England's Questionable Tactics this series

[sandeep]

Some glaring mistakes in how England have approached the game this tour.  And it has already cost them the test series.  Instead of focusing on moves that would increase their chances of winning games, the emphasis has been quite negative over-all.  

Batting tactics - Ben Duckett at #4 after the Bangladesh tour was foolhardy.  England have arguably played a batsman short even after benching the young duck.  If you are going to hide Garett Batty and hardly use him as a bowler, then why not play another batsman?  If they had, it could have completely changed this innings around - another 40 odd runs in the 1st innings, and India might well have conceded a lead instead of taking one.  Why this insistence of 6 bowlers, when its clear that their best chance of winning a test match is batting big in the 1st innings?  When you have the luxury provided by Ben Stokes and Johnny Bairstow - its simply inexcusable to get your team balance wrong.  

 

And if you want to play 6 bowlers, Zafar Ansari was clearly adding next to nothing as a bowler, even before he got injured.  Was it because he's considered to be a better batsman down the order than Batty?  Just muddled thinking on display.  

 

Consistently mishandling of the spinners - whether its when to bowl them, when not to bowl them, which one to bowl in terms of match-ups.   Ali and Rashid have not been bad with the ball, but their captain has not put them in best positions to succeed.  Just demonstrates a lack of trust in the bowlers, and lack of knowledge in how to use spinners.  

 

Over-use of the 'bowling dry' tactic.  England had a great opportunity on D2S3 to level the series.  And they blew it.  Its one thing to use boredom as a tactic against Pujara and Kohli.  But Ashwin and Jadeja are a different breed.  The stubborn sticking to negative lines tilted the game from a risky place for India, into a massive advantage.  And what the hell is the point of bowling with Moeen Ali first up in the morning with a 4 over old ball.  That's just dumb.  

 

The constant bleating and moaning about the toss - by the team, not the fans - was completely counter productive.  Led to a self-inflicted brain-fart batting approach on Day 1 - they put themselves under so much pressure to try and seize the chance they got with the toss in order to put pressure on India.  Totally back-fired.  

 

Biggest failure has been the ability to recognize the importance of first innings batting - team selection and execution, in spite of the lessons demonstrated by a gift-wrapped Rajkot pitch and the dropped catches by India.  

 

[putrevus]

Cook and England's defensive tactics were deplorable. It only reinforced my thoughts about who Cook is a very defensive captain and not a very good one. What is the point of England having six bowlers if they are not looking to take wickets, you just can't expect opposition to make mistakes all the time. You have to be proactive and attacking to take wickets.

 

This England team is loaded with talent and yet with their defensive mindset with both bat and ball they are giving other teams chance to prosper.They have six bowlers for goodness sake , let fast bowlers do the attacking job and rattle Indian batsmen.Cook after first sign of aggression spreads the fielders wide into saving boundaries. He does not allow spinners to make mistakes the moment they are attacked he takes them out, you need to let bowlers make mistakes and then give them confidence by keeping them on.

 

Cook is a high class batsman but under him England are a very boring test side, they bore you to death by waiting for other teams to make mistakes.Cook makes it look like as if he is having just four bowlers.England has everything any side dreams off a fast bowling all rounder and a spinning all rounder instead of playing aggressive brand of cricket by being more proactive they are so negative and defensive.I had enough of this fancy field settings for saving singles and boundaries.

 

 

Edited November 28, 2016 by putrevus

[sandeep]

haha.  Great minds think alike.  Mods please merge this and the other thread on Englund's tactics.  

 

In general, it would be helpful if the mods were a bit pro-active on merging/moving threads.  

[gakgupta]

They are in the saving mode all the time.....

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[MCcricket]

Poms seem mentally beaten after second test, Cooks captaincy is not logical sometimes, denying your best spinner Rashid a fifer,playing 6 bowlers, the team has talent but seems overawed.

A guy like Hussain could have done wonders to this side as a captain,7_2 field shows u are afraid to loose , also demoralising if continued for a longer time to your own team.

Bad field placing to spinners not giving them proper spells,Anderson seems mediocre just had one good spell since returning.

Haseeb

Cook

Root

Moeen

Bairstow

Stokes

Jos Butler

Batsmen extra

Woakes

Adil Rashid

Broad/Anderson

Is more balanced team with enough batters n bowlers.

This series has been one sided until now but it will be now.

 

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Playing too many fast bowlers and fast bowling all rounders.Doesnt work in Asia.

[vayuu1]

Problem with England is ,they are playing too many bits and pieces player, their bowling has sameness to it, batty shouldn't have been a part of this setup, neither ansari.

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[Laaloo]

Moeen bhai batting at 3 is a travesty

[Cricketics]

Englland have 3 world class cricketers on this tour along with some other pretty good players but they still continue to force themselves into positions where their supporters might question if it is right to call their team one of the best test sides. I was surprised to see the line bowled to Kohli in the previous game and the field placement. They wanted him to take easy singles instead of attack him. Same thing continued yesterday.

 

I think under Andy Flower as a coach, they seemed more attacking. For some reason Cook hasn't been the the leader England has always wanted. Great batsman who leads from the front with the bat, but seem to have similar mindset as other past boring captains when on field.

 

 

One of the best captains England had was Collingwood. He did not captain for too long but was certainly the best captain from England in recent times. Better than over rated Nasser Hussain. Collingwood used to think like a fielder and as a bowler since he was a bowler himself. This is what Cook doesn't do at times. England need to develop may be someone like Stokes for captaincy or may be Bairstow and let Cook just bat. I don't know about Root either. 

[G_B_]

Hmm they are missing kp

Player with x factor who cab take the game to sides...

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[sandeep]

1 hour ago, Cricketics said:

Englland have 3 world class cricketers on this tour along with some other pretty good players but they still continue to force themselves into positions where their supporters might question if it is right to call their team one of the best test sides. I was surprised to see the line bowled to Kohli in the previous game and the field placement. They wanted him to take easy singles instead of attack him. Same thing continued yesterday.

 

I think under Andy Flower as a coach, they seemed more attacking. For some reason Cook hasn't been the the leader England has always wanted. Great batsman who leads from the front with the bat, but seem to have similar mindset as other past boring captains when on field.

 

 

One of the best captains England had was Collingwood. He did not captain for too long but was certainly the best captain from England in recent times. Better than over rated Nasser Hussain. Collingwood used to think like a fielder and as a bowler since he was a bowler himself. This is what Cook doesn't do at times. England need to develop may be someone like Stokes for captaincy or may be Bairstow and let Cook just bat. I don't know about Root either. 

Yeah Collingwood had that Faf type vibe - not the best player, but definitely could lead and even raise his game at times.  Faf to his credit has even performed with the bat, Colly couldn't do that, and arguably didn't get that many chances - I don't follow England closely enough to know this for sure...

 

Root doesn't seem to have that factor that top captains have - an instinctive ability to grasp the key issues and points in a contest - You could use a Dhoni as an example but only in LOI cricket and only upto 2013 or so - he's been found wanting repeatedly not just as a player, but also a captain since then.  Stokes, I think is way too immature to be captain.  And I don't think he can mature a la Kohli.  He's got that moronic donkeyesque vibe that some players have - good even great as a grunt, but not officer grade.  Bairstow maybe?  Don't know much about him though.  Root reminds me of Tendulkar in a way, don't think Captaincy will bring out the best in him, he's better off just being a player. 

[YCCC]

A few brief words from me. Work and weekend social commitments mean I haven't seen much of the series so I can only go on what I've read and the highlights.

Selection-

Batting wise, before the series I don't think you could argue with the selection of Duckett on county form last season. I would have taken one or both of the Durham lads Borthwick and Jennings instead of Ballance though.

Bowling-I believe the 3-3 selection was the right way to go, but Joe Leach and Ollie Rayner, the leading county spinners last season should have gone instead of Batty and Ansari.

 

Test 1-No complaints, both teams feeling their way into the series. Could have declared earlier but no point risking handing India the game so early in the series.

 

Test 2-Always an uphill battle after losing the toss (whether the game would have gone any differently if the coin had fallen the other way, who knows, probably not, see Test 3) Apart from one mad session England were decent. 

 

Test 3-Match lost with awful first innings batting. Ironically England weren't cautious enough and got themselves into a hole playing careless shots.

 

In hindsight, Cook could have been more attacking and inventive with his fields, however we knew how hard it was going to be, India at home are virtually unbeatable. Sometimes playing the long game is the way to go as the underdog. Yes the pitches were nor rank turners, but still very different to what England are used to.

 

Overall, i'm not going to go overboard calling for everyone to be sacked. England are what the are. Decent when conditions suit, poor when they don't, same as everyone else. 

P.s No spoilers. Just clicked on them by mistake and couldn't get rid of the bloody things!

 

Edited November 28, 2016 by laaloo

[sandeep]

^ good to read your thoughts.  

Quote

Overall, i'm not going to go overboard calling for everyone to be sacked. England are what the are. Decent when conditions suit, poor when they don't, same as everyone else. 

Sure, no need for anyone to be sacked.  But I just feel that things have gone England's way as much as they can on this tour - They have won 2 out of 3 tosses but are managing to lose 2 out of 3 games in one-sided fashion.  I just feel they could have done a lot better given the personnel they have and the luck they've had.  

 

Think about this game - won the toss, India's keeper and 1st choice opener is injured and they had to make do with a weak keeper and use him as a make-shift opener to boot.  On top of this, the middle-order spectacularly combusts with Pujara, Rahane and Nair gone in the space of 3 overs - Massive opening for England - one they could have, and should have made use of, with the personnel they have at their disposal in the match.  But failed to.  Sure Ashwin and Jadeja played well, but England enabled them to.  And over the course of multiple sessions.  Its a massive failure in tactics from an experienced side that plays boat-loads of test matches.  

 

I'm just a bit surprised that the team is allowed to hide such clear mis-steps behind low expectations by serious fans.  

[The Realist]

Eng play attritional cricket as dependent on the other team making mistakes, its not particularly exciting to watch and is compounded with the tactically inept Cook as captain. 

 

 

[The Realist]

15 minutes ago, sandeep said:

^ good to read your thoughts.  

Sure, no need for anyone to be sacked.  But I just feel that things have gone England's way as much as they can on this tour - They have won 2 out of 3 tosses but are managing to lose 2 out of 3 games in one-sided fashion.  I just feel they could have done a lot better given the personnel they have and the luck they've had.  

 

Think about this game - won the toss, India's keeper and 1st choice opener is injured and they had to make do with a weak keeper and use him as a make-shift opener to boot.  On top of this, the middle-order spectacularly combusts with Pujara, Rahane and Nair gone in the space of 3 overs - Massive opening for England - one they could have, and should have made use of, with the personnel they have at their disposal in the match.  But failed to.  Sure Ashwin and Jadeja played well, but England enabled them to.  And over the course of multiple sessions.  Its a massive failure in tactics from an experienced side that plays boat-loads of test matches.  

 

I'm just a bit surprised that the team is allowed to hide such clear mis-steps behind low expectations by serious fans.  

Cook is the establishment choice as captain and the media never question his failings as a captain. KP in his book basically said Cook is nice but dim. He is by a distance the worst captain in world cricket.  

[sandeep]

5 minutes ago, The Realist said:

Cook is the establishment choice as captain and the media never question his failings as a captain. KP in his book basically said Cook is nice but dim. He is by a distance the worst captain in world cricket.  

As a fan, you keep hearing grumblings about class-ism in England cricket - from a distance, hard to say how much of that is just noise or has some basis in reality.  

[putrevus]

I wish KP was the England captain.What KP did after Mumbai attacks was so very admirable, he soothed an entire nation, he should have never been sacked, Strauss was never a great captain nor a great player.

 

I would say KP was and is still the best batsman to have ever won England uniform.They always were against KP, KP is no saint but he never received the adulation which guys like Flintoff , Strauss or even Stokes for that matter have received from both management and their public.He was  a mercenary in their eyes and that never changed.

 

Cook will end up and most capped captain for England but he is a very boring captain.Aussies have lost in India a lot but except few matches all of them have been well contested and interesting even with weaker teams.

[gakgupta]

Stokes should be the captain ....it will change the whole game for England.

This is the best team which have toured India from last 2 years...

They should rest either batty or Anderson...

Too many bowlers.....

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[gakgupta]

I wish KP was the England captain.What KP did after Mumbai attacks was so very admirable, he soothed an entire nation, he should have never been sacked, Strauss was never a great captain nor a great player.

 

I would say KP was and is still the best batsman to have ever won England uniform.They always were against KP, KP is no saint but he never received the adulation which guys like Flintoff , Strauss or even Stokes for that matter have received from both management and their public.He was  a mercenary in their eyes and that never changed.

 

Cook will end up and most capped captain for England but he is a very boring captain.Aussies have lost in India a lot but except few matches all of them have been well contested and interesting even with weaker teams.

KP has changed the England cricket....it was incredibly mediacore team before that.....He showed that "how to play aggressive cricket"....he played fearless cricket....He never got the respect, he deserved...

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[Unleashed]

They're one of the most defensive team in the whole world. Their strategy to have an 7-2 field and keep on bowling wide at the offside was pretty stupid IMO. Ashwin has shown a clear weakness to short pitched bowling and yet there was little short bowls to him. Don't know why they keep on insisting on playing three spinners if they want to underbowl the third spinner. First Ansari and now Batty, wouldn't it be better if they instead go with a batsmen to improve their batting.