Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[rojan]

One of the pathetic performance by the English test team again South Africa in their home ground and that also in Lord's. None of the batters were able to form a partnership. I am not sure whether they realized that they were playing a five days match and not an ODI. South African bowling was above average in both the innings. First innings it was Ranada who took 5 wickets and in the second innings every bowler was contributed. What a win by South Africa! Amazing and unbelievable!

England never expected this to happen, because they're quite confident of playing good as it is their home ground. But reality varied and England batsmen weren't able to stand against Rabada who served to be the prime reason for such a low scoring. South Africa was able to score good. The bowlers were good enough to restrict the batsmen within the target.

England, if I have seen England play very well, especially when they are in their own possession, when I have seen them play in their field, especially in the games they play well, however, there are some players in England who play very well in every match.  They always blurt out something to say.  Batting and Durdant.  All in all, they have nothing to complain about.

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[tomos81]

Still don't understand what went wrong with England batting. They are now becoming overdependent on Joe Root, at least for the tests. If he fails to perform, then England has no chance of winning the match. IMO, their bowlers did OK.. but leaked runs against lower order batsmen such as Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj. And Ben Stokes used to be such a crucial member for England, but his batting is not consistent nowadays. When was the last time he managed to hit a century? In terms of bowling, he is doing alright. But he is not contributing with the bat.

Relying on one person in Test cricket is nothing but foolish. Because Test cricket is not a game of so much shot time like T20 cricket. Since Test cricket is a five-day game, patience is very important in this game Why you say England's batting line-up depends on Joe Root. But that's not the case, England's batsmen have many better quality batsmen than Joe Root. Maybe they could not show the desired performance on the field. But it is expected that they will turn around again in the next matches.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Relying on one person in Test cricket is nothing but foolish. Because Test cricket is not a game of so much shot time like T20 cricket. Since Test cricket is a five-day game, patience is very important in this game Why you say England's batting line-up depends on Joe Root. But that's not the case, England's batsmen have many better quality batsmen than Joe Root. Maybe they could not show the desired performance on the field. But it is expected that they will turn around again in the next matches.

I agree that relying on a single player can be problematic. But a lot of teams do this. Even India was overdependent on Virat Kohli until a few years ago (for overseas tours especially). Australia used to rely on Steve Smith. And we have already discussed about the reliance that England has on Joe Root. Smaller boards are no better. Bangladesh is dependent on Shakib al Hasan to a great degree. Pakistan has also some reliance on Babar Azam, although the younger players are now playing a bigger role recently.

[tomos81]

Relying on one person in Test cricket is nothing but foolish. Because Test cricket is not a game of so much shot time like T20 cricket. Since Test cricket is a five-day game, patience is very important in this game Why you say England's batting line-up depends on Joe Root. But that's not the case, England's batsmen have many better quality batsmen than Joe Root. Maybe they could not show the desired performance on the field. But it is expected that they will turn around again in the next matches.

I agree that relying on a single player can be problematic. But a lot of teams do this. Even India was overdependent on Virat Kohli until a few years ago (for overseas tours especially). Australia used to rely on Steve Smith. And we have already discussed about the reliance that England has on Joe Root. Smaller boards are no better. Bangladesh is dependent on Shakib al Hasan to a great degree. Pakistan has also some reliance on Babar Azam, although the younger players are now playing a bigger role recently.

I agree with you that you said that Virat Kohli from India, Stephen Smith from Australia, Babar Azam from Pakistan but they alone make their teams very strong with a status.But here we are talking about their beautiful performance but other cricketers of the team would have added some more scores to the side of the team But in case of England, nothing like that is happening, only Joe Root is doing well but other members of the team are not performing well. But this is the current situation in England. So I think cricket is never a one man game

[YinShuiSiYuan]

I agree with you that you said that Virat Kohli from India, Stephen Smith from Australia, Babar Azam from Pakistan but they alone make their teams very strong with a status.But here we are talking about their beautiful performance but other cricketers of the team would have added some more scores to the side of the team But in case of England, nothing like that is happening, only Joe Root is doing well but other members of the team are not performing well. But this is the current situation in England. So I think cricket is never a one man game

If you too much depend on single player then on failure on that particular player whole team collapse. Pakistan depends on Babar azam in batting while in bowling they depend on Shaheen Shah. Now Shaheen is not available for Asia cup so Pakistan will struggle with bowling and dont have much chance for win.

[Minecache]

Still don't understand what went wrong with England batting. They are now becoming overdependent on Joe Root, at least for the tests. If he fails to perform, then England has no chance of winning the match. IMO, their bowlers did OK.. but leaked runs against lower order batsmen such as Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj. And Ben Stokes used to be such a crucial member for England, but his batting is not consistent nowadays. When was the last time he managed to hit a century? In terms of bowling, he is doing alright. But he is not contributing with the bat.

What I want to say is, what happened with so much preparation, and what is the result of having different coaches for different formats of cricket? If the result is not there everything is going to be useless. What matters, in the end, is the performance of the players on the field. And England has to realize that depending on certain players is not going to be enough. When The much more well-known players will not be able to perform, other players will have to take up the responsibility and prove themselves.

[SATWAT]

What an amazing match it turned out to be. Before the match started, no one in their wildest dreams would have imagined that England would lose by an innings. But that is what happened. England couldn't manage a total of 200 in either of their innings, as the South African pacers bowled with a lot of venom. Lungi Ngidi was somewhat unlucky and got just one wicket. But the other three had a good outing (Anrich Nortje, Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada). Keshav Maharaj also chipped in with two important wickets.

South Africa remains at the top of ICC World Test Championship points table. Now they have 72 points from just 8 matches.

With this win Bazball went down the drain, no 4th inning- no bazball.

Proteas bowling lineup covering everything. Norte's pace, Rabada's pace and control, Ngidi's approach of hit the deck hard with good length and Left arm swing bowler Jansen. I'm kinda surprised that spinners were getting fair amount of help on 3rd day pitch as well. poms never offer such pitches to us. 

~snip~

Few days back many were feeling in this season England is going to be stayed undefeated with seven wins at home against teams like New Zealand, India and South Africa but suddenly as we wake up England were playing like trash and now on verge of losing this match by an inning which could be the biggest shock for cricket fans around the world after their amazing last four wins.

Small correction 4 wins not 7.

3 against NZ and 1 against India.

I think you are misreading I write they were dreaming about 7 wins, but sadly they lost after 4 wins and no one was feeling they will be outclassed like this which done by Proteas so their dream of 7 wines ended.

[JSRAW]

Still don't understand what went wrong with England batting. They are now becoming overdependent on Joe Root, at least for the tests. If he fails to perform, then England has no chance of winning the match. IMO, their bowlers did OK.. but leaked runs against lower order batsmen such as Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj. And Ben Stokes used to be such a crucial member for England, but his batting is not consistent nowadays. When was the last time he managed to hit a century? In terms of bowling, he is doing alright. But he is not contributing with the bat.

In recent time they have been over dependent on Root and Bairstow, when these 2 fails all team gets rattled and when these 2 gets going then they hide other batters failure but i guess this new management might back their openers for long.
 
English bowlers looks flat tbh, they did fight back at some point but it was cause of Stokes. Also there is no variation in their bowling line up, they fail together when not in form and gets breakthrough together when in form.

[pakhitheboss]

Still don't understand what went wrong with England batting. They are now becoming overdependent on Joe Root, at least for the tests. If he fails to perform, then England has no chance of winning the match. IMO, their bowlers did OK.. but leaked runs against lower order batsmen such as Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj. And Ben Stokes used to be such a crucial member for England, but his batting is not consistent nowadays. When was the last time he managed to hit a century? In terms of bowling, he is doing alright. But he is not contributing with the bat.

Nothing went wrong! The English side became complacent and with such a humiliating loss they will now work on every aspect to win the next two test matches. This is what I am assuming and understanding. England's past performance as a test side after the change of captain and management on their home ground was extremely good. This loss only portrays how much they underestimated the South African side.

I would also like to state that the South African bowlers were like a powerhouse and every single of them showed discipline and the urge to deliver as a team. England lacked that and therefore they faced such a humiliating loss.

[onecall123]

Still don't understand what went wrong with England batting. They are now becoming overdependent on Joe Root, at least for the tests. If he fails to perform, then England has no chance of winning the match. IMO, their bowlers did OK.. but leaked runs against lower order batsmen such as Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj. And Ben Stokes used to be such a crucial member for England, but his batting is not consistent nowadays. When was the last time he managed to hit a century? In terms of bowling, he is doing alright. But he is not contributing with the bat.

Nothing went wrong! The English side became complacent and with such a humiliating loss they will now work on every aspect to win the next two test matches. This is what I am assuming and understanding. England's past performance as a test side after the change of captain and management on their home ground was extremely good. This loss only portrays how much they underestimated the South African side.

I would also like to state that the South African bowlers were like a powerhouse and every single of them showed discipline and the urge to deliver as a team. England lacked that and therefore they faced such a humiliating loss.

In terms of bowlers, the South African team was like a powerhouse, with Rabada and Nortje standing out. There was something electrifying about that spell. A fast and swinging ball like that was not what English batters were used to. At times, it feels like the wicket is unavailable, but to survive, you need tactical moments that make a difference. This humiliating defeat taught the English side a valuable lesson, and hopefully they will implement those lessons going forward.

[JSRAW]

Nothing went wrong! The English side became complacent and with such a humiliating loss they will now work on every aspect to win the next two test matches. This is what I am assuming and understanding. England's past performance as a test side after the change of captain and management on their home ground was extremely good. This loss only portrays how much they underestimated the South African side.

I would also like to state that the South African bowlers were like a powerhouse and every single of them showed discipline and the urge to deliver as a team. England lacked that and therefore they faced such a humiliating loss.

Before the match both the teams were doing lot of trash talk related to bazball , although it was fueled by English media but both skipper were also exchanging words via media. The brand of cricket English skipper and coach are endorsing sometimes they are bound to fail, attacking cricket looks good when it clicks but it also produce such humiliating results.

This proteas bowling line up is looking good and even backup is also good for pace bowling so they do have bright future and might be only strong candidate for the WTC finals.

[justdimin]

Relying on one person in Test cricket is nothing but foolish. Because Test cricket is not a game of so much shot time like T20 cricket. Since Test cricket is a five-day game, patience is very important in this game Why you say England's batting line-up depends on Joe Root. But that's not the case, England's batsmen have many better quality batsmen than Joe Root. Maybe they could not show the desired performance on the field. But it is expected that they will turn around again in the next matches.

In last few years, England is having problems with their batting and no quality batsman is coming to give some better support to Joe Root which is surely a big concern for them sometime unpredictable batsman like Stokes and Bairstow give good support, but sadly it's not enough so as he goes down all batting lineup down like crap even English county system is one of the best in world but still they are not having system to bring few quality batsmen for test matches.

As we have in Australia and India which are also going impressive and consistent for many years they need to do work on quality rather than quantity in county matches which is also having big burden and no player giving his best for long time and their average batting line up is going down below than average for some time which can go more down if they fail to bring better system and strategy.

[YinShuiSiYuan]

Relying on one person in Test cricket is nothing but foolish. Because Test cricket is not a game of so much shot time like T20 cricket. Since Test cricket is a five-day game, patience is very important in this game Why you say England's batting line-up depends on Joe Root. But that's not the case, England's batsmen have many better quality batsmen than Joe Root. Maybe they could not show the desired performance on the field. But it is expected that they will turn around again in the next matches.

In last few years, England is having problems with their batting and no quality batsman is coming to give some better support to Joe Root which is surely a big concern for them sometime unpredictable batsman like Stokes and Bairstow give good support, but sadly it's not enough so as he goes down all batting lineup down like crap even English county system is one of the best in world but still they are not having system to bring few quality batsmen for test matches.

As we have in Australia and India which are also going impressive and consistent for many years they need to do work on quality rather than quantity in county matches which is also having big burden and no player giving his best for long time and their average batting line up is going down below than average for some time which can go more down if they fail to bring better system and strategy.

England team need some time to regain there form. They dont have any talented batsmen except Root and relying only on elderly Jimmy and Broad. Ben stokes has taken over captaincy recently and we need to give hime atleast one year to see how he performs, before making a conclusion whether he can captain or not.

[Minecache]

Nothing went wrong! The English side became complacent and with such a humiliating loss they will now work on every aspect to win the next two test matches. This is what I am assuming and understanding. England's past performance as a test side after the change of captain and management on their home ground was extremely good. This loss only portrays how much they underestimated the South African side.
I would also like to state that the South African bowlers were like a powerhouse and every single of them showed discipline and the urge to deliver as a team. England lacked that and therefore they faced such a humiliating loss.

Before the match both the teams were doing lot of trash talk related to bazball , although it was fueled by English media but both skipper were also exchanging words via media. The brand of cricket English skipper and coach are endorsing sometimes they are bound to fail, attacking cricket looks good when it clicks but it also produce such humiliating results.

This proteas bowling line up is looking good and even backup is also good for pace bowling so they do have bright future and might be only strong candidate for the WTC finals.

I think England was very overconfident about the test match against South Africa. That is why they lost this match against South Africa. It is not only a loss, it is a pathetic loser. I think it is just a case of underestimating their opponent. Don’t think this would have happened if England was a little more humble. And now they got humbled by South Africa anyway.

But I really want answer to the question which is, what have England done with different coaches for different cricket formats and also different teams for each format? They are losing quite badly anyway.

I agree that they have lost against a respectable team but I don’t think anyone expected this type of performance from England at all. and with the type of performance, South Africa is showing right now I think they are obviously going to be a very strong candidate for the world test Championship finals.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Relying on one person in Test cricket is nothing but foolish. Because Test cricket is not a game of so much shot time like T20 cricket. Since Test cricket is a five-day game, patience is very important in this game Why you say England's batting line-up depends on Joe Root. But that's not the case, England's batsmen have many better quality batsmen than Joe Root. Maybe they could not show the desired performance on the field. But it is expected that they will turn around again in the next matches.

In last few years, England is having problems with their batting and no quality batsman is coming to give some better support to Joe Root which is surely a big concern for them sometime unpredictable batsman like Stokes and Bairstow give good support, but sadly it's not enough so as he goes down all batting lineup down like crap even English county system is one of the best in world but still they are not having system to bring few quality batsmen for test matches.

As we have in Australia and India which are also going impressive and consistent for many years they need to do work on quality rather than quantity in county matches which is also having big burden and no player giving his best for long time and their average batting line up is going down below than average for some time which can go more down if they fail to bring better system and strategy.

For me, it is really difficult to imagine England not having a good batsman for test cricket who can give proper support to Joe Root.

England has always been one of the finest teams in the world. We all thought that England's performance was going to improve when they took all the necessary steps to improve the performance of the team during the last world cup in order to make the team better. The thing is, it seems like that was just a temporary solution, and England did not work very well on any permanent solution to the problem. It really feels like they did not have any long-term plans about what they were going to do. Just because we are talking about England I really cannot imagine that they don't have good enough players in the pipeline.

[CPNpr]

Relying on one person in Test cricket is nothing but foolish. Because Test cricket is not a game of so much shot time like T20 cricket. Since Test cricket is a five-day game, patience is very important in this game Why you say England's batting line-up depends on Joe Root. But that's not the case, England's batsmen have many better quality batsmen than Joe Root. Maybe they could not show the desired performance on the field. But it is expected that they will turn around again in the next matches.

In last few years, England is having problems with their batting and no quality batsman is coming to give some better support to Joe Root which is surely a big concern for them sometime unpredictable batsman like Stokes and Bairstow give good support, but sadly it's not enough so as he goes down all batting lineup down like crap even English county system is one of the best in world but still they are not having system to bring few quality batsmen for test matches.

As we have in Australia and India which are also going impressive and consistent for many years they need to do work on quality rather than quantity in county matches which is also having big burden and no player giving his best for long time and their average batting line up is going down below than average for some time which can go more down if they fail to bring better system and strategy.

England team need some time to regain there form. They dont have any talented batsmen except Root and relying only on elderly Jimmy and Broad. Ben stokes has taken over captaincy recently and we need to give hime atleast one year to see how he performs, before making a conclusion whether he can captain or not.

I think England if they want to go to a good form then they have to work hard which is a matter of their time England if they can get good clears then they can go to a good position.  Otherwise they won't be able to do anything so I think it will be very difficult for England.

[JSRAW]

Good article on recent failure of English batting line up.
https://wickets.substack.com/p/was-this-the-bazballbust

Tldr
4 Win data before their loss against SA

-4th-5th days Flat wickets
-Bad batch of Duke balls during covid
-4 inning chase
-Injured kiwi team -bowlers-
-Flat-off day for Indian 3rd seamer (siraj) and below average Thakur.
-Bazball

Now against SA

-They lost the Toss and had to bat first.
-SA had a 4 frontline fresh seamers throughout the match
-New batch of balls

Just see the difference

[n0ne]

Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith have mentioned in an interview that the test teams will down to 5 - 6 countries in the future. This means only the top cricketing nations will contribute to the iconic and oldest format of cricket. This drop in the number of nations playing cricket is out of the emergence of large number of Franchise based T20 leagues.

[DanWalker]

Good article on recent failure of English batting line up.
https://wickets.substack.com/p/was-this-the-bazballbust

Tldr
4 Win data before their loss against SA

-4th-5th days Flat wickets
-Bad batch of Duke balls during covid
-4 inning chase
-Injured kiwi team -bowlers-
-Flat-off day for Indian 3rd seamer (siraj) and below average Thakur.
-Bazball

Now against SA

-They lost the Toss and had to bat first.
-SA had a 4 frontline fresh seamers throughout the match
-New batch of balls

Just see the difference

There is no doubt that the performance of English players has decreased. Not only in terms of bowling performance but also in terms of batting performance. In addition to the batting, the English players have also not performed well on the field. It is really difficult for me to figure out what is causing the problem. There is no doubt that the England players are taking the necessary steps and basically doing everything they can to improve their game.

Despite that, the performance does not seem to indicate that this is the case. The solo performances of certain players helped England to win some test matches because of their individual performances. In addition, when we are talking about England, we expect a really good performance from them, but the recent performance of England has not met the standards that they have already set for themselves.

[dezoel]

Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith have mentioned in an interview that the test teams will down to 5 - 6 countries in the future. This means only the top cricketing nations will contribute to the iconic and oldest format of cricket. This drop in the number of nations playing cricket is out of the emergence of large number of Franchise based T20 leagues.

I also read about this and agree with Graeme Smith about his statement because now is good time for cricketing authorities to do some good and revolutionary decisions for better development of this game and having more countries and regions involved with this all for better profit purpose.

If someone had problem with this then surely they can split this into two groups as well which will also helps in better way, but better is just dropped this for 6 countries and all others do their best for Franchise cricket with window is given to all for having better income and good performance from players as well.

With this all big six can settle their tours in accordance to their own schedule because this is also good for many small boards those are now having not good profit from these test matches and ODI's Franchise can give them profit in small-time, and also they can bring some system which also give some transfer fees share to boards as well.