not a good start to the tour for india today. got hit around at taunton(although generally taunton is a road with not much in it for the bowlers) but it's unlikely to get any better for india because the weather forecast for the weekend is pretty bad so it's possible that Gambhir and Tendulkar both won't have batted in a match situation since the IPL.

Mix in the lack of practice of some of the players and the fatigue dhoni is likely to be feeling and i like englands position going into the first test. lets just hope that there is a bit in the wicket and the weather remains good for the series.

no excitement yet people?

lol @ steve waughs lie detector test to determine corruption. You can just imagine india agreeing to this given their refusal of udrs. would be funny watching the whole pakistan team fail tests. I'm not sure i'd like to put my career on the line for something that's only 96-98% accurate

lol at the lie detectors, guilty or not, there is no way I would want to do one of them.

On paper this should be a great series. But everything in the leadup favors England heavily. In form top 6 batsmen. Cook and Trott don't didn't ever look like getting out against SL. Anderson/Tremlett/Swan/Bresnan is a great balanced attack. (Bresnan > Broad imo). Tremlett looked unplayable in the SL series, but the SL batsmen contributed a lot to that too. The only question marks are Pietersen's consistency and Broad's bowling imo.

Poor leadup for India. None of the new players showed much promise in the WI except Praveen Kumar. Zaheer is a still a gun (2nd best bowler in the world imo). No Sehwag for possibly the first two tests is a huge blow. I don't back Gambhir/Mukund/Raina/Yuvraj to score runs in England. India will depend a a few gritty 50s from Dravid and classy batting from Sachin and Laxman to stay in the series.

Prediction: England 2-0.

My squads would be

Cook
Strauss
Trott
Pieterson
Bell
Prior
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Tremlett

I don't think Morgan deserves to be in the side based on balanced and merit. He hasn't actually shown much in county cricket.

Sehwag (Mukund)
Gambhir
Dravid
Tendulkar
Laxman
Raina (yikes, but best option)
Dhoni
Harbajan
Zaheer
Praveen Kumar
Ishant Sharma

Yeah looking very forward to this series

Strongest bowling attack usually wins in England and on paper the English certainly appear to have it. Problem for them is their two class bowlers have certain psychological problems that may stop them from bowling at their best. Tremlett on talent should be about the best bowler in the world but is lacking in heart, and Ive always felt that Anderson throughout his career has failed to stand up when faced up against quality batting line ups. England do however have good depth in their attack though, Bresnan and Swan are both quality and Broad is solid.

Conditions should suite Zaheer Khan down to the ground which is good for India cause he is going to have to have a huge series for them have a chance of winning imo. Sharma and Harbajhan are also both quality bowlers but I'm unsure as to how well much the conditions will help them.

As far as batting goes India win easilly.

Gambhir - good player, can make big 100's, technically sound and tough to get out.
Sehwag (if he plays) - dont expect him to ve as much of an impact in England, worst footwork in history of cricket (is still a gun though obv)
Dravid - Better version of Gambhir
Tendaulker - machine
Laxman - class and seems to always make runs when India really need them,
Dhoni - massively overrated imo but still very useful, has a good temperament and doesn't go out easily.

On the other side of things I think England probably have the most overrated batting line up in world cricket.

Cook - great temperament but dodgy technique and suspect against good bowling imo.
Strauss - solid but never going to win you a match
Trott - see strauss
Bell - flat track bully, wont do it when under pressure
KP - Englands best player, matchwinner, but way to inconsistent
Prior - meh, ok for a keeper i guess.

The strength of Englands batting I guess is their tail - Broad, Bresnan (i think)
and Swan all bat pretty well for bowlers.

The key difference between the two batting line ups though is that India contain both more match winners, and also more players who have time and again proven themselves under pressure in poor batting conditions.

Anyway it will be really interesting to see how things pan out. I think England probably go in as favorites on the strength and depth of their bowling attack , however if Zaheer can get going and put the suspect English middle order under pressure then anything can happen.

Interested in seeing Praveen Kumar bowl in conditions tailor made for him.

I can't see us not winning atleast a test match (we fought back hard in every series in the last 4 years and cant remember the last time we failed to win a test match in a series), however it looks like business as usual for us leading up to the first test. Don't really wanna go 1-0 down (again).

Come on English rain one time??...

chop I think you're really underestimating the England batting lineup. Trott is a machine. Doesn't take unnecessary risks and has the perfect temperament for test cricket. Cook has been in sublime form and seems to have sorted out his technique issues. OTOH it could just be a combination of a big purple patch plus some mediocre bowling he's faced in the last 12 months (since the Pakistan home series). IIRC Bell is averaging like 60+ in the last 2 years. Pietersen is actually the weak point imo. He just hasn't done anything of note in the last 2-3 years except the big 200 in Australia last year. Prior is a good test bat, and better than Dhoni in tests.

I fully except you guys to keep form and lose the 1st test match of an away series as usual.

I think their batting order is pretty solid its just nowhere near as good as a lot of people think. Guys like Trott, Strauss and Cook can all score big but it normally takes them an eternity to do it. I think their strength is they bat really deep if you include guys like Swan & Broad who are capable. The problem is they dont have stars other than KP. Guys who can make big hundreds in quick time are gold in tests these days and KP's the only English batter capable of having that impact imo, whereas India have 3 or 4 players capable of pulling out match winning innings.

Yeah and I think Cooks form has a lot to do with the bowling he's been facing up to. Your right about KP though, his form has been pretty ordinary the last couple of years but I think he is one is motivated by big contests - so am expecting a pretty series from him.

Don't agree that Cook Trott and Strauss are particularly slow. They all have strike rates arround 50 runs a hundred balls which is absolutely fine for test match cricket (Dravid is quite a bit low and Gambhir a bit higher).

I think KP, Prior, Morgan and Broad are all capable of hitting quick centuries but I think you over-estimate the importance of these in winning cricket matches. Getting 20 wickets is what's really imoprtant. Scoring quick runs just gets you time to do it.

Anyway, really looking forward to this series. Just wish it was five matches.

Does anyone else find the inclusion of DRS but without hawk-eye ridiculous? I think the objections to DRS are pretty terrible in the first place but having a 3rd umpire trying to make lbw decisions without hawkeye was a farce in the past and I can't see it being any better in this series. I'd actually prefer it if LBW decisions couldn't be referred outside of checking whether the batsman hit the ball.

Agree with this & thats why I think England will have the edge this series in bowler friendly conditions.

Quick scoring in test matches is absoloutely crucial these day though imo, particularly when the pitches made these days clearly favor batsmen. If your batting on a highway theres no excuse to be striking at 50. Englands test side is going to suffer until they can find more players who can move it along. One of the reasons Australia was so successful in tests was because they convert probable draws into wins through fast scoring. It was also a major reason why we lost the ashes in 05 cause we were playing in conditions where you just couldnt force the run rate up.

Anyway England are 2 quality top order batsmen or an in form KP away from being the strongest test team imo. Their bowling attack is very good. There really isnt a lot between India, South Africa and England atm.

that's the way it is now. You can't refer LBW's for the test series. You can do bat pad, but if there's no bat, then the team can't appeal for the pad (lbw.) I was completely for the DRS system at first, but after reading Daryl Harper's claims against the DRS, I understand the arguments against it (but still wish that ICC make it mandatory or that everyone agrees to use it.)

yep, whats the point without hawk eye lol.

I wish they would get rid of it all together though, except for catches maybe. I always thought the variance with umpiring decision was pretty cool. Whether you run good or bad it eventually evens up and i think drs really detracts from the atmosphere when a wicket is taken, and they do all that referrel crap.

I thought the wholse reason they brought DRS in was because umpires were screwing up LBWs way to much. Seems to defeat the purpose if they dont use it for that.

Another easy check is whether the ball pitched within the stumps. Hawk eye is pretty useful for that check, and almost 100% accurate

I can see your point. England with their current players will never truly be a completely dominant world power in the same way that australia or west indies have been in the past. but that's ok. australia from the mid 90's to the mid 00's were brilliant, the team was filled with a number of greats (warne, mcgrath, gilchrist) and most of the rest were excellent players also. west indies team of the 80's was similarly brilliant and all conquering but again was filled with greats of the game. teams like this simply aren't going to come around that often.

As an england fan i'm happy with the players we have currently at test level. cook and trott are both scoring at unparalleled levels to anything that's happened in english cricket in recent times. by your reasoning you want to get rid of trott and cook because they don't runs quick enough to make us a great team, well the simple fact is that there is no-one in english county cricket whose anyway good enough to replace these players so i'm wholly satisfied in the performances they put in.

We have no player at current who will go down as a great of world cricket and in truth possibly cook is the only one who might have a chance of going down as a great. but that is testament to the professionalism and strength of the team as a whole that we have done so well in recent times without a great player (and possibly an indicator of the average standard of world cricket as a whole at present).

i'd like to point out also that in the last two years england have the best rpo of all the test nations scoring at 3.52

my prediction for the series: england 2-0(was going to 2-1 but as we need to win by two clear tests to go top of the ratings may as well go 2-0). although i slightly fear that fletcher has been planning every minute since he got the indian job on how to beat england just so he can have one over the english press who turned on him so badly at the end of his tenure as england coach.

I remember going to the Oval and Tudor coaching me and a lot of other kids my age, seemed a genuinely nice guy and will make a great coach

Shame he never fulfilled his potential. Not sure if he was quicker before the speed gun though, as he never clocked really high speeds when the gun was there. He just looked quicker somehow.

mbn games fixed. india won the toss. nice conditions to bowl.

also alex tudor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyErLZ8Q6Uo excellent channel, plenty of cricket archive. http://www.youtube.com/user/robelinda2

.

ICC Chief Executive Haroun Lorgat is on tv right now in the tea break talking about the World Test Championship. He wants the final to be a timeless test to determine a winner, what are people's thoughts on that?.

I think it would depend soo much on pitch conditions, a timeless test on a flat Sri Lankan wicket is pretty much the worst idea ever.

A timely test between the top 2 teams is very unlikely to go longer than 6 days imo

I can see lots of downsides to timeless Tests. The team on top won't have a lot of incentive to get runs on the board quickly and I think it will take a lot of the tactical play out of the game.

A normal test followed by a penalty shoot out

inorite, someone might try and slip a "do you ever wear women's underwear?" type question under the door.

----------------

Ahh, back to some test cricket. Trott back in the runs. Yawn.