They shouldn’t be trying to bat out time. They don’t have the players for that (with the exception of Root). Stick to the bazball plan of batting 60 overs. That should get them close to 300.
Can’t understand why Tom Hartley has bowled so many overs…
Only realised recently he is Bill Hartley’s son. His plant nursery is one of my go to places… small but real quality.
Bill was a fine athlete of course…
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So he’s bowled a lot of overs for horticultural reasons?
My 400 prediction is looking rather conservative. Still going for Indian win by an innings and quite a few runs.
West Indies more fun
India are 333 for 5. The lower order and tail can’t be allowed to take the score to 450.
Have you actually seen England’s bowling?
On and off this match. Having to spend this entire day forcing the kid to study.
It’s been okay in patches.
He better be good, because the rest are garbage
Looking at his first class numbers , looks unlikely.
I’m too depressed to think about the England cricket team tbh. Might just push me over the edge.
Yeah , far more important things to be depressed about now than just cricket.
Can raise some questions about Stokes’ captaincy in this test. Strange use of bowling options.
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Strange bowling options to start with. Full stop.
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I have some sympathy with selectors as it’s not like they have a plethora of options, though it’s frustrating that they continually overlook both Dawson and Parkinson who whilst not being world beaters themselves are at least able to bowl in consistent areas and not dish up two pies an over.
Not sure why Will Jacks isn’t there either. Pretty handy bowler who did quite well in the Pakistan test he played last year, with the added benefit of being a solid batter as well. Would be a better balance to the side if either he or Dawson were in it.
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I agree, they should go with players that can give them control - not players that are learning their trade. This is just gambling across the board.
At most they should have gone with another non-spin option. This selection feels like throwing the dice, hoping to win the toss and then praying that a couple of batters click and that the spinners get lucky - against arguably the best players of spin in the world in their own back yard…
So it’s emerged in the last couple of hours that Jack Leach is now carrying a “pretty serious” knee injury after an awkward fall yesterday, which was made worse today. Explains why he wasn’t bowling the majority of the overs. Great news for England that their #1 spinner gets injured on day 1 of a 5 test series.
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Gutsy innings from Pope. Bodes well for the rest of the series….
Sensational innings, one of the best by an away batsman in India for a long time. Didn’t think he had that in him to be honest, has tended to look pretty hopeless against spin in his test career so far but he played that remarkably well. Unfortunately his lone effort will likely not be enough, would think England will somehow need to get another 120+ runs to worry India.
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