England Test Match Tour of India 2024

My worry with Bashir is how he develops away from International cricket. It could have been a good move for him moving away from The Oval, Surrey didn't seem to pick front-line spinners, Virdi was regarded as a talent, but they pick seamers & use Jacks. Bashir will have to develop his batting & fielding game, but most importantly, getting a regular spot in the Somerset side. He at least has a good mentor at the club in Leach. credit to Stokes for taking a punt on him & Hartley to a lesser degree. I imagine this tour will have done wonders for their confidence & learnt more than in any county season.

England have made one change for tomorrows 5th & final Test at Dharamsala with wood replacing Robinson.

India make 2 changes for the final Test of the series, with Bumrah returning at the expense of Akash Deep & Padikkal will make his debut, replacing the injured Patidar.

India v England 5th Test Dharamsala - Day 1 Close
England elected to bat
ENG 218 All out (57.4 overs) Crawley 79 Bairstow 29 Duckett 27 Root 24 Foakes 26 Kuldeep 5-72 Ashwin 4-51
IND 135-1 (30 overs) Jaiswal 57 Rohit 52 no Gill 26 no

Disaster, 3 wickets fall on 175, Bairstow, Root & Stokes go in the space of 3 overs. From a solid position, they are in deep trouble.

Pope is an idiot. Running down the wicket to play a defensive shot in the last over before lunch and getting stumped. Stupidity of the highest order.

Bazball re-think is required. There stubborn & there's plain stupid, this was a case of the later.

To be fair, despite, over-attacking, Kuldeep bowled beautifully, he is blossoming into an accomplished Test Match bowler, & he will only get better the more he is exposed at this level, left-arm wrist-spin is like kryptonite.

(07-03-2024 11:12 )SecretAgent Wrote:  Pope is an idiot. Running down the wicket to play a defensive shot in the last over before lunch and getting stumped. Stupidity of the highest order.

It wasn't meant to be a defensive shot.

Interestingly the Indian wicketkeeper was heard on the stump mic telling the bowler that Pope would come out of his crease on that delivery (as he felt that Pope was feeling impatient).

Pope now has 296 runs in the series from 9 innings, although 196 came in 1 of those innings.

(07-03-2024 05:52 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  India v England 5th Test Dharamsala - Day 2 Session 3
England elected to bat
ENG 218 All out (57.4 overs) Crawley 79 Bairstow 29 Duckett 27 Root 24 Foakes 26 Kuldeep 5-72 Ashwin 4-51
IND 473-8 (120 overs) Rohit 103 Gill 110 Padikkal 65 Jaiswal 57 Sarfaraz 56 Kuldeep 27 no Bashir 4-170 Hartley 2-126
India lead by 255

(08-03-2024 02:40 )William H Bonney Wrote:  

(07-03-2024 11:12 )SecretAgent Wrote:  Pope is an idiot. Running down the wicket to play a defensive shot in the last over before lunch and getting stumped. Stupidity of the highest order.

It wasn't meant to be a defensive shot.

Interestingly the Indian wicketkeeper was heard on the stump mic telling the bowler that Pope would come out of his crease on that delivery (as he felt that Pope was feeling impatient).

He wasn't coming down to play an attacking shot either. Didn't pick his bat up to any extent, wasn't trying to hit a six, with the field set it was a single at best, which wasn't worth the risk.

This is our vice captain don't forget. A fit Brook comes straight back in for me, I would expect Bairstow or Foakes to get dropped, but it would make Pope think with time out of the side.