No England vs. India cricket thread?

Bumrahsh the show

Fucking hell. Turns out it doesnā€™t matter whether the middle order are exposed to the new ball or not

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Collapsing hell!

At least weā€™ll get to see Cook bat again now

That escalated quickly.

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Moeen getting stick for batting slow, ffs.

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Cricket question for dummies like me - why is everyone kicking off about Moeen Ali batting at three when his 200+ knock for Worcestershire against Yorkshire, which helped him get back in the side, was from that position?

I get the argument that his test record would dictate that he bats better at seven or eight but why do those commentating and analysing on TV and radio make it sound that him batting at three is completely out of the question?

He opened unseccessfully in the past and is poor against the new ball. When we have two openers who havenā€™t been able to bat for any length of time leaves him in a shot position.

Heā€™s quite an attacking player so his playing style lends itself to batting down well down the order (like the rest of our team).

I was someone who thought it was a good idea him opening aggressively with Cook but he and Hales havenā€™t worked doing thatā€¦

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India have been really poor today

Glad there are no questions about Buttlerā€™s inclusion any more.

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Itā€™s just bloody hard really. Teeing off against the new ball and putting the bowlers on the back foot seems like an obvious idea but itā€™s just so hard to pull off.

Under normal circumstances, given that we have such an abundance of batting with all the allrounders, if Moeen wanted to try batting at 3 Iā€™d have no problem with it for a bit. The problem is that with the world cup next year there are just too few tests between now and the next Ashes series. I think itā€™s time to try the next round of technique driven batsmen and see if anyone can hold onto a place in the hope that we can hold our own against the Aussie attach in a years time.

Y/N?

Burns
Bairstow
Ali
Root
Stokes
Pope
Buttler (wk)
Curran
Woakes
Broad
Anderson

Kohli isnā€™t a particularly good test captain is he.

I sort of get the logic of making your best batsman captain, you want the captain to be consistent so you give it to the player least likely to be dropped. But for both of these teams there must be someone else in the team better at actually strategising during a game, dunno who, mind

Bairstow as opener would be daft. Should be below Stokes and Buttler imo

Sure, but itā€™d be mad to move Buttler now, no?

What are the realistic options given people have made their minds up about Jennings?

Imagine Gubbins, Burns and Ali will be given the winter to win their spots in the top 3. If that doesnā€™t work then absolutely no idea.

Burns
Gubbins
Ali
Root
Stokes
Buttler
Bairstow (wk) - donā€™t really mind who keeps, but would put the keeper below the specialist batsman either way
Curran
Woakes
Broad
Anderson

The interview with Cressida Dick at lunch on TMS was excellent.

Donā€™t think he should open but why do you think Stokes and Buttler should be ahead?

Think at the moment both of them set up a test innings better. This summer theyā€™ve both been more sensible in terms of approach. Stokes belongs at 5 imo, then I would have a specialist batsman above the keeper in the order. If Buttler was keeping Iā€™d have Bairstow at 6

Umpires making a big deal of this