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

[meninblue]

What a win. Was expecting an innings win as it was unlikely England would score 250. Excellent team work

27 out of 30 wickets have fallen to spinners in this test.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Congrats Adi.

Huge contributions in the series for Ashwin and Kohli. Their quality has made it a relatively comfortable win.

[Gingerfinch]

More changes for Chennai? If Hameed is fit, I'd be tempted to bring in him for a seamer.

He's out of the series. England's bench strength isn't encouraging.

Oh, didn't know. A batter in for a seamer then. Duckett rather than Ballance.

[meninblue]

The journalists I read and England players are always saying that that England are an inexperienced team. Over and over. Until very recently they used to say Cook was an inexperienced captain, and young, even when it blatantly wasn't true. Anderson has said again England are inexperienced, but they have five players to India's seven with fewer than 30 caps. He does add 'and in the conditions' though it is inevitable that the touring side will have less experience in the conditions than the home side.

England are playing their sixth consecutive Test in Asia, and played three last winter in UAE. Broad, Anderson and Cook have an unusual amount of experience in Asia. Cook has played more games there than any other England player, Anderson and Broad more than any other England pace bowlers. Bairstow, Moeen, Root and Stokes have placed 9+ games there, which is more than Botham, Atherton and Boycott played in their whole careers.

And it gives England an excuse. It is a little defeatist. I hear it all the time, but English players play a lot of cricket, more than most. They play more Test cricket than most. They lost in BD largely because of a debutant,18 year old spinner. I think they should have alook at themselves and embrace reality a little.

Good post.

First they dropped experienced players like Trott, Bell, KP, Monty and then say new comers are inexperienced. When changing the team they usually say energy of youth etc.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I guess so. Or Dawson comes in for a seamer. Getting Broad back in the team is the only real positive change there is.

At least Ducks is a player for the future. If Ballance came back (I expect his Engand career is over) and got some runs, aguably it would just make future planning unnecessarily complicated for little benefit.

[bigfluffylemon]

The journalists I read and England players are always saying that that England are an inexperienced team. Over and over. Until very recently they used to say Cook was an inexperienced captain, and young, even when it blatantly wasn't true. Anderson has said again England are inexperienced, but they have five players to India's seven with fewer than 30 caps. He does add 'and in the conditions' though it is inevitable that the touring side will have less experience in the conditions than the home side.

England are playing their sixth consecutive Test in Asia, and played three last winter in UAE. Broad, Anderson and Cook have an unusual amount of experience in Asia. Cook has played more games there than any other England player, Anderson and Broad more than any other England pace bowlers. Bairstow, Moeen, Root and Stokes have placed 9+ games there, which is more than Botham, Atherton and Boycott played in their whole careers.

And it gives England an excuse. It is a little defeatist. I hear it all the time, but English players play a lot of cricket, more than most. They play more Test cricket than most. They lost in BD largely because of a debutant,18 year old spinner. I think they should have alook at themselves and embrace reality a little.

Good post.

First they dropped experienced players like Trott, Bell, KP, Monty and then say new comers are inexperienced. When changing the team they usually say energy of youth etc.

Trott and Monty were unselectable.

KP and Bell, on the other hand, might have made a difference. Especially KP, who was integral to England's comeback last time.

[Gingerfinch]

I like Bell but his time looked up and still does. I don't think he scored that many county runs last season?

[bigfluffylemon]

I guess so. Or Dawson comes in for a seamer. Getting Broad back in the team is the only real positive change there is.

At least Ducks is a player for the future. If Ballance came back (I expect his Engand career is over) and got some runs, aguably it would just make future planning unnecessarily complicated for little benefit.

Broad for whom? Ball? If so, do you replace Woakes as well with a spinner or a batsman?

To be honest, it's hard to see how one or two tinkers around the edges will make much difference at this stage. The fight's gone. Dead rubber bounce might happen, I suppose, but I am not optimistic.

[Arthur Crabtree]

KPs an injury problem. Maybe even if he was permitted to carry on, he'd be coming to the end now. Bell was left out on merit. Prior, who was good in Asia, has gone, etc. I don't think England can be said to have turned their back on very experienced options. But their replacements can't really hide behind lack of experience. Cook, for example, being experienced, has just had one of his worst tours of Asia, probably after his first tour of UAE. When he and KP did well last time, they were as about experienced as Root etc are this time.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I guess so. Or Dawson comes in for a seamer. Getting Broad back in the team is the only real positive change there is.

At least Ducks is a player for the future. If Ballance came back (I expect his Engand career is over) and got some runs, aguably it would just make future planning unnecessarily complicated for little benefit.

Broad for whom? Ball? If so, do you replace Woakes as well with a spinner or a batsman?

To be honest, it's hard to see how one or two tinkers around the edges will make much difference at this stage. The fight's gone. Dead rubber bounce might happen, I suppose, but I am not optimistic.

Yes, not much to be done. Still, it'll be interesting to see how they react. A heavy defeat sometimes stirs things up a bit.

Broad for Woakes for me. But Ball will go too, They won't pick four seamers. ENgland's selection policy feels like the Two Ronnies sketch where they answered the question previously asked.

[meninblue]

The journalists I read and England players are always saying that that England are an inexperienced team. Over and over. Until very recently they used to say Cook was an inexperienced captain, and young, even when it blatantly wasn't true. Anderson has said again England are inexperienced, but they have five players to India's seven with fewer than 30 caps. He does add 'and in the conditions' though it is inevitable that the touring side will have less experience in the conditions than the home side.

England are playing their sixth consecutive Test in Asia, and played three last winter in UAE. Broad, Anderson and Cook have an unusual amount of experience in Asia. Cook has played more games there than any other England player, Anderson and Broad more than any other England pace bowlers. Bairstow, Moeen, Root and Stokes have placed 9+ games there, which is more than Botham, Atherton and Boycott played in their whole careers.

And it gives England an excuse. It is a little defeatist. I hear it all the time, but English players play a lot of cricket, more than most. They play more Test cricket than most. They lost in BD largely because of a debutant,18 year old spinner. I think they should have alook at themselves and embrace reality a little.

Good post.

First they dropped experienced players like Trott, Bell, KP, Monty and then say new comers are inexperienced. When changing the team they usually say energy of youth etc.

Trott and Monty were unselectable.

KP and Bell, on the other hand, might have made a difference. Especially KP, who was integral to England's comeback last time.

Was Trott unavailable for selection after stress or dropped.

What happened to Monty I thought he was dropped.

I am not saying that the proven matchwinners should play until 45, but it takes time to replace them. To find one performer it takes giving or trying 4 players a chance. Lot of time is wasted and risks in replacing many match winners. Fresh inclusion should have been planned. Too much of attrition imo.Either retirement or sacking came one after another leaving no time for recovery. Know Swann was injured but they made him bowl 51 overs in one innings in India with shoulder niggle. Bit of mismanagement i would say which has added to problems. However, i do expect likes of Jimmy,Woakes, Broad and Finn should not be judged on how badly they bowled in these conditions. They will win matches in conditions favorable for pacers. It is fair to drop specialist spinners to be dropped who did not perform in these conditions though.

England team will do better though in their own conditions. But they should have won the match had they declared properly considering they had 3 spinners for day 5. Captaincy blunder imo. Maybe coach was also involved in late declaration.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Monty was dropped, then, by his own disclosure, had mental health problems. He's struggled to get onto the field in County cricket recently.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Good post Adi. In fairness, India are a very good side with a near flawless recent home record.

Trott retired from internationals.

[meninblue]

Congrats Adi.

Huge contributions in the series for Ashwin and Kohli. Their quality has made it a relatively comfortable win.

Thanks.

Indeed Ashwin and Virat are standouts.

Jaddu played his part in saving one match for us and played match winning 90 in another apart from doing second spinners role well. Jayant made few decent scores and a 100. Vijay has been setting the platform by converting starts into 100. Chet too as No 3 is setting up for middle order. Only Ajinkya has flopped given decent opportunity but he is quality and is allowed to be out of form in one series. It happens.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Lack of runs for VJ's various opening partners too (apart from Parthiv, who was a stop gap). Not much from seamers other than Shami (admittedly, with little encouragement). A few fielding lapses. If we're judging against perfection. But far too good at home for any side right now. Pakistan would be interesting.