Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[Swordsoffreedom]

Very poor performance from the part of Afghanistan. I don't know what happened to them, but 2-3 years ago they were giving stiff competition even to the big 3 sides. I understand that the absence of Rashid Khan (due to injury) impacted them negatively. But there is no excuse for the failure from the part of their batsmen. After all these years, Afghanistan still doesn't have a stable top order. They are experimenting with new players every now and then.

Afghanistan is not a good team. They play well occasionally. But I didn’t think they would play so badly against a small team like Zimbabwe. Afghanistan has many talented players. Yet their batting has been a disaster. The Afghanistan team is well aware of Rashid Khan's absence. Afghanistan would have played better if he had.

[newwest]

Very poor performance from the part of Afghanistan. I don't know what happened to them, but 2-3 years ago they were giving stiff competition even to the big 3 sides. I understand that the absence of Rashid Khan (due to injury) impacted them negatively. But there is no excuse for the failure from the part of their batsmen. After all these years, Afghanistan still doesn't have a stable top order. They are experimenting with new players every now and then.

This was really sad to see that there was no one ready to stay on the pitch and they in both innings they were out in 130's in test match which is like certainly not up the mark. Also, they are playing against Zimbabwe so considering that was expecting some better performance from them because they have potential and showed that over some time.

[bryant.coleman]

Very poor performance from the part of Afghanistan. I don't know what happened to them, but 2-3 years ago they were giving stiff competition even to the big 3 sides. I understand that the absence of Rashid Khan (due to injury) impacted them negatively. But there is no excuse for the failure from the part of their batsmen. After all these years, Afghanistan still doesn't have a stable top order. They are experimenting with new players every now and then.

Afghanistan is not a good team. They play well occasionally. But I didn’t think they would play so badly against a small team like Zimbabwe. Afghanistan has many talented players. Yet their batting has been a disaster. The Afghanistan team is well aware of Rashid Khan's absence. Afghanistan would have played better if he had.

I don't think that they are not a good team. Previously against some of the stronger teams they had played well. Don't know what happened this time, but I suspect that going for too many players and lack of exposure to the longer format of the game proved to be their undoing. They need to play more test matches, so that they will get enough experience in this format. There are a lot of T20 specialists in the Afghanistan team. But they don't have any test specialists. 

[JSRAW]

Kohli lost the toss again!!! Dude need more practice with the toss. England is batting first one more time, good chance for them to comeback in this game. England would be very happy side if they able to draw the series. Australian fans are also cheering for them.

-Bumrah is getting married so he's out and Siraj comes in his place.
-No Broad-Jofra this time, Dominic Bess(Spin) and Daniel Lawrence (Batsman) are in. England got only 3 regular bowlers and 2 part timer Joe Root and Stokes(he's not bowling much due to workload etc).



https://twitter.com/BCCI/status/1367319040612470789

[Sithara007]

Kohli lost the toss again!!! Dude need more practice with the toss. England is batting first one more time, good chance for them to comeback in this game. England would be very happy side if they able to draw the series. Australian fans are also cheering for them.

-Bumrah is getting married so he's out and Siraj comes in his place.
-No Broad-Jofra this time, Dominic Bess(Spin) and Daniel Lawrence (Batsman) are in. England got only 3 regular bowlers and 2 part timer Joe Root and Stokes(he's not bowling much due to workload etc).

It is really surprising that England went for just 3 full-time bowlers. I understand that Dom Bess and Jack Leach will be taking most of the work load, but they could have included at least Broad. He has got more than 500 test wickets to his name and is useful with the bat as well. If the pitch turns out to be flat, then England could be in big trouble with less number of bowling options.

[pakhitheboss]

England has already lost two wickets for just 19 runs. Axar patel back in action infront of the home ground. Root is on the pitch let's see how he performs in this match. Another wicket and I assume England will be struggling to reach 100 this time.

[bryant.coleman]

England has already lost two wickets for just 19 runs. Axar patel back in action infront of the home ground. Root is on the pitch let's see how he performs in this match. Another wicket and I assume England will be struggling to reach 100 this time.

It is getting boring. I never watch one sided test matches and therefore stopped watching it when the second wicket fall. I see no improvement in the England batting. And it would be a surprise if they manage to cross a total of 150. I just hope that this time the match doesn't end in two days, as happened with the third test match. As long as Joe Root is there, some hope exists for England. Let's see how it goes for them.

[pakhitheboss]

England has already lost two wickets for just 19 runs. Axar patel back in action infront of the home ground. Root is on the pitch let's see how he performs in this match. Another wicket and I assume England will be struggling to reach 100 this time.

It is getting boring. I never watch one sided test matches and therefore stopped watching it when the second wicket fall. I see no improvement in the England batting. And it would be a surprise if they manage to cross a total of 150. I just hope that this time the match doesn't end in two days, as happened with the third test match. As long as Joe Root is there, some hope exists for England. Let's see how it goes for them.

Root also out.
The way this match is progressing I think this match will also end in just two days. This is going to be a completely one sided match and especially a boring one. England batting has gone from good to bad and now worst.

[Sithara007]

Root also out.
The way this match is progressing I think this match will also end in just two days. This is going to be a completely one sided match and especially a boring one. England batting has gone from good to bad and now worst.

England seems to be in a hurry to reach home (well.. the T20I and ODI series remain in this tour). For a change, one of the pacers got the wicket now. None of the England batsmen are showing any signs of confidence. Their body language suggests that they have lost the match in the first session of the first day itself. It seems to be a formality now and the only suspense is regarding the margin of victory for India.

[mersal]

Root also out.
The way this match is progressing I think this match will also end in just two days. This is going to be a completely one sided match and especially a boring one. England batting has gone from good to bad and now worst.

England seems to be in a hurry to reach home (well.. the T20I and ODI series remain in this tour). For a change, one of the pacers got the wicket now. None of the England batsmen are showing any signs of confidence. Their body language suggests that they have lost the match in the first session of the first day itself. It seems to be a formality now and the only suspense is regarding the margin of victory for India.

No need to make that kind of conclusion just after the first session of the first day in this match, after the 3 wickets Bairstow and Stokes is making good partnership and it is nearing 45 at very good run rate which is a good fight back after the two early wickets. Hope this may give them the lost confidence and they also have deep batting order so if one or two partnership from now on will give good fighting total for them and don't forget the pitch is going to be more worse when the match progress.

[bryant.coleman]

No need to make that kind of conclusion just after the first session of the first day in this match, after the 3 wickets Bairstow and Stokes is making good partnership and it is nearing 45 at very good run rate which is a good fight back after the two early wickets. Hope this may give them the lost confidence and they also have deep batting order so if one or two partnership from now on will give good fighting total for them and don't forget the pitch is going to be more worse when the match progress.

Jonny Bairstow is gone, trapped leg before by Mohammed Siraj. Now they are down to Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope. One good news for England is that they included one additional batsman in the playing XI. So apart from Ben Foakes, they have Dan Lawrence also yet to come. Perhaps that should help them to make a total of 150 plus. Also, may be Dom Bess and Leach could add some valuable runs this time around.

[pakhitheboss]

No need to make that kind of conclusion just after the first session of the first day in this match, after the 3 wickets Bairstow and Stokes is making good partnership and it is nearing 45 at very good run rate which is a good fight back after the two early wickets. Hope this may give them the lost confidence and they also have deep batting order so if one or two partnership from now on will give good fighting total for them and don't forget the pitch is going to be more worse when the match progress.

Jonny Bairstow is gone, trapped leg before by Mohammed Siraj. Now they are down to Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope. One good news for England is that they included one additional batsman in the playing XI. So apart from Ben Foakes, they have Dan Lawrence also yet to come. Perhaps that should help them to make a total of 150 plus. Also, may be Dom Bess and Leach could add some valuable runs this time around.

After the initial struggle at last England reached 100. Stokes is looking good, not out at 40. England have already lost four wickets and all hopes are on stokes. Indian bowlers will be looking for his wicket now.

[Vishnu.Reang]

After the initial struggle at last England reached 100. Stokes is looking good, not out at 40. England have already lost four wickets and all hopes are on stokes. Indian bowlers will be looking for his wicket now.

Stokes gone. Got out just when it looked as if he has settled down and may allow England to reach a decent total. Anyway, England total has now reached 154. That itself is a big achievement, considering how they had batted in the second and third tests. The pitch seems to be flat, without too much advantage to the spinners. Still, a total of above 250 will be good news for England.

[mersal]

After the initial struggle at last England reached 100. Stokes is looking good, not out at 40. England have already lost four wickets and all hopes are on stokes. Indian bowlers will be looking for his wicket now.

Stokes gone. Got out just when it looked as if he has settled down and may allow England to reach a decent total. Anyway, England total has now reached 154. That itself is a big achievement, considering how they had batted in the second and third tests. The pitch seems to be flat, without too much advantage to the spinners. Still, a total of above 250 will be good news for England.

166 and lost 5 wifkets but they entered into the 3rd session of the day which is not much horrible as 3rd test, due to the older ball it is possible to make better strokes now so they are keep ticking the score board with good partnership from the middle order, still one batsman to come so they can hopefully cross 200 which may give some confidence for the bowlers to work on.

[bryant.coleman]

166 and lost 5 wifkets but they entered into the 3rd session of the day which is not much horrible as 3rd test, due to the older ball it is possible to make better strokes now so they are keep ticking the score board with good partnership from the middle order, still one batsman to come so they can hopefully cross 200 which may give some confidence for the bowlers to work on.

It's the usual story. Ollie Pope and Ben Foakes got out in quick succession and now they are struggling at 174/7. Dan Lawrence looks to be in good touch, but he is about to run out of partners. The tail has started and now Dom Bess is at the crease. Jack Leach and James Anderson to come next. England can consider themselves lucky in case they manage to get past 200.

[7788bitcoin]

Once again England is struggling to go past 200 runs and the only positive aspect is that England recalled Dom Bess when he was forced to sit out even though they were playing in spinning tracks and glad to see that they rectified their selection stupidity. I am not expecting a huge lead by India as i am expecting them to struggle in this pitch as well if the match extends to the final two days but now they have the advantage and i am expecting the pitch to get tougher in the final two days if the match goes that long  .

[JSRAW]

Indian bowlers did good today and now Indian batsmen need to up their game in this inning and if they can apply themselves then 1st inning lead shouldn't be much problem for them. They bat deep nowadays so one can expect at least 2 batsmen to contribute, would prefer Rohit and Pant because of their strike rate.

Gill is already gone, tricky 8 overs left to survive.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Things are getting interesting. I was expecting England to make a total of around 150, but they managed another 50 runs or so. And before opening their scoring, India has lost the wicket of Shubman Gill, who was trapped LBW by the Sultan of Swing. Interesting to see Ben Stokes opening the bowling after a long time.. Surprisingly, his line and length looks very impressive.. But the main battle is going to be between the Indian batsmen and Leach/Bess.

[eaLiTy]

Interesting to see Ben Stokes opening the bowling after a long time.. Surprisingly, his line and length looks very impressive.. But the main battle is going to be between the Indian batsmen and Leach/Bess.

England is playing with an extra all rounder who could spin the ball and James Anderson is the only fast bowler in the team and Ben Stokes is forced to take the new ball but i do not think he will continue to stress out his body. Jack Leach and Dom Bess will share majority of the overs and you can see Dan Lawrence and Joe Root sharing some overs as well and James Anderson will bowl when they think they can exploit the reverse swing and it will be a big battle for India as they do not want to play in the fourth innings and hence they need to play well and score a decent total in the first innings.

[bryant.coleman]

Interesting to see Ben Stokes opening the bowling after a long time.. Surprisingly, his line and length looks very impressive.. But the main battle is going to be between the Indian batsmen and Leach/Bess.

England is playing with an extra all rounder who could spin the ball and James Anderson is the only fast bowler in the team and Ben Stokes is forced to take the new ball but i do not think he will continue to stress out his body. Jack Leach and Dom Bess will share majority of the overs and you can see Dan Lawrence and Joe Root sharing some overs as well and James Anderson will bowl when they think they can exploit the reverse swing and it will be a big battle for India as they do not want to play in the fourth innings and hence they need to play well and score a decent total in the first innings.

I was really skeptical when they went to the match with just one full time pace bowler. But now it looks as if that was the right decision. There is no point in including Broad or Archer, when they are not going to bowl a good number of overs. Anderson is someone who can take wickets in the most hostile conditions, and Ben Stokes is there to support him. Advantage is with India, but England is still competitive in this match.