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Eng vs India - First Test - 20th-24th June


What made today worse was having it on at work and working alongside an IPL Indian fan. I say IPL, because he takes no interest in test cricket. Unless we're getting mullered by them that is, then he gets right into it. I don't know what was worse having Ravi shastri and D Kartik on comms or having a part timer in my ear all day, giving it the big un.

f***ing England man! I know we can get back into the match, but why do we have to make it so hard? It was the 1st day of a 5 test series at home, is it too much to expect we start as we mean to go on?
 
Provider said:
TMS reckon that Gill would have also chosen to bowl of he'd won the toss.

IMO, regardless of the toss, I couldn't see us winning. And it comes down to the bowling attack. Even overlooking the fact that they're undercooked, I don't think the quality is there.
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The quality isn’t there mate, and it’s a massive concern, other teams simply
have better bowling attacks.

There was lots of analysis and discussions why we got beat in India and Pakistan, for example looking at how we played Bazball etc.

But imo it was mainly if not solely down to the fact their bowlers in their conditions were not just better but a country mile better!


Now back on our own patch you would think we would have the advantage, but think we all knew looking at that attack it was not good enough.

The concern is the current best bowlers in this country are injured and unavailable a lot.

To have a chance in The Ashes we need all possible bowlers fit and it’s a massive if that they all are.
 
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Provider said:
TMS reckon that Gill would have also chosen to bowl of he'd won the toss.

IMO, regardless of the toss, I couldn't see us winning. And it comes down to the bowling attack. Even overlooking the fact that they're undercooked, I don't think the quality is there.
Click to expand...
There was absolutely nowt happening out there today. Was evident after about 20 mins that it was the wrong decision. Stokes was the only one who looked threatening. This must be the weakest attack we’ve fielded in a long time…
 
Voice of fair play said:
The quality isn’t there mate, and it’s a massive concern, other teams simply
have better bowling attacks.

There was lots of analysis and discussions why we got beat in India and Pakistan, for example looking at how we played Bazball etc.

But imo it was mainly if not solely down to the fact their bowlers in their conditions were not just better but a country mile better!


Now back on our own patch you would think we would have the advantage, but think we all knew looking at that attack it was not good enough.

The concern is the current best bowlers in this country are injured and unavailable a lot.

To have a chance in The Ashes we need all possible bowlers fit and it’s a massive if that they all are.
Click to expand...
Yep. It had been a worry for some time with the impending retirements of Jimmy and Broad as to who the long term replacements would be and it's really hitting home now. And it's only been compounded by the injuries.

I do also think that we haven't helped ourselves either when looking at replacements. Matthew Fisher, 1 test; Saqib Mahmood, 2 tests; Jamie Overton 1 test; Josh Hull 1 test; Sam Cook 1 test. What are they really going to prove in such a limited amount of games?
 
Voice of fair play said:
We would have won the ashes but for two solid days of rain never mind ‘unbelievablely’ fortunate not to lose.

We were knackered before we went to India our spin attack was men against boys.

In fact would go as far as saying the only series we really struggled were in alien Asian conditions were the spinners of the opposition were far superior to ours.

So in no way can that be described as utter shit and whichever way you look at it 22 wins out of 35 is a massive improvement from 1 win in 17.

The facts speak for themselves.
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I said since 2019. Which includes the 1 in 17. Take 2022 out of it and the rest is poor on the whole.
 
Nasser Butt-Head said:
What made today worse was having it on at work and working alongside an IPL Indian fan. I say IPL, because he takes no interest in test cricket. Unless we're getting mullered by them that is, then he gets right into it. I don't know what was worse having Ravi shastri and D Kartik on comms or having a part timer in my ear all day, giving it the big un.

f***ing England man! I know we can get back into the match, but why do we have to make it so hard? It was the 1st day of a 5 test series at home, is it too much to expect we start as we mean to go on?
Click to expand...
Don’t mean to be rude but he sounds like a right f***ing knob
 
Parkside said:
The FACT is England are 6th out of 9 in the URL test rankings above only WIndies,Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nothing to get euphoric about. Asides about golf are clearly tongue in cheek but prompted by England's leaderships constant reference to golf.
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What are the URL test rankings when they’re at home? The current ICC ones have England third. Not sure I believe them as that leaves us ahead of India. But they do.

You must be logged on to see external links
 
Provider said:
TMS reckon that Gill would have also chosen to bowl of he'd won the toss.

IMO, regardless of the toss, I couldn't see us winning. And it comes down to the bowling attack. Even overlooking the fact that they're undercooked, I don't think the quality is there.
Click to expand...
Gill said so immediately afterwards. Which is quite unusually honest these days as unless it’s really obvious you are supposed to say you would’ve wanted to do what you are doing anyway. You can tell he’s a beginner at this test captaincy lark!
 
Ghfd said:
Stats said it was the correct decision

Reality though was different

Anything under 500 and it will be a chance to come back but imo a draw is only play for England now
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And there’s the thing. You use the stats to determine what is most likely to happen. But reality is determined by what you actually do on the day, and how good you are.

Headingley hasn’t really favoured batting first for decades. Even in my early years watching in the 70s when the folk memory of uncovered pictures was still strong enough that you almost never inserted, you’d always at least think about doing so at Headingley. It’s become even more marked over the last 10 years or so since the pitches were redone. The default strategy is to put the opposition in and hope you make something of day one because after that, it’s as flat as a fart.

I think a perfectly plausible explanation of yesterday is that England did the right thing at 10:30, it was what they did wrong between 11 and 6:30 that was the problem.
 
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Provider said:
TMS reckon that Gill would have also chosen to bowl of he'd won the toss.

IMO, regardless of the toss, I couldn't see us winning. And it comes down to the bowling attack. Even overlooking the fact that they're undercooked, I don't think the quality is there.
Click to expand...
Aye cos these all go off the data about how chasing is easier here and pitch unlikely to get any harder to bat on.

Rather than using their eyes that it was a perfect batting day and that wickets would be hard to get.

Not really sure how offering up the Indian side the ability to score 400+ and put us under pressure in the first test of 5 was a good idea.

I know Durham won a game from a similar position this season. But I don't have any confidence in England bowling attack.
Fleagle said:
And there’s the thing. You use the stats to determine what is most likely to happen. But reality is determined by what you actually do on the day, and how good you are.

Headingley hasn’t really favoured batting first for decades. Even in my early years watching in the 70s when the folk memory of uncovered pictures was still strong enough that you almost never inserted, you’d always at least think about doing so at Headingley. It’s become even more marked over the last 10 years or so since the pitches were redone. The default strategy is to put the opposition in and hope you make something of day one because after that, it’s as flat as a fart.

I think a perfectly plausible explanation of yesterday is that England did the right thing at 10:30, it was what they did wrong between 11 and 6:30 that was the problem.
Click to expand...
But when did we last play at Headingley with weather like we had yesterday and all this week.

They got too into data instead of using common sense.
 
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