Fourth Test: India v England, 8-12 Dec.

[Making_Splinters]

I'd be tempted to play Ali as a batsman and Rashid as the spinner this summer.

[Dr Cricket]

Very odd series for the media.
Find dobell articles pretty awful at the moment and he generally quite good.
Vaughan been quite funny and good at the telegraph.
Top it all off botham been actually quite good and hasn't really annoyed me much weirdly it is been Hussain that been saying some daft and stupid stuff which is weird from him.

Pretty surprised botham having a good series.

At least Bumble didn't go considering he would have just embarrassed himself in india.

[Dr Cricket]

Also sound like Anderson was being an idiot in the press conference.

[Dr Cricket]

Anderson even have the cheek to call the spinners average, the same spinners England can't handle on flat pitches lol.
Anderson what a pathetic human being.

[Dr Cricket]

The funny part is root scored most of his runs at home 8 of his 11 centuries game at home and kohli scored most of them outside Asia but kohli get questioned.
Anderson, broad take most of their wickets at home but ashwin and jadeja get critised lol.
Maybe we should all start calling root a home track bully then.

[Dr Cricket]

Kohli should also say at least I am good at cricket and get picked at all the formats for my country.

[Gingerfinch]

I went out this morning hoping Root and another top order player would still be there.

[Dr Cricket]

Anderson must be busy in his phones tonight blocking people, might be good practice tomorrow in blocking the bowlers as well.

[rich1uk]

Fair enough. I think there's room in a side for one player who doesn't quite get in for his batting or his bowling, but as England have a surfeit of all rounders, it isn't really necessary. Of course, England picked him because they maintained he was the best spinner in the country, but that's a message that gets obscured by his occasional moves up the order. Probably he now has to fight Adil Rashid for a spot down the order again. Next summer:

Haseeb
Cook
Root
Jennings
New batter
Stokes
Bairstow
Mo/Rashid
Woakes
Broad
Anderson

Though Bairstow could bat at five and Buttler at seven (for me, only if JB2 keeps as well).

which is the team i would like to see in home conditions

we have seen how under utilised a 6th bowler is so having 4 bowlers at 8-11 with stokes as your all-rounder is enough

and i made my feelings clear about the wicket-keeper position yesterday so for me it would be bairstow at #5 with buttler or foakes keeping

I don't think looking at this team as having 6 bowlers is the correct way to view it. Three of the available bowlers are likely to have been picked because their batting is stronger than the spare specialist batsmen. Can you really say Duckett or Ballance are worthy of replacing any of Moeen, Siokes or Woakes on current form. Under normal circumstances this team looks odd but with the current squad it's probaby the strongest option except perhaps Dawson coming in. If ypi want to be completely accurate the team had seven Bowlers with Root.

i might be mistaken hope but neither duckett or ballance appear in that hypothetical team that was being suggested for our next series in July

i think i have acknowledged the limitations of selection for the current games because of a poor squad selection

my point about 6 bowlers has been very evident in the last 2 games with how little batty was used in the last test and woakes hardly being used in this

just because we have 2 out of form options as a batsman doesn't change the argument we are basically playing with 10 men atm as someone being picked as a bowler isn't needed to bowl

[Dr Cricket]

This poster speaking sense.
They don't have skills to play spin. They only know how to cry & blame pitches. We never say pitch was fast when v lose.

I don't remember Indian even once blaming the fast bouncy pitches after losing in foreign. But these ppl will always cry.
And in this series, this is tge first time ball is actually spinning. Otherwise it wasn't m even turning much in first 3 matches.

They even won 3 tosses out of 4 lol.

[Making_Splinters]

I enjoy how Duckett is already been written out of England's Test cricket. It's little wonder that we can't replace players is it.

[rich1uk]

I enjoy how Duckett is already been written out of England's Test cricket. It's little wonder that we can't replace players is it.

i would have duckett in the squad but i'm not sure how he makes the first XI now, if everyone is fit, after what hameed and jennings has done

we can only pick 11 players, those 2 have taken their chances and he hasn't, i thinking leaving out either of them to fit duckett in doesn't really make much sense does it ?

with the next test cricket not being til july tho alot can happen in the first 3-4 months of county cricket

[Dr Cricket]

Some more Awkward truth for Anderson.

Bhuvi was swinging the ball and you say no help for you on this pitch, spoken like a true HomeBully.

Anderson is a sore looser, Kohli has flaws till he scores in England because conditions "help" him here whereas Anderson's poor show in "unhelpful" conditions doesn't come in the way of his greatness. Diabolical. Somehow, its easier to be great if you are an Englishman - its almost an entitlement.

Clearly a case of sour grapes. Get well soon, Jimmy. What about your "flaws" anyway? You are wicketless for two consecutive matches now, remember? I don't see you accepting your "flaw" of not being able to take wickets on unhelpful pitches?

A batsman who scored 5 centuries in Australia so far and scored centuries in every country except England...does that really mean that he has flaws in his batting....he might have but still he is the best batsman in the world undoubtedly...but James Anderson is no good outside England, that is for sure. I expect Kohli will answer by his bat when India tour England again.

Someone should point out to Anderson that India's seamers have outperformed Englands in the series to date...

For a man with 4 wickets to show for in 3 Tests, that's laughable coming from Mr. Anderson. Every Indian pacer has out-bowled (and out-batted) Mr. Anderson over the course of the series, and yet, Mr. Anderson deems it perfectly fine to belittle an opposition player who's been special in every sense. It's a well established fact that Aus complain the most after losses, but even they know when to appreciate a great performance when they've seen one. Apparently Mr. Anderson forgets the green carpets rolled out in Eng without which, he's not even worthy to take shelter in D. Steyn's shadow. To cap things off, Mr. Anderson finds it alright to belittle spinners who've completely out-bowled the 6 bowlers in his lineup. For someone who's played international cricket as long as he has, this is as low as you can sink. Regardless, let's not stoop to his level - he's still a great bowler in Eng. I guess the 3 days on the field with 0 wickets to show, have just numbed his brains out.

[Making_Splinters]

I enjoy how Duckett is already been written out of England's Test cricket. It's little wonder that we can't replace players is it.

i would have duckett in the squad but i'm not sure how he makes the first XI now, if everyone is fit, after what hameed and jennings has done

we can only pick 11 players, those 2 have taken their chances and he hasn't, i thinking leaving out either of them to fit duckett in doesn't really make much sense does it ?

with the next test cricket not being til july tho alot can happen in the first 3-4 months of county cricket

Jennings has made a ton and a duck, Hameed had a decent few tests, they've not done anything to suggest they've nailed down a spot in the team long term.

Duckett had a pretty decent series of Bangladesh across all the games he played.

[ddb]

Bhave put a sock in it. You sound like a sore winner. Anderson sounds like India have done before when they said wait till we are at home. He's obviously frustrated