Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[vivekdhyani1]

England are "hopeful" that Jofra Archer will be available for the second Test of their series against New Zealand after a post-IPL break, but head coach Brendon McCullum has warned that he is not a guaranteed pick in any case.

Archer was deemed "unavailable" for the first Test at Lord's due to the short turnaround after his IPL commitments with Rajasthan Royals but has been building up his workload at home in Barbados with a view to playing the second and third Tests. McCullum said after England's win at Lord's that Archer's availability would be confirmed "in the next couple of days".

[fuguebtc]

I do not think it is fair to completely forget them for the next few games due to one bad game. Cricket is a learning game and against a much better side with huge experience, is the way smaller sides realize their serious skill weaknesses. But entire match should prove to be wake up call for the Afghanistan management and not to be sad by the 300 runs loss. Quickly correct their batting footwork and they can and should do much more in the next game, even if they do not win.

It was a very boring match. We knew that Afghanistan would lose against India. The Indian team is very  experienced and strong. On the other hand, Afghanistan is a bit weak in the test format. But I could not have imagined that afghanistan would face such a miserable defeat.

India had scored 564  runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the first innings. This was undoubtedly a big score. Except for Mohammad saleem, no afghan bowler could do well. Saleem took  6 wickets. The Afghan bowlers performed very badly.

The performance of the Afghan batsmen surprised me the most. The pitch was not bowling friendly. Even then, Afghanistan could only score 152  runs in the first innings. Their performance in the second innings was even more atrocious. Afghanistan lost all their wickets for just  112 runs. Afghanistan should host a Test series against a team like Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. Then the match would be competitive.

[virasog]

Finally Afghanistan get success to gain Test Cricket membership and they made there debut against the most strongest test team named as India and during the first day India win the toss and elected to bat first and what a aggressive knock they played at day one and among the openers KL Rahul played an iconic knock by putting a remarkable hundred and in middle order Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill built a very strong partnership and Shubman Gill was consistently played a very important and impactful knocks and today he played a very classical and undefeated knock by putting a remarkable century and Rishab Pant and Gill was present on pitch at the end of the day one and during day two its difficult for Afghanistan that they take all wickets.

There was no chance for the Afghanistan team in this match. They completely failed in both batting and bowling. First, when they were bowling, it was hard for their bowlers to get any wickets. Ziaur Rahman and Azmatullah Omarzai failed to make any impact. Mohammad Saleem took six wickets, and he was the only successful bowler.

Then, when it came to batting, none of the batsmen could stay longer on the wicket. Rahmat Shah made a good 60 runs in the first innings but in the 2nd innings he could only make 13 runs. It was difficult for the Afghanistan team to show any progress after the follow-on was enforced by the Indian team.

[Haunebu]

England are "hopeful" that Jofra Archer will be available for the second Test of their series against New Zealand after a post-IPL break, but head coach Brendon McCullum has warned that he is not a guaranteed pick in any case.

Archer was deemed "unavailable" for the first Test at Lord's due to the short turnaround after his IPL commitments with Rajasthan Royals but has been building up his workload at home in Barbados with a view to playing the second and third Tests. McCullum said after England's win at Lord's that Archer's availability would be confirmed "in the next couple of days".

Yeah. Michael Vaughan etc were whining about Archer prioritising IPL over these tests which could have impacted his return though I hope not. England are doing really well without him anyway thanks to New Zealand's weak batting lineup currently.

Him coming back would definitely boost their bowling lineup like crazy. They might add him in the 3rd test if England ends up losing the second test in my opinion.

[Bitcoin Smith]

England are "hopeful" that Jofra Archer will be available for the second Test of their series against New Zealand after a post-IPL break, but head coach Brendon McCullum has warned that he is not a guaranteed pick in any case.

Archer was deemed "unavailable" for the first Test at Lord's due to the short turnaround after his IPL commitments with Rajasthan Royals but has been building up his workload at home in Barbados with a view to playing the second and third Tests. McCullum said after England's win at Lord's that Archer's availability would be confirmed "in the next couple of days".

Yeah. Michael Vaughan etc were whining about Archer prioritising IPL over these tests which could have impacted his return though I hope not. England are doing really well without him anyway thanks to New Zealand's weak batting lineup currently.

Him coming back would definitely boost their bowling lineup like crazy. They might add him in the 3rd test if England ends up losing the second test in my opinion.

No one would want to skip IPL because of the money they are getting paid and the new rule also forces them to not to skip the game unless it os due to injury or something. World cricket has to take a break and needs to schedule their games based on the IPL timetable, which might not looks fair, but this is what it is.

BTW Stokes skipped IPL and look how much runs he scored in both innings.

[Compromise me]

Afghanistan team performed badly in both the first and second innings, could not perform well in front of Indian bowlers and could not stand strong. They were all out in both innings after scoring few runs, Indian team players were very excited in this match. Good performance is only for Indian team, if I consider from experience and strength then Indian team is much ahead of Afghanistan team in all aspects.
Afghanistan team lost by 300 runs in this first test match, so there will be more chances of Afghanistan team losing in the next matches also.

Washington Sundar gave all round performance in this match because he made a half century in this match and took 5 wickets in this match and he was a player who was a impact player in the second inning of the match. Manav Suthar was a person who took 7 wickets in this match and he took 6 wickets in the first inning of the match and he made match for her team. Afghanistan match was not in good form because they are playing against India and they were relaxed in this match and they did not give their full effort to win this match .  Kuldeep Yadav played crutial role in the second inning because he took 3 wickets and he applied pressure on the opposed team and he played for the country not for his wickets only.

[ene1980]

~
It was a very boring match. We knew that Afghanistan would lose against India. The Indian team is very  experienced and strong. On the other hand, Afghanistan is a bit weak in the test format. But I could not have imagined that afghanistan would face such a miserable defeat.

It was a complete domination by India which was expected. Soon as the match started the live odds went down drastically and hence was not able to place a bet on the match. Once India scored a massive total, it was evident that Afghanistan will struggle and the match could end within four days and that is exactly what happened.

 

[Popkon6]

~
It was a very boring match. We knew that Afghanistan would lose against India. The Indian team is very  experienced and strong. On the other hand, Afghanistan is a bit weak in the test format. But I could not have imagined that afghanistan would face such a miserable defeat.

It was a complete domination by India which was expected. Soon as the match started the live odds went down drastically and hence was not able to place a bet on the match. Once India scored a massive total, it was evident that Afghanistan will struggle and the match could end within four days and that is exactly what happened.

In any case, betting was logical for India, because in this match, it was not possible to win against the Indian team in any way. The Afghan team could not even come close to the Indian team after performing in two innings, it was a complete failure of the Afghan team. The Afghan team collapsed under the bowling of the twelve teams, so this match was completely one-sided.
In this match, only those who had bet before the start of the game were able to participate in the bati, besides, there was no opportunity to bet.

[Sithara007]

~
It was a very boring match. We knew that Afghanistan would lose against India. The Indian team is very  experienced and strong. On the other hand, Afghanistan is a bit weak in the test format. But I could not have imagined that afghanistan would face such a miserable defeat.

It was a complete domination by India which was expected. Soon as the match started the live odds went down drastically and hence was not able to place a bet on the match. Once India scored a massive total, it was evident that Afghanistan will struggle and the match could end within four days and that is exactly what happened.

This is exactly why there are two divisions in test cricket (and the second division needs to be expanded after including weaker teams from the first division). The ICC is moving in the opposite direction, by abolishing the second division and moving the three teams there (Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe) to the first division. And this in turn will result in even more meaningless matches. The main issue here is that full member status and test status is overlapping. Teams such as Afghanistan are not yet ready for test cricket. And that goes for some of the weaker teams in first division, such as West Indies and Sri Lanka.

[vivekdhyani1]

Ben Stokes' future as England Test captain is in doubt after it was announced that he and Gus Atkinson are being investigated by the ECB for an undisclosed "incident" which took place at a nightclub in the early hours of Monday morning.

The incident, described by the ECB as "a breach of team protocols", followed England's 115-run win over New Zealand in the first Test at Lord's.The ECB said on Monday evening that the incident has been referred to the Cricket Regulator and both Stokes and Atkinson look set to miss the second Test, starting at The Oval on June 17, while the investigation takes place. Neither player was hurt in the incident, which is understood to have involved players from Saracens Rugby Club, who were present as part of their end-of-season celebrations, and stemmed from a disagreement between Atkinson and an unnamed academy player.

[Mahdirakib]

India has always been a strong team in any format of cricket. On the other hand, Afghanistan is a relatively new and less experienced team in Tests. ~snip~

India is always a strong and hot favourite against the Asian countries. But they aren't always considered strong against the SENA countries. India also loses by a big margin against SENA countries in test format. Afghanistan is the newest team in the test format and has played only 12 test matches until now. Afghanistan will be able to improve in this format if they get the opportunities to play more international test matches.

[Rustam Meraj]

India is always a strong and hot favourite against the Asian countries. But they aren't always considered strong against the SENA countries. India also loses by a big margin against SENA countries in test format. Afghanistan is the newest team in the test format and has played only 12 test matches until now. Afghanistan will be able to improve in this format if they get the opportunities to play more international test matches.

You noted huge difference in condition. I think it is natural that Afghanistan as new nation should be hard hit by these giants at the moment. They have just 12 matches in their history and their players are not match fit and not experienced enough to play five day cricket, in planning aspect. Practicing in the nets is not enough to create strong test team. International cricket board should take early steps to organise regular long format cricket matches between Afghanistan and lesser known nations first. If they are given regular opportunities to play and learn from their mistakes, their mindset will automatically improve over next few years.

[Haunebu]

No one would want to skip IPL because of the money they are getting paid and the new rule also forces them to not to skip the game unless it os due to injury or something. World cricket has to take a break and needs to schedule their games based on the IPL timetable, which might not looks fair, but this is what it is.

BTW Stokes skipped IPL and look how much runs he scored in both innings.

Valid reasoning. It all comes down to money at the end of the day and Archer chose the smart play. I disagree about Stokes skipping IPL affecting his batting performances since the dude has been out of form with both bat and ball for a while now.

On top of all that, he got involved in some incident with Atkinson and might lose his captaincy like a moron. These English cricketers love attracting controversies IMO.

[Sithara007]

Valid reasoning. It all comes down to money at the end of the day and Archer chose the smart play. I disagree about Stokes skipping IPL affecting his batting performances since the dude has been out of form with both bat and ball for a while now.

On top of all that, he got involved in some incident with Atkinson and might lose his captaincy like a moron. These English cricketers love attracting controversies IMO.

In case of Stokes, he has been actively participating in the English County Tournament. He chose to play county cricket instead of IPL, which IMO should have improved his overall performance. In case of Archer, national duty is not that important for him. Anyway, he is from Barbados and chose to represent England just because they offered more money. Rajasthan Royals gave him a big fat paycheck, and in the end Archer again shifted his loyalty to them. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the first match, and therefore didn't heard about the issue between Stokes and Atkinson. What happened exactly? 

[noormcs5]

I do not think it is fair to completely forget them for the next few games due to one bad game. Cricket is a learning game and against a much better side with huge experience, is the way smaller sides realize their serious skill weaknesses. But entire match should prove to be wake up call for the Afghanistan management and not to be sad by the 300 runs loss. Quickly correct their batting footwork and they can and should do much more in the next game, even if they do not win.

Yesterday India won the test match against Afghanistan. Of course when the game started, it seems to be one sided as Indian batsmen scored a lot in the first innings that leads to the greatest and excellent win, now the actual series to start in the next some of the few days where we will see the one day clashes between both of the teams, of course I think India to win for another time and they have also chance to win all the three games too.

[Farhan99]

In County Championship the test game between Surrey and Hampshire was continue and at the end of day two Hampshire trailed by almost three hundred runs as the end of day one Hamsphire just start the first inning and the day two was  in favour of Hampshire because the batters was so skillful and the top order have a very strong defense and they just lost three wickets in whole day and among the openers Nick Gubbins showing his technical skills of battings and survive for longer time on a trickey pitch and puts a remarkable half century and in middle order Jake Lehmann was also in good touch so when Surrey bowlers dominating in this game by lethal bowling and they dismissed the top order early on then the defense of Lehmann was like a wall and he remains not out at the end of the day and if during day three Hamsphire remains successful to survive and level the trail then there is high chances of there wins.

[vivekdhyani1]

The pitches used for the first Test between England and New Zealand at Lord's in London and for the third ODI between Pakistan and Australia at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore have been rated as 'unsatisfactory' by the ICC, each venue accruing one demerit point under the governing body's Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.

Match referees at both venues - Andy Pycroft (Lord's) and Graeme La Brooy (Gaddafi Stadium) - submitted their reports expressing concerns of the match officials and the captains.The ICC has forwarded the reports to the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Pakistan Cricket Board respectively. The two boards have 14 days to appeal against the sanction.

[Haunebu]

In case of Stokes, he has been actively participating in the English County Tournament. He chose to play county cricket instead of IPL, which IMO should have improved his overall performance. In case of Archer, national duty is not that important for him. Anyway, he is from Barbados and chose to represent England just because they offered more money. Rajasthan Royals gave him a big fat paycheck, and in the end Archer again shifted his loyalty to them. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the first match, and therefore didn't heard about the issue between Stokes and Atkinson. What happened exactly? 

Interesting! Didn't know that Archer was from Barbados and always thought he was originally from England. He could have been an extremely useful asset for West Indies. Wonder why he ended up going with England in the international format.

Coming to the Stokes issue, he didn't have an issue with Atkinson. Both of them had a fight with Rugby players at a nightclub due to which ECB had to intervene.

[Compromise me]

Yesterday India won the test match against Afghanistan. Of course when the game started, it seems to be one sided as Indian batsmen scored a lot in the first innings that leads to the greatest and excellent win, now the actual series to start in the next some of the few days where we will see the one day clashes between both of the teams, of course I think India to win for another time and they have also chance to win all the three games too.

IND International cricket team is very strong in every format and the reason is they are working for the quality of cricket and their system is independent and players who are performing well on the domestic level they are part of the team and that is reason they are giving tough time to all big teams and I am not thinking that Afghanistan International cricket team is very strong but it is also not a small team because they have players who can play well at anytime for the team. All players were flop in this match and that was a reason they lose this match at the end . Rahmanullah Gurbaz is very experienced player of that team and he could not give anything to his team and that was a reason their team lose this match at the end.

[JahriMeayer]

India showed extra ordinary performance in the one off Test against Afghanistan. After scoring  a huge total of 564/8 declared in first innings, they disallowed Afg to give any chance to settle into the game. Indian top orders able to build a strong foundation, while their bowlers kept the pressure on Afghanistan for the whole game.. Manav Suthar fully deserved best player title.His discipline, skill & ability helped india to hunt seven wickets at crucial moments. He was a star player who played a vital role in India's victory. Afghanistan never looked comfortable against India's spin attack and they struggled in both innings. From beginning, Afg was in huge pressure due to the big amount of target, that's why their batters failed to clam themselves and found it difficult to build partnerships which ultimately led them a heavy defeat.Winning by an innings & 300 runs shows the real gap & difference what the two teams are. For India, it was a complete team effort, a perfect Test performance. For Afghanistan, this match should be a lesson that can help them do better in the future