And Jimmy Anderson rounds the match off with his record breaking wicket in some style and prises another £10k out of Jagger...
Well that couldn't have been scripted any better, could it? Cook retires with a ton, and Jimmy breaks McGrath's record with the final ball of the series. A fully deserved series win for England, but 4-1 might be slightly flattering.
Couldn't agree more, a fantastic series which highlights the fact that test matches still do have a place in the calendar. 4-1 harsh on India who have taken all bar one of the games down to the wire. A couple of extraordinary innings by Curran in the series and a fantastic team effort swung it (pardon the pun) England's way and what a wicket by Rashid. If Kohli had had some support in the early games we'd be looking at a different result, another class player!
Been out all day and ridiculously busy, so not even had a chance to check how it was going. Looking forward to watching the highlights!!
Great match & series, very close & only one match was by a clear margin, credit to the two India lads who made centuries but you sensed it was as s matter of time before we broke through, mom had to be cookie & well done jimmy & great way to break the record.
Congratulations to Surrey on their emphatic title win in the County Championship, unbeaten to date winning 10 out of 12 matches with a mainly home-grown squad. They'll likely be supplying a large part of future England teams, they've gone from strength to strength since putting Alec Stewart in charge...
After a very poor start, England look to have played themselves into a winning position in the first test against Sri Lanka. An excellent batting debut by Ben Foakes, but, more significantly, he looks like a much more natural 'keeper than either Bairstow or Buttler. Hard to see either of them getting the gloves back, and Bairstow must be wondering how he can get back in the side. Maybe as opener?
Yet again lower order saves England batting, Ali not a number 3 & would love me to see Denly given a chance, picked the right bowling attack in this game so far, shouldn’t lose this match.
Good team performance from England, surely batted Sri Lanka out of the contest. Tough luck for Bairstow, Foakes a cut above as a keeper and throwing in a ton surely can't be dropped. Bairstow would probably be a better No.3 than Ali but three spinners are the order of the day...
An unchanged side announced for the second Sri Lanka Test, so, as suspected, Bairstow will have to wait to get back into the side. I'd say Foakes will be first-choice 'keeper from now on, so Bairstow will be looking for a batting spot. The Moeen at 3 experiment hasn't worked out, so Stokes will bat there with Buttler 5 and Ali 6. Stokes proved against India that he can bat responsibly (as did Buttler), so this is a good move, I think.
I don't consider Stokes, nor Buttler to be test match No3s. May be OK against Shri Lanka but not against stronger opposition imo.
You didn't consider Buttler a Test batsman at all did you? Have you changed your mind? Moeen plainly isn't a Test number 3, so something had to change. Root should play there really, but he just doesn't want to. Stokes's batting has been improving steadily, and his performances in the summer should have put to bed any suspicion that he can't knuckle down when the situation demands, so he's worth a try there in my opinion. It's not necessarily designed to be a permanent move, but it might come off.
Turn from the off in Kandy. Sri Lanka's morning with England 120-4, but batting last could prove very difficult. Buttler is giving the Sri Lankan spinners something to think about by sweeping (or reverse-sweeping) almost everything.
I don't remember saying that Buttler wasn't a test batsman. I think I said that he and Stokes are likely to fail a fair bit because of their attacking nature. Buttler has shown that he can be more circumspect and I love watching him (which I think I also said) so hopefully he can continue to prove me wrong against top opposition. He's just past 50, we'll played!! Stokes on the other hand will never have the tools to bat at 3 imo. He's a 6 imo.
