefully slow.
We could be in a mess in India, maybe not like we were last time we toured there and won the series. You are right though, our batsmen lost this test with some terrible shots getting themselves out, not just against Shah. Its the bowlers who will get dropped as usual though.
you had swan and panesar then who would still play better than current english spinners, england need a regular test match spinner who could bowl 25 overs a innings and stick with him, rashid is decent but since he plays so many t20s he doesn't have the patients for longer game, which is vital in longer format
Could you coach some of our batsmen ;-)
you had swan and panesar then who would still play better than current english spinners, england need a regular test match spinner who could bowl 25 overs a innings and stick with him, rashid is decent but since he plays so many t20s he doesn't have the patients for longer game, which is vital in longer format
You only mentioned the batting before and how we were playing spin as to why India will beat us, but now have switched to the bowling why we wont win, same was said before the last tour, we cant play spin and India's bowling attack was better.
You are right England do need a spinner or 2, but the fact is there isnt one readily available right now, there are a few youngsters who might make it in 5 or so years though. Monty will probably tour India, should he carry on getting some cricket this year ( he has issues outside of the game which still need tackling) as we will take 3 or 4 spinners and I wouldnt be surprised to see Rashid play the next test, especially if Anderson and Stokes come back into the side as expected.
As for not playing spinners on the back foot, the game has changed with DRS (although not for India) in that you cant just plonk your foot down the pitch anymore, the bat needs to be used a lot more than in the past. I think that playing spin involves quick footwork and good hands to be able to adjust if needed, most of all clear thinking with a method that works for you, sadly not on display in this test.
1: You need to play spin well and take 20 wickets if you are to succeed, we cant compare last tour of india to the one coming up because you dont have swan or panersarm secondly that side was much more capable of playing spin than this one, in this side cook, root and ali are good players and present indian wickets are worse than they ever were, I read panesar is playing county again, if i was the english selector i would tell him to work on his fitness and get ready for india. i would have even played him against pakistan as we play left arm spinners very poorly.
Considering it will be square turners, i would try to accommodate rashid, ali and panersar, all in one side.
My Team for india would be
Cook
Hales
Bell/ Balance
Root
Vince/ Woakes/ Stokes, i would go for woakes. Better bowler and better technique against spin as compared to stokes
Bairstrow
Ali
Rashid
Panesar
Broad
Anderson
Brilliant performance from Pakistan and not altogether unexpected. England's lineup looked a bit frail and so it proved thanks to an incredible performance from Yasir. Anderson for Finn I guess will be the only change for next week but you'd say half the team should be looking over their shoulder.
Think it's definitely time to hold my hands up and say Woakes is a proper test player now, something I never thought would happen. Well done to the England team for sticking by him.
Really hope Vince gets some runs and cements his place before the knives come out, he looks very good. Have to be careful with expansive drives at the highest level though, especially in England.
Root is gonna hit a crossroads in his career soon. I know he's still only 25 but he has to start converting these starts if he wants to go down as a great of the game. Seems to lose concentration and play a daft shot every time he gets past 50 nowadays.
I've never said we will win, I am merely making the point that the same was said about the team prior to going to India last time, they still had all their great players in their team as well, yet we still beat them. We dont have Swann, they dont have Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxmann. India will be favourites like they would be against any team at home, but we can still give them a game.
Playing Monty in test this summer, when he has taken 3 first class wickets this season would be madness, the lad has issues, that are being worked on and hopefully he can have a good second half of the summer.
Bell wont play test cricket again, Hales is being shown up again as being technically flawed after looking to have made progress against Sri Lanka (he maybe ok in India where he wont be shown up outside his off stump by the seamers as they wont be bowling), I'm not convinced by Ballance he never looks in to me no matter what his score to me. There is little point playing Anderson and Broad, they would struggle to get 30 overs the whole test between them and offer little else, only 1 is needed if Stokes and Woakes are in the side and they offer far more with the bat. Borthwick has to go to India, been scoring heavily for a while in county cricket at 3 and offers handy leg spin as well. Hildreth and Robson are others who have been in good form this summer with the bat.
I'd drop Ali and Ball for Rashid and Stokes as well as Finn for Anderson.
I've always rated Woakes and have stuck up for him on here a few times on here, same with Bairstow (I know you've always rated him as well) so glad they are getting to prove doubters wrong, very hard working and good team players as well. I am hoping now that Hales proves me wrong and starts performing in red ball cricket, but I still have my doubts.
Root will be fine, I get what you are saying about his scores but that will sort itself out no problem at all, couple of silly shots this test, but they looked like they really hurt him, so hopefully he will learn from it.
Yeah I remember you sticking up for Woakes. Things have changed for him since he added a bit of beef and started bowling closer to 90mph. He's now swinging it both ways so perhaps the patience from the selectors will be paid back thinking about when Anderson eventually calls it a day. The whole of the England team - coaches, players, selectors etc love him as a bloke and I think they see him as more than just a decent all-rounder, they see him as a proper team player that will always give his all. It's nice to see that the confidence with the ball has helped his batting as well. He might not be as electric as Stokes in some innings but you'd probably take Woakes ahead of him for consistency if you had to choose one of them.
I forgot about Stokes playing this week, so yeah I'd swap him for Ball, who I'd say could feel unfortunate but his time will come again. Ali for Rashid is a tough one but I do think Ali is completely wasted at 8. Bat him at 8 and he'll play like a no.8. There could be a case for getting them both in and dopping a batsman, but that's unlikely after this test.
Dropping a batsman for a spinner (do we need Anderson, Broad, Stokes, Woakes and 2 spinners though?) would probably mean Vince going, he looks nice but hasnt scored the runs, like you said he needs to and fast, there are other knocking at the door, but there is a a case for a discussion about it, as I said in the post above, Borthwick has been scoring well and offers handly leggies so he is another way to go. Stokes has been bowling but isnt 100% apparently, maybe he will be a strike bowler going in 3 or 4 over bursts, but dont want to rush him back too soon.
It depends on if you think Ali is a better no.4/5 than Vince or Ballance and use his offies as a luxury rather than no.1 option. I don't think moving him around the order has done him any favours and now he's landed at 8 his average will never be better than the 30 it is now. Personally I would play Buttler at 7 with Vince at 4, Bairstow 5, Stokes 6. Then you can decide on Ali/Woakes 8/9 or Woakes/Rashid 8/9. Woakes is a proper no.8 batsman so you can straight decide between Rashid and Ali as bowlers.
England have rarely looked better in the seam department as you say. We played three seamers for years but with the ability of Woakes and Stokes we will have 4 without disrupting the batting lineup and being able to play a spinner too. There are 4/5 players behind Anderson and Broad now that could get the nod when injuries take their toll, it really is a luxury at the moment. One thing that is certain is that Finn will be back at Middlesex for a while. He's having one of those spells where he looks easy to play against and concedes runs to easily. Mark Wood is interesting, he was excellent last year but Woakes is way ahead of him for the time being.