England V India Test Match Series 2021

India closed day 4 on 52-1, with Broad removing 1st innings top scorer KL Rahul. With only a further 157 runs required, India have plenty of time before the expected rain moves in around mid afternoon.

Usual batting from England. Burns, Sibley, Crawley, Bairstow, Lawrence and Buttler none of them average even close to 40. It’s no surprise England constantly struggle to put decent scores up.

As ever the weather has been a little unpredictable. The latest guess, is for it to clear around 3pm, & then it's down to if the ground is fit for play, if you allow an hour from then, I believe they can play until 7pm (could be wrong, might be different on day 5) anyway, India will need around 3 hours to knock off the runs, so a positive result is looking less likely.

(08-08-2021 12:17 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  As ever the weather has been a little unpredictable. The latest guess, is for it to clear around 3pm, & then it's down to if the ground is fit for play, if you allow an hour from then, I believe they can play until 7pm (could be wrong, might be different on day 5) anyway, India will need around 3 hours to knock off the runs, so a positive result is looking less likely.

I wonder if the Indians would tell Rahul to go for it and then if he got out send in Pant. It wouldn’t take long for a firing Pant to knock off a huge amount of the target.

^^ I think Pant coming in earlier than carded, will be considered, but maybe not before Kohli, even though he's on a pair. Virat is just about the best in the world at chasing down targets, in ODI cricket. Most of India's batsmen are fantastic T20 players, Pujara is about the only one that doesn't play in the IPL.
If England don't take early wickets, expect the over-rate to slow down more than usual.

1st Test, match drawn, England dodge a bullet. 2nd Test starts Thursday at Lords, expect the selectors to back the batsmen, & maybe make one or two bowling changes.

Moeen Ali has been recalled for the 2nd Test at Lords on Thursdays. Ollie Pope looks to have shaken off his injury, so should come into contention, & there are concerns over the fitness Of Broad, who is set to have a scan on a calf injury.
The call-up of Ali has triggered the return of Dom Bess back to Yorkshire for the remaining Royal London Cup fixtures.

Not surprised by Moeen’s call up, if I was Leach I’d walk out and go back to Somerset. Always England’s response to useless batting, add more depth instead of replacing the constantly failing batsmen. If Broad is injured expect Moeen to come in for him and bat at 8 with Curran at 9.

England's wheels are coming off, Anderson is now a doubt, with quad tightness. Saqib Mahmood has been called up as cover.

Edit : - Broad will now miss the rest of the series.

Both England & India have been docked WTC points for slow over-rates, & also fined 40% of their match fee.