If India end tomorrow 8 or 9 wickets down with no hope of knocking off the huge target set by our (ridiculous) decision to bat out the whole order, Root will get plenty of (deserved) flak. I mean since tea, we were plodding along with no urgency for quick runs on the board, etc. All far too pedestrian and playing into Kohli's hands big time.
Nice win by England, Anderson is getting better. Leach had a good 2nd innings as well. Very good batting, bowling and fielding performance in the match by England
England squad for second Test: Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Ben Foakes (w), Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes. Anderson, Buttler rested. Archer injured. Bess dropped??
Olly Stone of Norwich starts for England in the second test just started. India won the toss and are batting.
The wicket is a disgrace. Not surprised as India are desperate to win. No wicket should turn square on the 1st day.
Might just as well have flipped a coin and whoever won it gets the game! I heard years ago that in India you look for the colour of the soil, the squares will usually have two different soil types a red and a black one. The red is the slow turner that starts to disintegrate when you get into day 3 and 4. The black is the rank turner that turns immediately on day 1 and starts to fall apart on day 2. First match = Red soil Second match = Black soil Is it more unfair than a green top at Trent Bridge in May/June?
Fair comment zk. Perhaps a way round this is to do away with the toss, and give the visiting team the option to bat or field first.
They have been discussing that and I don't think it is a bad option. I think it would lead to interesting games. I only recently found out that in the 1990s in England teams that won the toss got the choice of ball as well, Readers or Dukes