Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[Vishnu.Reang]

Once again the lower order rescues India. They were 146/6 at one point and I thought that England may manage to take the lead. But the partnership between Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar added 113 runs, and Sundar is still out there. Pathetic performance from both the England spinners. Both of them are unable to trouble the batsmen and this forced Joe Root to bring himself to bowl (without much use). Apart from James Anderson, all the other England bowlers were disappointing.

[7788bitcoin]

England once again ruining the advantage they had by picking up the top order wickets and the tail end players are making a mockery which was evidently frustrating the Australian players and now it is continuing with England, Pant has become a main stay in the Test squad with his unorthodox performance once again scoring a century during a difficult period and pulling the team to a safe position and Sundar playing a mature innings after a couple of ducks in his last two innings.

[mersal]

Once again the lower order rescues India. They were 146/6 at one point and I thought that England may manage to take the lead. But the partnership between Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar added 113 runs, and Sundar is still out there. Pathetic performance from both the England spinners. Both of them are unable to trouble the batsmen and this forced Joe Root to bring himself to bowl (without much use). Apart from James Anderson, all the other England bowlers were disappointing.

That is the beauty of test cricket, eat more balls as much as you can then you can bat at any pitch comfortably. Pant and Sundar proved it today because they were calm and playing long innings which took them to lead and India is now in great advantage, another 50 runs on the lead surely put pressure on English batsmen on their second innings as well.

[Iranus]

England once again ruining the advantage they had by picking up the top order wickets and the tail end players are making a mockery which was evidently frustrating the Australian players and now it is continuing with England, Pant has become a main stay in the Test squad with his unorthodox performance once again scoring a century during a difficult period and pulling the team to a safe position and Sundar playing a mature innings after a couple of ducks in his last two innings.

India lost 6 wickets for 148 runs, I went to sleep after watching this score. I woke up and checked the scoreboard and I was completely surprised. India scored 294 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. The England bowler at the start of the day showed hope of winning that match. Rishab Pant has completely demolished it. I think India will win this match as usual.

[JSRAW]

Okay ladies.... 125-150 runs lead is back on the card, Lead is already touching 90

Pant and Sunder again saved a day for India. This 113 runs partnership for 7th wicket could decide a match.

Tbh not surprised by Pant's success in the Test cricket as i'm already a big fan since his under 19s days. The way he's playing and considering he's just 23 yo. I think he's going to be end up all time great WK batsman in the world along with Gilly. Sundar is also good find for India. He's just 21 yo so i hope that he focus on his bowling too. India need more Bowling all rounders, who can bat down the order.

----------------
Pant has now 3 tons under his belt but he needs to convert his 90s to 100s as he already missed 4 centuries. Tons matter in the Test cricket.

Against Windies got out on 92 2 times
Against Australia got out on 97, 91

[Haunebu]

It feels like Pant and the lower order batsmen are the top order batsman these days. Australian players must be empathetic towards the English players since they faced similar issues in their recent series against India.

I think he's going to be end up all time great WK batsman in the world along with Gilly. Sundar is also good find for India. He's just 21 yo so i hope that he focus on his bowling too. India need more Bowling all rounders, who can bat down the order.

Comparing Pant with Gilly? Seriously? Pant is performing well recently, but he is a bad wicketkeeper and a decent batsman in my opinion.

I like the way he shouts though and is very energetic, but he has a long, long way to go in order to be compared with legends like MSD, Gilly etc across all formats.

[mersal]

I think he's going to be end up all time great WK batsman in the world along with Gilly. Sundar is also good find for India. He's just 21 yo so i hope that he focus on his bowling too. India need more Bowling all rounders, who can bat down the order.

Comparing Pant with Gilly? Seriously? Pant is performing well recently, but he is a bad wicketkeeper and a decent batsman in my opinion.

I like the way he shouts though and is very energetic, but he has a long, long way to go in order to be compared with legends like MSD, Gilly etc across all formats.

Considering the age factor still he is going to get lot of experience which may bring him like of the greatest WK batsman of all time but time will tell us.As cricket evolves people are concentrating more on t20 but they also need to be strong with the basics to become on of the great batsman which is still missing from Pant but surely he will learn it.

[onrise]

Once again we have Rishabh Pant and Sundar coming to rescue and impressed more with the Sundar at lower end batting because that helps India to rely till the time he is on crease else India would have being all out by now near England score only. Expecting around 125 runs lead for India and still will be very handy and only chance for England now is to have a good opening partnership so can laid the strong foundation else the match is already on India's side.

[romero121]

Once again we have Rishabh Pant and Sundar coming to rescue and impressed more with the Sundar at lower end batting because that helps India to rely till the time he is on crease else India would have being all out by now near England score only. Expecting around 125 runs lead for India and still will be very handy and only chance for England now is to have a good opening partnership so can laid the strong foundation else the match is already on India's side.

With Axar Patel and Washington Sundar on the pitch 125 seems to be a fair score. However based on the performance of both the players we can expect more changes. If Washington Sundar scores some fast runs the team will expect him to make his 100 and Axar to reach his 50. If this happens the score easily cross 200. Anyhow its a do or die game for England to level the series.

[bryant.coleman]

The England bowlers did really well (especially the pacers) in the first two sessions, but had a complete meltdown in the third session. They got India at 146/6. But after that India managed another 150 runs or so, losing only one wicket. The spinners were disappointing from the very start, but Stokes and Anderson ran out of their steam after tea. They looked really tired. Not surprising, taking into account the fact that Anderson is 38 years old and Stokes is bowling in test after such a long time.

[vella85]

It was looking like England were going to bowl India out for less then 200 runs but thanks to the lower order coming to the rescue and Pant's century, India now have a lead. Kohli's poor form continues, I can't even remember the last time Kohli had two ducks in a test series, has he even had two ducks in a series? Its also been a long time since he has made a century, I believe the last century he made was against Bangladesh in 2019 and even then I believe he only scored two centuries that year also so its been a long time. I know last year there was no cricket played and that he missed the Australian series except the first test match, but still I would of thought he would at least score a century on home soil. Maybe he should give up being the captain as it could help him in the long term as it takes the pressure off him and he can then concentrate on his batting more.

[ene1980]

Pant and Sundar is in the crease, hope they will take the innings as long as they can, so they can think about getting any runs as lead.

Just imagine the sad pliight of the England bowlers, the fast bowlers Anderson and Ben Stokes bowled their heart out and picked up wickets which includes the famed batting lineup of Kohli, Rahane, Pujara and Rohit Sharma and once they thought that the tail is somewhat exposed there comes pant who scored another century in a difficult period and his status as a player is outstanding and two series ago i thought Pant was the weakest member in the team and now he is the most valuable player.

[eaLiTy]

Comparing Pant with Gilly? Seriously? Pant is performing well recently, but he is a bad wicketkeeper and a decent batsman in my opinion.

I like the way he shouts though and is very energetic, but he has a long, long way to go in order to be compared with legends like MSD, Gilly etc across all formats.

I was really critical with the inclusion of Pant as he was not a great keeper and he dropped many catches but if you look at the series after the first match in Chennai, he has improved his technique and he was taking the ball cleanly from the second Test onwards and i did not see him missing any chances after that and his batting skills was evident when he was instrumental in helping India win in Australia but it is too early to compare against Gilly but team India is becoming like the old Australian team when you pick all the top order batsman someone in the team will outperform and take the match to safety and that is how India is performing in the last two series.

[JSRAW]

I think he's going to be end up all time great WK batsman in the world along with Gilly. Sundar is also good find for India. He's just 21 yo so i hope that he focus on his bowling too. India need more Bowling all rounders, who can bat down the order.

Comparing Pant with Gilly? Seriously? Pant is performing well recently, but he is a bad wicketkeeper and a decent batsman in my opinion.

I like the way he shouts though and is very energetic, but he has a long, long way to go in order to be compared with legends like MSD, Gilly etc across all formats.

He's 23 yo (20 test match old). He average around 45 with strike rate of 70ish, already gave 7-8 match winning performances. 4-5 innings came when India was almost out of the game. On some occasion he could have focus on his individual records and turn his 92,92,97,91 innings into 4 more 100s. Just to give you one example how big difference these 4 100s makes in the test cricket. Babar has 5 100s in 31 games.

So far in this series, we didn't see any fumbles when he was behind the wicket and don't forget, all are turning tracks so its a big improvement IMO. He would get better with the experience. Not sure about short format but in test format he has all the ingredients to become like a Gilly and he's heading in the right direction.

Dhoni is limited overs great (WK batsman) but with all due respect, he was average in the Test format so comparison with the Pant doesn't makes sense IMO. Pant already surpassed Dhoni in the red ball cricket in his short career.  

[Sithara007]

I was really critical with the inclusion of Pant as he was not a great keeper and he dropped many catches but if you look at the series after the first match in Chennai, he has improved his technique and he was taking the ball cleanly from the second Test onwards and i did not see him missing any chances after that and his batting skills was evident when he was instrumental in helping India win in Australia but it is too early to compare against Gilly but team India is becoming like the old Australian team when you pick all the top order batsman someone in the team will outperform and take the match to safety and that is how India is performing in the last two series.

Even full-time wicket keepers such as Wriddhiman Saha have missed catches and dropped stumping opportunities. Obviously when wicket keeper batsmen such as Rishabh Pant or KL Rahul does something similar, there will be a greater scrutiny. Pant do have a greater number of missed catches per match when compared to Saha, but he more than makes that up by scoring crucial runs when the team is in trouble. And I think that the era of full-time wicket keepers is over. Nowadays, the keepers are also expected to contribute with the bat. 

[pakhitheboss]

Once again we have Rishabh Pant and Sundar coming to rescue and impressed more with the Sundar at lower end batting because that helps India to rely till the time he is on crease else India would have being all out by now near England score only. Expecting around 125 runs lead for India and still will be very handy and only chance for England now is to have a good opening partnership so can laid the strong foundation else the match is already on India's side. India already has a lead of 111 runs and I am expecting them to easily achieve 150.

As a wicketkeeper and a Batsman, Pant has shown that he is made for test cricket. I do not know how he will perform in limited overs, but he is cricketer who has shown that the team can be depend on him. I am expecting sundar to also reach his 100 today.

[Vishnu.Reang]

As a wicketkeeper and a Batsman, Pant has shown that he is made for test cricket. I do not know how he will perform in limited overs, but he is cricketer who has shown that the team can be depend on him. I am expecting sundar to also reach his 100 today.

Nope. Sundar won't get to 100. He is stranded at 96 not out, and India is all out for 365.

India is having a lead of 160 runs and I don't think that England will be able to make that much in the second innings. So it is going to be yet another innings defeat for England. Among the England bowlers, the two pacers took 7 wickets, conceding 133 runs. Both of them were impressive, although Stokes ran out of gas after tea yesterday. On the other hand, their spinners conceded a total of 216 runs, taking 2 wickets. Dom Bess in particular was pathetic.

[pakhitheboss]

As a wicketkeeper and a Batsman, Pant has shown that he is made for test cricket. I do not know how he will perform in limited overs, but he is cricketer who has shown that the team can be depend on him. I am expecting sundar to also reach his 100 today.

Nope. Sundar won't get to 100. He is stranded at 96 not out, and India is all out for 365.

India is having a lead of 160 runs and I don't think that England will be able to make that much in the second innings. So it is going to be yet another innings defeat for England. Among the England bowlers, the two pacers took 7 wickets, conceding 133 runs. Both of them were impressive, although Stokes ran out of gas after tea yesterday. On the other hand, their spinners conceded a total of 216 runs, taking 2 wickets. Dom Bess in particular was pathetic.

Ishant Sharma and Md Shiraz are yet to bat. So India still have batsmen and Sundar needs only four runs to get his hundred. I was also expecting Axar to reach his fifty, unfortunately it did not happen. The lead is 160 runs which is much more than I anticipated, It will be tough for England to chase it.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Ishant Sharma and Md Shiraz are yet to bat. So India still have batsmen and Sundar needs only four runs to get his hundred. I was also expecting Axar to reach his fifty, unfortunately it did not happen. The lead is 160 runs which is much more than I anticipated, It will be tough for England to chase it.

The run-out of Axar Patel triggered a mini collapse of the Indian lower order. The last three wickets fell without adding any runs to the total. Ishant and Siraj should have blocked a few deliveries or given strike to Washington Sundar. Both of them failed in that part, and that left Sundar four runs short of his century. Anyway, congratulations to Stokes and Anderson for bowling their heart out. If Archer was picked ahead of Dom Bess, then probably he could have had an impact.

[eaLiTy]

The run-out of Axar Patel triggered a mini collapse of the Indian lower order. The last three wickets fell without adding any runs to the total. Ishant and Siraj should have blocked a few deliveries or given strike to Washington Sundar. Both of them failed in that part, and that left Sundar four runs short of his century.

Washington Sundar deserved the century as he along with Pant helped India recover when some of the renowned players failed to score runs and the run out messed everything up as India lost 3 wickets in the spare of 5 balls. I did not expect India to have a lead of 160 runs when they lost 5 wickets but incredible performance by Pant, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel.

 Axar Patel opened the bowling along with Siraj and it is going to be a big test for England.