My predictions mostly don't come true so when I wrote that the England-India series was going to be two flawed teams competing for who can play worse, I was not expecting the teams to oblige me straightaway! And while both teams did their best to try and lose the first Test match at different points, the pitch (and astonishing lower order batting) ultimately foiled their suicide attempts.
India contrived to lose 4 wickets for 2 runs in their first dig and 5 for 44 in their second turn at different points. South Africa and Australia (or even Sri Lanka in current form) would have stamped them out by an innings. England tried their best to match them by losing 6 for 68 in their first innings but then Root accompanied by the bowlers outdid the Indian tail. If they had batted a second time you can be sure that they would have lost 5 for 30 before being rescued by Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett.
Across the three (nearly completed) innings in the match, wickets 7-10 managed an aggregate of 614 runs at the scarcely believable average of 55.8. To put that in context, the average for those wickets since Test cricket began is just above 20. And its not just this Test match. Its still early days but this entire season of Test cricket (or the grand total of 6 matches played) has seen an astonishing increase in the runs/averages output for wickets 7-10. The lowest average so far this season has been the 24 registered in the deciding Test match between New Zealand and West Indies in Bridgetown. As a comparison, in the two seasons prior to that, only 13 of 33 matches saw averages above 24.
And its not just limited to Test matches. In the first two matches between Australia A and India A so far, the teams have gone from 5-191 to 9-475, 6-99 to 534, 5-86 to 5-285, 5-248 to 423, and 5-199 to 501. Have tailenders improved that much? Or is it just a coincidence? Surely the absence of good legspinners and pacy yorkers has something to do with it? Even Pakistan don't do much of those any more so I guess there is little hope for the rest of the world.
Batting collapses aside, the problems for both teams started even before the toss with their choice of XIs. Dhoni and Fletcher had the right strategy but the wrong personnel, no matter that Binny played a vital hand. And Ben Stokes should have been outraged that he was asked to bat below Matt Prior after his exploits in Australia. The silver lining is that both sides seem to have realised this with Kerrigan called up by England and Dhoni admitting that Ashwin and Rohit Sharma will come into the equation for Lord's. England will certainly continue with five bowlers regardless of who's left out if Kerrigan comes into the XI, but India's decision will more likely be dictated by the pitch and conditions.
Talking of conditions, much has been made of the fact that the pitches this summer are more like sub-continental pitches but I think that's just lazy analysis. Yes, they're drier than usual for English wickets but there the similarity ends. Subcontinental pitches turn at least after day three and deteriorate over time whereas these wickets are just dull. Hopefully, Lord's will offer a change and so will the three venues after it. If they don't and the play continues to be similarly dull, I might just opt for watching South Africa take on Sri Lanka instead.
India contrived to lose 4 wickets for 2 runs in their first dig and 5 for 44 in their second turn at different points. South Africa and Australia (or even Sri Lanka in current form) would have stamped them out by an innings. England tried their best to match them by losing 6 for 68 in their first innings but then Root accompanied by the bowlers outdid the Indian tail. If they had batted a second time you can be sure that they would have lost 5 for 30 before being rescued by Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett.
Across the three (nearly completed) innings in the match, wickets 7-10 managed an aggregate of 614 runs at the scarcely believable average of 55.8. To put that in context, the average for those wickets since Test cricket began is just above 20. And its not just this Test match. Its still early days but this entire season of Test cricket (or the grand total of 6 matches played) has seen an astonishing increase in the runs/averages output for wickets 7-10. The lowest average so far this season has been the 24 registered in the deciding Test match between New Zealand and West Indies in Bridgetown. As a comparison, in the two seasons prior to that, only 13 of 33 matches saw averages above 24.
And its not just limited to Test matches. In the first two matches between Australia A and India A so far, the teams have gone from 5-191 to 9-475, 6-99 to 534, 5-86 to 5-285, 5-248 to 423, and 5-199 to 501. Have tailenders improved that much? Or is it just a coincidence? Surely the absence of good legspinners and pacy yorkers has something to do with it? Even Pakistan don't do much of those any more so I guess there is little hope for the rest of the world.
Batting collapses aside, the problems for both teams started even before the toss with their choice of XIs. Dhoni and Fletcher had the right strategy but the wrong personnel, no matter that Binny played a vital hand. And Ben Stokes should have been outraged that he was asked to bat below Matt Prior after his exploits in Australia. The silver lining is that both sides seem to have realised this with Kerrigan called up by England and Dhoni admitting that Ashwin and Rohit Sharma will come into the equation for Lord's. England will certainly continue with five bowlers regardless of who's left out if Kerrigan comes into the XI, but India's decision will more likely be dictated by the pitch and conditions.
Talking of conditions, much has been made of the fact that the pitches this summer are more like sub-continental pitches but I think that's just lazy analysis. Yes, they're drier than usual for English wickets but there the similarity ends. Subcontinental pitches turn at least after day three and deteriorate over time whereas these wickets are just dull. Hopefully, Lord's will offer a change and so will the three venues after it. If they don't and the play continues to be similarly dull, I might just opt for watching South Africa take on Sri Lanka instead.
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