I thought the pitch in Chennai was okay tbh. The wicket ended up not doing a huge amount on day 3 and part of day 4. India could have definitely stretched out their first innings and taken a lot more time out the game.
It's not one of those pitches that was serene on the first 2 days then fell to pieces suddenly.
I think in India if you lose the toss you basically need to bat long and very slow - either go for the draw or go for a freak win on day 5 after scoring heavily yourself. And hope to bat first in the next match. Unless the opposing team underscores (which England have often done in the past when winning the toss here).
Plus England played really well here. A lot of teams would have ended up drawing this match having batted first.
Man, I wish Vaughan and Aggers would cheer the strawberry float up. Was listening to the show after the win and I had to switch it off part way through because of their constant negative bleating on just about everything they talked about.
The thing which is getting my goat at the moment is the whinging about Jos Buttler going home after the first test, which was always the plan. Yeah it'd be great for continuity's sake if he was sticking around, but the reason he isn't is because the mental health of people trumps cricket. Personally I think the ECB should, for once, be praised for prioritising this.
Buttler is an all-format player and isn't going to be getting much rest this year with the volume of cricket he's going to play and the various bubbles he's going to have to waste his life away in. He's irreplaceable in the shorter formats and with the T20 World Cup later this year, it makes sense to give him time away from Test matches where Foakes can deputise.
March: Arrives back in India for 5x T20I, 3x ODI April to May: IPL, returns to England for Test Bubble June: 2x Tests vs. New Zealand & 3 T20Is vs. Sri Lanka July: 3x ODIs vs. Sri Lanka, 3x ODIs vs. Pakistan, 3x T20Is vs. Pakistan, short break, Test Bubble August to Sept: 5x Tests vs. India Oct: 3x ODIs vs. Bangladesh, 3x T20Is vs. Bangladesh, 3x T20Is vs. Pakistan Oct to Nov: T20 World Cup Nov to Jan: The Ashes
Players like Stokes, Archer and Buttler have to get rest where they can get it even if it's not ideal.
I'm going to go against my usual preference for actual keepers and say I think Buttler did pretty well across the last 3 games. Decent scores with the bat and looked tidy as a keeper (even got his first ever test stumping).
Buttler has been both batting and keeping better. He’s now at the point where if he were around I’d shrug and say, keep him in the side, he’s good and they obviously like him. It’s just that if he’s not around I’m not going to shed many tears that they have to replace him with a better keeper and a better Test batsman.
They will definitely want Broaderson for the D/N test so I'm thinking they'll still rotate Jimmy for Broad (Jimmy playing 3 tests in a row in these conditions is possibly not wise) and sub in Stone for Archer.
Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Ben Foakes (w), Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes
So realistically Woakes will be the 12th man. I am very unhappy about Moeen's inclusion, he's not there on merit as he's been absolutely awful in all formats for at least two years.
That is definitely an interesting one. Bess obviously didn’t bowl tremendously second dig, but he keeps picking up wickets! Did the management see something they liked in nets?
That seems harsh on Bess unless there is some kind of prearranged squad rotation thing going on. What makes you think they'll go with Stone over Woakes? Given we're one up, would they not be looking to lengthen the batting?
Rex Kramer wrote:That seems harsh on Bess unless there is some kind of prearranged squad rotation thing going on. What makes you think they'll go with Stone over Woakes? Given we're one up, would they not be looking to lengthen the batting?
Replacing like for like, Stone in for Archer, Broad in for Jimmy, Moeen in for Bess.
