Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[Vishnu.Reang]

It just shows how bad the pitch was created, there is no doubt that the pitch is tailor made for India to dominate but for the match to get over within two days is ridiculous as batsman from both the teams failed to score any runs. Axar Patel bowled as if he is playing Test for a long time as knew the perfect line and length for this wicket and was mixing deliveries which confused the players.

The pitch was just terrible and was much below international quality. I understand preparing pitches to suit the hosts. But this time, it went too far. Even the Indian batsmen could not get to a total of 150. If all the test nations follow this and prepare pitches to suit them, then it is going to create a lot of issues. I hope that the ICC has taken note of the condition of the pitch.

[mersal]

It just shows how bad the pitch was created, there is no doubt that the pitch is tailor made for India to dominate but for the match to get over within two days is ridiculous as batsman from both the teams failed to score any runs. Axar Patel bowled as if he is playing Test for a long time as knew the perfect line and length for this wicket and was mixing deliveries which confused the players.

The pitch was just terrible and was much below international quality. I understand preparing pitches to suit the hosts. But this time, it went too far. Even the Indian batsmen could not get to a total of 150. If all the test nations follow this and prepare pitches to suit them, then it is going to create a lot of issues. I hope that the ICC has taken note of the condition of the pitch.

Pitch was uneven, and ENG pacers complained about that to on field umpires but this is the first-ever match held on that stadium so pitch may take time for enough groom, ENG too reap the hosts wickets with the spin but they didn't think about this at the beginning of the match. And almost every pitch was created to favor their native team over the visitors but this time it went far because this is the first time ever on that ground.

I read that, this ground has 11 pitches so the next match will be on the different pitch for sure and more neutral than this I guess.

[bryant.coleman]

^^^ There is a real possibility that England would launch a format complaint to the ICC about the state of the pitch and they may even request to shift the fourth match to some other stadium. In the past, poor condition of the pitch has resulted in abandoning test matches. I don't expect ECB to remain silent about this, as they were on the receiving end. The issue for them is that it is BCCI on the other end. If it was PCB or CSA, then they would have already gone ballistic about it.

[teosanru]

Bencho...

then this is the shortest test match played ever.

I think it's the shortest test match in the history of test matches. Atleast the shortest I have ever seen in my life.

First after WW2

~snip~
Anyway, England is out from the WTC. Now India need win or draw to enter the WTC finals. And if by any chance England wins the last game, which seems unlikely, then will watch Aus vs NZ. 

Interesting to see it was around 90 years ago that we saw such a small test match conditions and cricket at that time was entirely different and cannot be compared with today's scenario in any sense. Moreover this match was with the pink ball. But I would be eager to see how ICC reacts to such a pitch. Even though BCCI has a lot of domination on ICC and I doubt ICC would be able to do anything but I am sure there will be a lot of talking about this. But India can easily say that they have struggled terribly on this pitch too so it was kind of an even match. Now I am pretty much sure it's India who are going to meet New Zealand at the WTC. But I think India will still play the last test with and intent of winning the match.

[vella85]

I wasn't shocked to see this match end in 2 days, I did think it would go into day 3 at least but the pitch didn't suite either team in the end and it showed with both teams making low scores. I still think teams are getting used to the pink ball, right now the best team when it comes to playing with the pink ball is Australia as I think they have only lost 1 test match and won many.

This match reminded me of a test match years ago when Australia lost to India, I think the match lasted just 3 days but the pitch was tough to bat on, I believe something like 10+ wickets fell in just 1 day so it was like watching that match all over again here.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

LOL.. in all probability, the WTC final is going to be between India and New Zealand and the interesting thing is that England will be hosting the match. This is a perfect opportunity for England to take out revenge. 

They can prepare a pitch which will give all sort of assistance to pace bowlers. New Zealand currently have the best pace bowlers for any team in international cricket, with Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner.etc competing for slots in the playing XI. Indian batsmen are going to struggle against them under unfavorable conditions.

India also have a long list of fast bowlers that could trouble any batsman like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, T. Natarajan,  Bhuvneshwar Kumar ( if his body allows  ), Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi and the list can go on and on and if England will make a pitch could will help the fast bowlers then it will be a disadvantage for both the teams.

[Sithara007]

India also have a long list of fast bowlers that could trouble any batsman like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, T. Natarajan,  Bhuvneshwar Kumar ( if his body allows  ), Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi and the list can go on and on and if England will make a pitch could will help the fast bowlers then it will be a disadvantage for both the teams.

India do have quality fast bowlers. But their main bowler (Mohammad Shami) is injured and the others haven't got much opportunity to bowl so far in the test series. And regarding bowlers such as Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi, they are yet to make their test debut for India. Once again, India is going to be overdependent on Virat Kohli against the pace battery of New Zealand.

[pakhitheboss]

Saw one of the best bowling by Axar Patel yesterday. 6/38 and 5/32 this youngster is here to stay. India won because of their bowling and not for their batting. It was only Rohit Sharma who I can say performed as expected the rest need to reevaluate their performance especially Kohli. The last match is crucial for India if they want to win the series.

[bryant.coleman]

Saw one of the best bowling by Axar Patel yesterday. 6/38 and 5/32 this youngster is here to stay. India won because of their bowling and not for their batting. It was only Rohit Sharma who I can say performed as expected the rest need to reevaluate their performance especially Kohli. The last match is crucial for India if they want to win the series.

Let's not forget the fact that this is the same match in which Joe Root picked 5 wickets after conceding 8 runs. The pitch was not suitable for international matches and therefore I don't think that Axar's performance will give him any advantage in team selection. The first choice spinner for the Indian side remains as Ashwin, and in overseas matches India is likely to go with just one spinner.

[JSRAW]

LOL.. in all probability, the WTC final is going to be between India and New Zealand and the interesting thing is that England will be hosting the match. This is a perfect opportunity for England to take out revenge. 

They can prepare a pitch which will give all sort of assistance to pace bowlers. New Zealand currently have the best pace bowlers for any team in international cricket, with Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner.etc competing for slots in the playing XI. Indian batsmen are going to struggle against them under unfavorable conditions.

SENA countries already do that.

English batsmen never focus on spin anyway, so can't complain about them much but Indians are considered good players against the spin and in the first inning they collapsed like a rookie team. Pick any Ranji batsmen from top 5 teams, they would have performed much better than national team as far as batting is concern. Indian team do have a habit of being complacent against spin, i do remember couple of instance where even part-timers took the game away from them.

Specialists test batsmen such as Pujara, Vihari (Although they are good batsmen of spin), Rahane (he need to spend more time before home season) should keep playing in the Ranji. Not expecting other premium batsmen to play in the domestic due to their schedule, which is sad.

It just shows how bad the pitch was created, there is no doubt that the pitch is tailor made for India to dominate but for the match to get over within two days is ridiculous as batsman from both the teams failed to score any runs. Axar Patel bowled as if he is playing Test for a long time as knew the perfect line and length for this wicket and was mixing deliveries which confused the players.

I agree that this pitch was not suitable for the 5 day test cricket but it was not 2 day pitch either. Maximum 3-4 days pitch, domestic teams play on such pitches everytime. Batters from the both sides were bad in this game and meltdown only coming because spinners dominated the game and Blue eyed boys Anderson-Broad-Archer-Bumrah-Ishant were spectators throughout the game. If you reverse the role then everyone would go gaga over quality pace attack and every tom-dick-harry mainly from English side would give tips on how to play seam, pace etc but since its the spinner taking the wickets then ofcourse pitch is shit. After all no one can blame the toss this time.

Pink ball still new thing in the world cricket so give it sometime to develop and so far hardly any game went through all 4-5 days unless its completely flat wicket or rain interrupting the game and if you notice the results then you would see majority of game were completely one sided (Win by inning, 8-10 wickets or 100+ runs) On average D/N test match finish with in 2.5-3.5 days. Again no meltdown because Fast bowlers dominated the batsmen in Australia and England.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day/night_cricket

Would be good if England start treating spin as part of the game and stop de-meriting the county team if they are creating Spin track instead of Seam in the county season.

[Vishnu.Reang]

England selected 3 pacers for the third test match, which turned out to be a big blunder. Dom Bess was disappointing at times with his line and length, but looking the way at which Joe Root picked up the wickets, I thought that he could have been effective in this match. They went with three pacers and these three got a total of 1 wicket (that of Shubman Gill, who fell to Jofra Archer).

[Btc_1856]

England selected 3 pacers for the third test match, which turned out to be a big blunder. Dom Bess was disappointing at times with his line and length, but looking the way at which Joe Root picked up the wickets, I thought that he could have been effective in this match. They went with three pacers and these three got a total of 1 wicket (that of Shubman Gill, who fell to Jofra Archer).

Yes, you are right, fast bowlers weren't able to get many wickets but whereas spinner has taken most of the wickets even from the Indian bowling. There are very quality pacers in England but failed to get wickets but at last Joe, root got the maximum wickets.

[Vaskiy]

England selected 3 pacers for the third test match, which turned out to be a big blunder. Dom Bess was disappointing at times with his line and length, but looking the way at which Joe Root picked up the wickets, I thought that he could have been effective in this match. They went with three pacers and these three got a total of 1 wicket (that of Shubman Gill, who fell to Jofra Archer).

Three pacers into the team is a wrong choice, but if one has been successful then the entire match could've got a different dimension. The first innings of England and India were almost the same, Joe Root succeeded. During the second innings England wasn't able to make a comeback, and the same is being used by the Indian spinners. As the target is very small, it gave a bigger win for India in a much comfortable manner.

[eaLiTy]

I agree that this pitch was not suitable for the 5 day test cricket but it was not 2 day pitch either. Maximum 3-4 days pitch, domestic teams play on such pitches everytime. Batters from the both sides were bad in this game and meltdown only coming because spinners dominated the game and Blue eyed boys Anderson-Broad-Archer-Bumrah-Ishant were spectators throughout the game.

After watching the match the ICC should create a new format and the team should be given the complete freedom to prepare friendly wickets that helps them according to their strength which they already do but a format which helps bowlers without any restrictions to the field set as well as the number of bouncers allowed. Since the other formats gives batsman an advantage by imposing restrictions let the bowlers have a format as well  .

I enjoyed the match as it was fun to see how the batsman were struggling to read the line and length and the commentators were blaming the batsman for having low standards of defense rather than talking any negative about the pitch  .

[mersal]

I agree that this pitch was not suitable for the 5 day test cricket but it was not 2 day pitch either. Maximum 3-4 days pitch, domestic teams play on such pitches everytime. Batters from the both sides were bad in this game and meltdown only coming because spinners dominated the game and Blue eyed boys Anderson-Broad-Archer-Bumrah-Ishant were spectators throughout the game.

After watching the match the ICC should create a new format and the team should be given the complete freedom to prepare friendly wickets that helps them according to their strength which they already do but a format which helps bowlers without any restrictions to the field set as well as the number of bouncers allowed. Since the other formats gives batsman an advantage by imposing restrictions let the bowlers have a format as well  .

I enjoyed the match as it was fun to see how the batsman were struggling to read the line and length and the commentators were blaming the batsman for having low standards of defense rather than talking any negative about the pitch  .

Probably the pitch could have been changed a bit if the players could play more but in modern-day cricket, the defense is getting weaker among all the teams due to the shorter cricket format like T20 and T10. Maybe we can see that this is one of the worth pitch to be played but it could have been tackled if batsmen started to think more defensive than thinking about making runs.

[7788bitcoin]

If all the test nations follow this and prepare pitches to suit them, then it is going to create a lot of issues. I hope that the ICC has taken note of the condition of the pitch.

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are preparing similar pitches like India and the ball usually starts spinning from the first day and England had a successful campaign in Sri Lanka before touring India because of the quality of players India have. I am yet to see Pakistan preparing wickets like these as they recently resumed cricket and the pitches were decent when they played South Africa.

The solution to prepare green turf when Asians countries tour and repay the debt as i do not think ICC will interfere in the pitch preparation.

[AjithBtc]

Any of you saw this tweet from former England captain Michael Vaughan, "Indian batsman can't play off spinners from Yorkshire." This was referred to Joe Root once after the first innings of India. Joe Root was the one to make a five wicket as a captain after Bob Willis.

[Sithara007]

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are preparing similar pitches like India and the ball usually starts spinning from the first day and England had a successful campaign in Sri Lanka before touring India because of the quality of players India have. I am yet to see Pakistan preparing wickets like these as they recently resumed cricket and the pitches were decent when they played South Africa.

The solution to prepare green turf when Asians countries tour and repay the debt as i do not think ICC will interfere in the pitch preparation.

In both the cases, the TV broadcasters are going to lose out. If the match ends in two days instead of five, then their advertising revenue will be taking a big hit. For the cricket board, it is not an issue since the TV rights are already sold out and they are not much dependent on the gate collection. But for the TV channels and those who put up advertisement in the ground, it will turn to be a loss making proposition.

[Haunebu]

I disagree with the people complaining and whining about the unfair pitch conditions(Vaughan, Cook etc). I agree with what Hussain and Ojha had to say regarding this matter.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/nasser-hussain-slams-england-batsmen-for-poor-show-against-india-in-third-test-in-ahmedabad-says-it-was-not-an-81-all-out-pitch-england-batters-looked-like-startled-rabbits-101614348334610-amp.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/india-vs-england-please-talk-about-stuart-broad-s-8-for-15-what-kind-of-a-wicket-was-that-pragyan-ojha-slams-criticism-of-3rd-test-narendra-modi-stadium-pitch-101614315325371-amp.html

This pitch heavily favoured spinners from both teams in a fair manner, but India proved themselves as the better team at the end of the day. This was easily one of the most entertaining test matches in recent times in my opinion.

[JSRAW]

I agree that this pitch was not suitable for the 5 day test cricket but it was not 2 day pitch either. Maximum 3-4 days pitch, domestic teams play on such pitches everytime. Batters from the both sides were bad in this game and meltdown only coming because spinners dominated the game and Blue eyed boys Anderson-Broad-Archer-Bumrah-Ishant were spectators throughout the game.

After watching the match the ICC should create a new format and the team should be given the complete freedom to prepare friendly wickets that helps them according to their strength which they already do but a format which helps bowlers without any restrictions to the field set as well as the number of bouncers allowed. Since the other formats gives batsman an advantage by imposing restrictions let the bowlers have a format as well  .

I enjoyed the match as it was fun to see how the batsman were struggling to read the line and length and the commentators were blaming the batsman for having low standards of defense rather than talking any negative about the pitch  .

I don't mind watching such game once a while, just for change but tbh i don't really enjoy 2 days test cricket because its not healthy for the test cricket overall. Having said that i am equally against the hypocritical behavior of almost everyone, when fast bowlers finish the game quickly then its good for cricket and batsmen can't play seam etc, but when its spin then every discussion focus on blaming the pitch, toss etc except batsmen.  

I might be a biased but i find this mindset bit of colonial and slave mentality. After all we want gora's approval on freaking everything.

Bumrah is not playing next game, guess due to personal reason or rested..