England 2012 Cricket Thread

[Monty]

The real shame is, if you were a youngster just starting to follow the sport you'd watch him and have no idea why he's called the little master and regarded as one of the top 2-3 batsmen of all time (with Lara and Bradman for me)

True, but those same kids will be able to work Youtube almost intuitively, and they will see. They'll see.

[tricky59]

I see Mohinder Amarnath said that the selectors present the team to the Chairman of the BCCI, and it's his decision as to whether that team is picked.  They wanted to take the captaincy off Dhoni but the Srinivasan vetoed that move.
Dropping Tendulkar will be very difficult.

[PaulWinch again]

Good day in the end. Excellent bowling from Anderson, and we need to continue in the morning.

[john e]

think were gona win this series is my not very risky prediction

[PaulWinch again]

There seems to an endemic fitness issue in Indian cricket. Chawla has come in and he's not exactly slim, it's shocking not to be fit in modern cricket.

[Villan For Life]

There seems to an endemic fitness issue in Indian cricket. Chawla has come in and he's not exactly slim, it's shocking not to be fit in modern cricket.

I think it's a result of having so many star players in their squad who have achieved so much. I noticed Trevor Penney during the last test looking totally bewildered at the poor attitude to fielding drills. This will inevitably lead to a lack of dedication/application in training/fitness.

They had one of the Chappell brothers as coach and he tried to instill discipline and was removed following a player revolt. They then had Kirsten and now Fletcher who seem content to go with the flow and let player power rule which is a shame. Penney was one of the best fielders that I've ever seen and he's wasted as fielding coach to a bunch of lazy prima donnas.

[paul_e]

There seems to an endemic fitness issue in Indian cricket. Chawla has come in and he's not exactly slim, it's shocking not to be fit in modern cricket.

I think it's a result of having so many star players in their squad who have achieved so much. I noticed Trevor Penney during the last test looking totally bewildered at the poor attitude to fielding drills. This will inevitably lead to a lack of dedication/application in training/fitness.

They had one of the Chappell brothers as coach and he tried to instill discipline and was removed following a player revolt. They then had Kirsten and now Fletcher who seem content to go with the flow and let player power rule which is a shame. Penney was one of the best fielders that I've ever seen and he's wasted as fielding coach to a bunch of lazy prima donnas.

Indian cricket has been built for 10-15 years around having an exceptional top 6, anything beyond basic fielding was never a requirement and the bowlers never needed to force the issue, but rather keep it simple and wait for the other team to make a mistake, look at their average scores in that period, the amount of 1st innings of 500+ is well out of line with every other test playing nation, even the great aussie team never score those figures so consistently.

The problem is, they were so good that, like the aussies, there is a vacuum behind and they don't have the other skills to remain competitive whilst the newer players learn to play test cricket.  I think they're going to fall harder than australia and will take longer to come back, Tendulkar is pretty much gone, Sehwag will follow, Dhoni is probably close to calling it a day as well and then they're left with average bowlers and inexperienced batsmen and very little team ethic to fall back on.

[Villan For Life]

There seems to an endemic fitness issue in Indian cricket. Chawla has come in and he's not exactly slim, it's shocking not to be fit in modern cricket.

I think it's a result of having so many star players in their squad who have achieved so much. I noticed Trevor Penney during the last test looking totally bewildered at the poor attitude to fielding drills. This will inevitably lead to a lack of dedication/application in training/fitness.

They had one of the Chappell brothers as coach and he tried to instill discipline and was removed following a player revolt. They then had Kirsten and now Fletcher who seem content to go with the flow and let player power rule which is a shame. Penney was one of the best fielders that I've ever seen and he's wasted as fielding coach to a bunch of lazy prima donnas.

Indian cricket has been built for 10-15 years around having an exceptional top 6, anything beyond basic fielding was never a requirement and the bowlers never needed to force the issue, but rather keep it simple and wait for the other team to make a mistake, look at their average scores in that period, the amount of 1st innings of 500+ is well out of line with every other test playing nation, even the great aussie team never score those figures so consistently.

The problem is, they were so good that, like the aussies, there is a vacuum behind and they don't have the other skills to remain competitive whilst the newer players learn to play test cricket.  I think they're going to fall harder than australia and will take longer to come back, Tendulkar is pretty much gone, Sehwag will follow, Dhoni is probably close to calling it a day as well and then they're left with average bowlers and inexperienced batsmen and very little team ethic to fall back on.

A poor Indian test side is bad for the game. The BCCI are so powerful and carry so much influence within the ICC. If the IPL continues to prosper then the BCCI will concentrate on the shorter formats at the expense of tests which will have reprecussions throughout the world. We could very easily end up as one of a handful of test playing nations alongside the Aussies, Kiwis and Saffers with the rest contesting endless one day tournaments.

[OzVilla]

We've hardly troubled them today.  Fair play to Kohli and Dhoni, we've not necessarily bowled poorly, it just looks flat now while they've dug in.

Looks likely we'll be heading for an innings a side game over 2 days to decide the series.

[PaulWinch again]

We're in trouble here now, well played India but I didn't expect to get up to see this.

[PaulWinch again]

I have a horrible feeling we might get skittled in our second innings trying to block out, I hope not.

[PaulWinch again]

We're not looking a threat at all, I'd give KP a twirl.

[PaulWinch again]

Right their having quick drinks, hopefully a loss of concentration and a wicket. It looks very flat.

[PaulWinch again]

Right Bresnan, you haven't justified your place for a long while now. It's time you stepped up.

[PaulWinch again]

Kohli gone, drinks break. Finally, we need to go through them here now.