CL Fox

Also quite like dragging them in again to bowl tomorrow morning, will be even more demoralising.

This is really really good from England today, it's everything the team has been criticized for not doing in the recent past. Aside from Brook, no one has played a silly shot and they don't need to. Just keep batting the day and get the biggest lead you can and give yourself two days to bowl them out - wicket still looks pretty flat at this stage, we need to knock the stuffing out of them. It's amazing to me how little credit Root gets in Australia - he's scored hundreds everyone, and lots against them, except he's not got one in Australia, that's literally the only thing to tick off. He's an unbelievable talent, we're so lucky to have him.

Rehan's bowling really coming on.....

So is Pant tbf to him!

I was wondering tbh...you wouldnt think twice about a bouncer to a tailender would you? Although there was a big deal with Bumrah deliberately bowling no balls against Anderson a few years ago.

If england just bowled yorkers at Pant is that within the spirit of cricket?

He'll get a hundred and his replacement will get several stumping. There's nothing wrong with him 🤣

It's alright - I'm sure he'll be fine to bat in this match and they can just bring on the reserve keeper again so he doesn't have to field....🤪 In all seriousness, a massive blow for India and a shame for the series as he's a superb player.

👀👀👀👀👀

Im not sure he is tbh. Dawson's batting and bowling averages in the last few years are better than his and its in division 1. Dawson's had more impact in the t20 side too.

England really like him, otherwise they wouldn't have picked an 18 year old with limited stats. Hes been picked for every subcontinent tour too so I think this is a bit unfair. I think his record this summer as a batter has probably surprised a few but I'd be amazed if he didn't feature heavily in squads over the next few years. His challenge as a stand alone batter is hes probably behind Jordan Cox and Bethell at least at this stage. And for all the Bethell plays golf chat, hes been the stand out player for his age group, played franchise (and excelled) and was brilliant in new zealand so a bit of work for rehan to take over him as a stand alone batter. I think long term you could see Bethell and Ahmed in the team with 4 quicks but that's probably after Stokes retires.

Shubman Gill going full Rafa Benitez in today's press conference is very funny.

Ahmed is Stokes' successor rather than anything else I think to be honest - his stats this year are over 40 with the bat and nust over 20 with the ball. Serious talent. Some good batting today.

A lot of hurty words in the survey so I'm sure the FAB will have an opinion on that. Aren't they due to have a nice photo in the boardroom soon or a meet the manager event soon to demonstrate them landing some heavy blows on the club?

Completely agree on stuff like the hundred.... The counter argument on tickets is they regularly sell out first four days....they didn't last summer though so hopefully they take note of that. £160 for a day at lords is embarrassing to be honest.

Yeah I have a bit of a problem with the ruling as in england you're always going to bowl more pace as its your best chance of winning the game - i still don't get it as 22 overs were lost in the first 2 days and india were bowling for roughly 2/3 of that - they lost 7 on the first day, on day 2 they lost 15 and I can't remember the lost overs on that day, but having sat through the whole day it was the day when Gill had a massage and Pant got drinks on 4 minutes before tea. It's so confusing and given the BCCI has such a strange hold over the ICC its feels a bit weird to me - this from the BBC sums it up quite well tbh. Im pretty anti BCCI in general, they don't care about the state of the game as long as its strong in India which i think is poor for the overall picture. And I think the point on it being harder is England play 16 matches at least every cycle, and in addition play the most t20. Means more injuries are likely and its harder to field you strongest team.

It's a shame, this team has a great shot of being number 1. It's already way harder for us given we play more test cricket than anyone else and play all the top teams. Like you say, maybe they're not that arsed.

England fined 2 points for slow over rates. I really don't understand how that's calculated - I'm aware they cut out the batting teams stoppages but feels strange to me that its only England that have fallen foul of it. Would love to see a breakdown of it.

Dawson added to the squad.... I think that's the right pick, it's barely spun all series so having him at 8 gives us the option to drop Woakes and potentially play 3 out and out quicks or Cook. Also he's a very good one day bowler so he'll be fine if they try and get after him I think.

11-6. Christ. When I saw it was 0-3 I thought they'd put in the Australian way. 🤣

I can't get over how incredibly thick vaughan is. He's now saying hes never seen Stokes lose a tight situation, I can think of two alone as skipper. Bloke is so up and down, just says whatever the first thing is in his head.

Atkinson, Dawson, Archer and Carse please. Then play wood instead of Archer at the oval.

Can you imagine how good the beer tastes right now for them. I'll slag off players for being prats but ill very rarely criticise them for how they got out or a choice of shot. This sport is ridiculously hard - mentally and physically. *checks posts to see if hes slagged anyone off for sweeping*

Carse is such a find for us.

He was so so good. What a player.