England V India Test Match Series 2021

That performance was embarassing.

You have to ask who are international quality test players.

There's Joe Root, plus 2 other players who aren't playing for various reasons, Archer and Stokes.

Of the rest of the team. Anderson and Broad are beginning to show their age.
Bairstow and Buttler are excellent limited over players but are suspect to pace, seam and swing bowling.
Curran is an all rounder who is neither international quality with either the bat or ball.
The rest of the batsmen just haven't made the step up to test cricket.
Ollie Robinson shows potential and could be an ever present in future years.

Although we have a depth of limited over players, there's not a lot of players capable of 5 day cricket who are pushing to break into the team.

^^ There's a lad from Bolton, who should be playing now. Hameed is in form, scored a century against India in their warm-up match & followed that up with another ton in the 50 over Royal London comp. I haven't seen much of him batting recently but, I'll guarantee that he has a better technique that Sibley & Burns. 20+ Tests is enough for both these 2, time to look elsewhere. Opening the batting is the hardest job, so why not give yourself a chance & pick those with orthodox techniques, it's just common-sense.

Another poor batting performance!
Sure England are hoping the bowlers will get them out of a hole (again)
Only Joe Root in the top 6 you would say is a top player. He is the only batsman who averages over 40.

I agree with Michael Vaughan this time Sibley and Lawrence are not test match standard. Too much one day cricket being played,but that's what the powers that be want. I would leave out either Bairstow or Butter both excellent one day players but at times struggle at test level.England struggling without Stokes.
I always like to see a specialist spinner in, while Root is capable he has enough to do and also sadly agree time is catching up on Anderson and Broad.

^^ Given the way that Buttler has been clanging takes behind the stumps, Bairstow should get the gloves back. No Yorkshire bias here, Bairstow is clearly a better keeper, & a better Test batsman than Buttler. 6 Test Match centuries for Bairstow & just 2 for Buttler. Jos has played 25 Test fewer than Jonny, but I can't see him getting another 4 in his next 25 Tests. The best Test sides are measured by batsmen getting centuries & we don't have many capable at the moment, apart from Root.

(05-08-2021 11:54 )baywatcher Wrote:  I agree with Michael Vaughan this time Sibley and Lawrence are not test match standard. Too much one day cricket being played,but that's what the powers that be want.

You can't say Sibley's problem is too much white ball cricket, he rarely plays T20, he's just crap at this level, & he dropped a slip catch. Adam Lyth only got 7 Tests, scored a hundred in his 2nd, but found it tough against a quality Australian attack, he also happens to be the best 2nd slip in the country & would've caught the one Sibley put down, with his eyes shut.
Rahul & Rohit are fantastic white ball players, but have been god enough to adapt to Test cricket. The last 100 opening partnership in England was in 2016, this Indian pair added 97.

Great effort from Ollie Robinson with his first Test 5 wicket haul, & Anderson kept running in despite the many dropped catches. pity that only 2 of our 4 bowlers turned up. Broad was short of his best & Sam Curran under bowled, in a 4 man all seam attack you really should share the workload. Once England went down the 6 batsman route, Craig Overton should've been the 4th seamer. With Buttler at 7, why pick an allrounder at 8. Terrible selection across the board, & when you go into a match without a spinner, surely we had to bowl on day one with the best swinging conditions.

Should be a fair amount of play today, local forecast suggests rain from 5pm, tomorrow, looks a little more unsettled. Not an easy pitch to bat on & there's a chance a really low score in the next 2 innings, if catches are taken. The pitch is showing signs of wear, with uneven bounce. It looks dry enough to spin, out of the foot-holes outside the right-handers off stump, perfect for a slow-left armer, like Jadeja. The India side are mainly right-handed batsmen, Leach will be missed.

Eng v India 1st Test Trent Bridge Day 4
England183 & 119-2 India 278 Eng lead India by 24 runs Lunch

England 303 all out in their 2nd innings, India have a target of 209. Root scored his 21st Test century & his 4th of the year.