rollingstoned

bouncers actually feel quick and probably are but are recorded slower because of the greater distance the ball has to travel. even for express pacers you can spot this on the speed gun. this is mentioned only in passing above.

it is a pipe dream now but even back in the early 00s sometimes seniors used to go play domestic cricket. All 3 of the stooges could use half a season at least of Ranji so they could get that little bit better at playing spin. pujara doesn't even play white ball cricket so his decline is all down to age but Rahane and Kohli could certainly use it. i wouldn't expect Pandey or rayudu to be worse than what we have seen from them in 2 home series now.

good team but i want to see how they go in a long series in India, england and australia, maybe Saf too. I don't see them from this position for instance competing well in the rest of the matches if this was a 4 or 5 match series which they almost never play.

that has coincided with leg spinners becoming to go-to option for almost all teams in white ball cricket. i still feel we should have one wrist spinner on standby, in the right conditions it is a weapon we will need to use. the mishra/jadeja/ashwin attack which played against saf in 2015 was the most well rounded spin attack i can think of since i started watching us play.

Apart from ashwin neither axar nor jayant bowled well today. Considering he is an experienced domestic veteran i was disappointed with his lack of control.

That 3/4 ball to lhb will get him a lot of wickets. It did in England too. He seems to understand how to combine raw pace with movement which is why he is not shy of throwing in a short ball every now and then. In surfaces that are not very bowler friendly that is important.

special mention for dharmasena too who ticks both the timid and incompetent boxes. Chaudhary and Menon are both good umpires, Erasmus is one guy who seems to have the respect of the players around the world.

Shaw getting castled. Still hasn't sorted out his issue with the incoming delivery.

Our test ranking looks even better when you take this into consideration. We deserve to be there or there abouts but not at the very top with a misfiring core like this. For al the talk about a meme tail/lower order they have been bailing is out for a while now.

neither umesh nor ishant were anywhere close to the required mark in this match. ishant especially struggled throught which was visible even from the way he was running in. if their performance was half as good as Southee and Jamiesons it would have been enough for us to win. after the batting they are the culprits.

Ishant fools everyone with his height but he bowls and takes wickets more for his ability to use swing than getting bounce like you'd expect.

Rahane has kept surviving because of his tag as an overseas specialist and making runs just when it looks like he deserves to be axed. After surviving for so long and playing his 1 in 12 innings blinder he survives just because of 'seniority' having done that dance for 8-9 years now.

saf was supposed to play an odi series here when the first wave started and their team were stuck here for a while. looks like another tour might meet that same fate.

Umeshs wickets which are memorable are all reverse swing ones with old sg ball. You don't get those bowling just low 130s, high 120s.

*those that do not rely heavily on reflexes and hand eye co-ordination like Sehwag. Vihari and Pujara both belong in this one even if age related decline will undoubtedly be there.