England for World No. 1 – Don’t Make Me Laugh

At Sophia Gardens, a rain-hit first Test looked destined for a draw on the last day but the visitors decided not to show up and bat it out and England picked up the win thanks to Swann and Tremlett.

At Lord’s, the weather did not intervene as much and both teams piled up over four hundred in their first innings, but that took three days out of the game on a wicket that offered no assistance to the bowlers. With the game reduced to two days for two innings, England batted too long in making the game safe and then hoped that Sri Lanka would capitulate again. That did not come to pass.

After the third Test at the Rose Bowl, the current World No. 1, India, will be visiting these shores.

The ECB should get on to the groundsmen at the venues for the Test Series against India and tell them to produce result wickets. England’s bowling attack does not look like it can consistently bowl out a team with a batting line-up as strong as the one that India possesses and their bowling attack will not be as predictable as the Sri Lankan one.

If it takes three days to bat the first innings of any of the England v India Tests, the team batting their second innings first will play it safe and bat four of the remaining six sessions and then put the other in for two sessions in the hope of a collapse – something that is still more likely to come from England than their opponents.

 

A bowling attack without Anderson and Bresnan though! If we'd had Anderson in those swinging conditions, Sri Lanka would of been annihilated end of.

 

That would be the James Anderson who did not annihilate Sri Lanka at Sophia Gardens.

If Bresnan wants a place in the team he had better start scoring some runs with the bat because he will not get in the team on bowling alone – they will stick with Broad even though his bowling has been erratic.

 

for teh last game against sri lanka I'd liek to see Anderson back for Finn...broad sent to county cricket to try tighten up his bowling and bring in, if fit, Bresnan or give a look in to Onions or possibly see what Dernbach has to offer

 

Anderson did pretty good at Cardiff anyway, but it wasn't swinging then.

 

a good chance for us to check out another bowler in the last test..I'd certainly liek to see Oions back in the fold

 

seems like onions has been away for aaaaaaages. when did he get injured again, the bangladesh tour last year?

 

I've no idea how to calculate ranking points, could England overtake India if we win the series?

 

At the start of the summer the only chance England had of getting to no1 was winning EVERY Test this summer, unless India lose against the West Indies that is.
This just goes to show what a joke the rankings are, England could win every game left, humiliating India in EVERY Test match (it won't happen obviously) and they still wouldn't be classed as no1, instead a team who've NEVER won a series in Australia or South Africa will stay there.
If anyone thinks the rankings aren't a joke, please explain why?

 

Couldn't be bothered to read the thread but why cant England be number one.....it aint like anyone else is that great

 

India are only top because they play loads of matches in Asia and beat up teams like Bangladesh on batting friendly pitches because they have no fast bowlers and none of their batsmen can play bounce whilst their fickle 'fans' only make noise for them whilst they are doing well.

 

England will not lose to the Indians this summer.. England have the best all round team in the world at the moment.. and in our conditions, we will be too good for them.

go watch your IPL crap quartermoon :/

 

The Indian side is heavily based on the fact they play most of their test cricket in asia, however their batting line up is pretty phenomenal no matter what part of the world you are in. Throw in Zaheer Khan and Harbajan Singh and i think it will be a tough test for England, one i think they can conquer but never the less still a hard one.

 

I can only but laugh at all this talk about a great England cricket team!! Get real!! We are good, but still nowhere better than SA or India. What have we really achieved recently? Beating Australia was not a great achievement, because in all honesty, the Aussies would not have coped against County sides. Their bowling was not worthy of First Class cricket, and their batting was very, very poor. Who else have we destroyed in the last two years? We burgled a drawn series in SA thanks to their selectors persisting with Ntini, and picking an injured opening bowler in the Test we won when he broke down in his first over. Remember, SA beat us in England before that. I fear for us against India. Their batting is a lot more talented than Sri Lanka or Aus. Our bowlers are frankly not brilliant. How is it that we still insist on talking up Broad and Tremlett? We only have one bowler who can make a difference in the right conditions - Swann!! Wake up, after the Ashes win against schoolboy cricketers we are suddenly destined to be number one? No chance.

 

I know one swallow does not a spring make, but whilst typing this Bishoo - an average leg spinner - is ripping the heart out of the Indian batting lineup. He's taken Laxman, Dravid & Dhoni to leave them 85 for 6.

Whilst I agree to a point with BillysStatue that we're not a great side, I do believe we're a very good side and with the capacity to improve. I think Broad is someone who is being kept in the side because he's capable of scoring runs but it is obvious he's not taking the wickets he should be and that is a worry. I also think to criticise Tremlett is a tad harsh as he's only at the start of his test career. I won't pass judgement on him until he's played about 15 matches and played in different conditions. Swann is a truly great bowler and should have been playing for England years before.

 

Gashead...I agree Swann should have been in the side a long time ago. As for Tremlett, do you think he is at the stage of his career where he can improve? Also, it is a lot easier against opposition who can't bat in our conditions. Let's see, but I think Tremlett's bang it in bowling will suffer against class batters. He can't outhink batsmen, and doesn't have that devastating wicket taking ball a la Dale Steyn.

 

@DangerousMarsupial, We could say the same for england. They are unproven in asian conditons where there is not the same amount of bounce and swing. Im sure if england were to come to Sri Lanka or India, their poor batting line up would be embarrassed. Cook and Trott have got all their runs without facing a decent spin bowler, Pietersen is all hype and Morgan is unproven. Strauss is in poor form and Prior cannot be classified as a batsmen. Comparatively, India's batting line up is full of world class PROVEN batsmen.

 

You forgot Bell.

 

On the subject of world number ones:

Here's the latest score from Taunton (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/static/cricket/statistics/scorecards/2011/07/86555/html/scorecard.stm)

In summary:

Somerset: 425-3 declared
India: 138-8

Somerset clearly making a bid for being named number 1 in the world

 

They've got more chance than England