Indian were very competitive over here two series ago, and the last time they came they missed the start with poor prep but were at least equal to us later on the series. Its kind of sad seeing Laxman play so poorly. Dravid is in the same boat. He still makes a lot of runs but is nowhere near the player he was. Probably the GOAT at making runs when batting poorly.

yea, end of an era. I'd rather see our greats retire at the top, like Gilchrist or Imran but that never happens with India. They keep playing until they're dtrimental to the team and no one will have them..

Sad really.

Looks like Dhoni is banned for the next test...

So who should go? Laxman for sure I guess but Dravid was superb in England. Maybe he'll stand down very soon of his own accord. That would be two spots in the order available I guess.

I think Laxman should go but I wouldn't give up on Dravid yet. He has shown that, even during rough patches, he can make runs.

Tendulkar surely is coming to the end of his career also. I suspect he might retire once he hits that 100 centuries mark.

This is unfortunately true for India. And unfortunately it means that a lot of good up-and-coming cricketers don't get a shot.

the problem with ipl is that its not just the matches alone. There is a big hype in the entire country. Players triple up on ad campaigns. Stupid uncritical media also hypes up the coverage and importance of the event. All this, i am sure must be physically and mentally draining for the players. So not only are they not resting when they should, they are in fact more busy than usual.

For instance last year's ipl was so soon after the world cup and Dhoni was all about it and I was just thinking "chill man you just won a world cup take a god damn vacation ffs."

not saying ipl is the only reason for poor performances but it is definitely one of them.

If India win the last test with Sehwag as captain is there any chance Dhoni loses his job? He has been crushed in the last two away series and by most accounts has captained pretty poorly throughout the series. You could probably cop being owned by England away since their the #1 side but getting destroyed by Aus who are number 4 (I think) cant be acceptable. Also there are a lot of reports in the papers over here of a fairly disharmonious dressing room. I guess what might save him is the only alternative is Sehwag and his form hardly justifies taking on the top job. Also from a marketing perspective Dohni is clearly the right choice, he says all the rights things and has a squeaky clean image. I just think he has made some pretty horrible decisions this tour.

Not imo. Winning one test isn't enough to oust a captain.

I'd love if that happened, but Sehwag is an even worse captain lol.

Sehwag has captained 3 times, won 2 and tied 1.

Edit to add: as a fill-in.

sehwag seems like a massive douche to me and not exactly the right guy to lead a load of youngsters into test cricket.

dhoni has captained pretty badly in test cricket but there really aren't that many viable alternatives and as the the next few years for india are likely to be a time of transition I'd stick with Dhoni because he seems to have the respect of everybody but is still young enough and has decent enough personal skills to deal with the newcomers and the seniors alike.

my prediction for pakistan england. 1-0 to pakistan.

lol reverse jinx...

I like Sehwag and rekon he thinks about the game prettywell, would be a good choice from a tactical perspective. Is probably never going to be as good with the sponsers as Dhoni though.

Dhoni is a serviceable captain. He's too conservative and pretty unimaginative. But you don't need to be that clever when given so much talent (unlike NZ with Stephen Fleming for example). I think the problem is he is just worn out. Captaining India is unlike any other country. The pressure and heavy schedule must take it's toll.

BTW, I thought Gambhir was being groomed for the captaincy? Seems like the only logical choice for the long term.

England obviously put off by the thunderous stadium atmosphere and capacity crowd here, losing 4 quick wickets.

I hate how andy purposefully jinxes England first so I can;t pull off lol England with the same ferocity..

Ajmal proving once again why he's GOAT.

Gah... so predictable.

Although I was expecting to at least get to day 3 before we got spun out of the game.

Fact is the whole world sucks at test cricket at the moment, there has been more lol India than others over the past 12 months because we've been playing away from home..

India still probably sucks more than others..

Andy seems pretty optimistic.

I think I heard that if we lose 1-0 we're still No 1.

boo you guys are all being too reasonable..

Where's TT when you need him?.

Its a bit of phoney year, 2013 is where we get seriously unreasonable.

This could be a good series though, I'm not writing us off yet and Pakistan are good to watch.

oh you're probably still favorites, it's Pakistan after all..

I wouldn't say that.
...
(though I did think it)

Main reason I've been looking forward to this series :

haha too true.

went back to bed after we lost trott and cook.

tough to not lose a test match when you're 50odd-5 after one session on a flat pancake. gonna b tough.