India played well and seem to have a good replacement for Dravid in Pujara. Its early day's and they are pitches he's used to but he looks class.
Same old conservative England, which idiot thought it would be a good idea to pick Bresnan over Monty? If you are that worried that about the batting that you are effectively picking a bowler on the strength of the few runs he will contribute at number 8 then you have a problem.
If the top 7 can't do it then you are fucked. We need 20 wickets and Monty is a quality spinner.
Expected the batsman to find it difficult but was surprised our bowlers (thinking of our seamers more) weren't more effective.
Samit Patel needs to fuck off. He can be effective in limited overs but in a test match, he's nothing like good enough, with bat and ball, and fielding come to think of it. Don't know why the selectors think he was up to it. He's got a pretty modest first class record.
Hopefully Finn will be back for the next test. I'd drop Broad for him. As for Monty, might as well swap him with Patel. I know Monty's a bit of a mug with the bat but we're one down in the series and we have to go for it.
He's 27 now and made his debut aged 21, so in 6 years he's made 7000 runs. It's not inconceivable he could play till he's 39 (Tendulkers age now), If he scores his runs at the same rate (a pretty big if, but still entirely possible) he'll have 21,000 test runs thus obliterating Sachin's shitty 15,000 test runs and becoming the all time batting master of the universe.
Cook is brilliant but the difference between Sachin and everyone else is that until recently Sachin was still at the top, in 2010 he scored over 1,500 test runs at the age of 37, and was the first man to reach a ODI double hundred (against the Saffers, no less). At almost 38 he was one of the top scorers in the World Cup last year. Most batsmen start to decline a few years earlier so Tendulkar doing so well in his late thirties is an exception rather than the rule.
Little doubt he is finally in decline now and I think the 2011 World Cup was his last hurrah probably (though he played a key innings this test), but what's more realistic is that Cook will go through a few bad patches and/or decline at a similar rate to most other batsmen. I do think he will be in the same class as for example Ponting or Dravid at the end of his career though which is still obviously one of the best of his generation.
Additionally Sachin reached 7,000 in considerably fewer Tests, but India used to play even less Test cricket than we do now so that's why the age thing comes into play.
He's 27 now and made his debut aged 21, so in 6 years he's made 7000 runs. It's not inconceivable he could play till he's 39 (Tendulkers age now), If he scores his runs at the same rate (a pretty big if, but still entirely possible) he'll have 21,000 test runs thus obliterating Sachin's shitty 15,000 test runs and becoming the all time batting master of the universe.
Cook is brilliant but the difference between Sachin and everyone else is that until recently Sachin was still at the top, in 2010 he scored over 1,500 test runs at the age of 37, and was the first man to reach a ODI double hundred (against the Saffers, no less). At almost 38 he was one of the top scorers in the World Cup last year. Most batsmen start to decline a few years earlier so Tendulkar doing so well in his late thirties is an exception rather than the rule.
Little doubt he is finally in decline now and I think the 2011 World Cup was his last hurrah probably (though he played a key innings this test), but what's more realistic is that Cook will go through a few bad patches and/or decline at a similar rate to most other batsmen. I do think he will be in the same class as for example Ponting or Dravid at the end of his career though which is still obviously one of the best of his generation.
Additionally Sachin reached 7,000 in considerably fewer Tests, but India used to play even less Test cricket than we do now so that's why the age thing comes into play.
Yeah but Sachin has spent half of his career on batting friendly, flat wickets so it doesnt quite count...
Cook is brilliant but the difference between Sachin and everyone else is that until recently Sachin was still at the top, in 2010 he scored over 1,500 test runs at the age of 37, and was the first man to reach a ODI double hundred (against the Saffers, no less). At almost 38 he was one of the top scorers in the World Cup last year. Most batsmen start to decline a few years earlier so Tendulkar doing so well in his late thirties is an exception rather than the rule.
Little doubt he is finally in decline now and I think the 2011 World Cup was his last hurrah probably (though he played a key innings this test), but what's more realistic is that Cook will go through a few bad patches and/or decline at a similar rate to most other batsmen. I do think he will be in the same class as for example Ponting or Dravid at the end of his career though which is still obviously one of the best of his generation.
Additionally Sachin reached 7,000 in considerably fewer Tests, but India used to play even less Test cricket than we do now so that's why the age thing comes into play.
Sachin's the definition of a flat track bully mate, his runs count for less.
Additionally Sachin reached 7,000 in considerably fewer Tests, but India used to play even less Test cricket than we do now so that's why the age thing comes into play.
Tendulkar's 7,000 runs came in 85 tests, Cooks came in 86 tests
Thought the uncompetitive teams weren't allowed in the Champions Trophy?
