You did that perfectly 193 - not sure its enough but a couple of quick wickets early on and you never know - Headingly 1981 for example
I must have missed something here. Reading these posts I assumed we were playing Zimbabwe, not India. India are currently the best test side in the world by some distance. We're pretty strong at home but let's not assume we only have to turn up to win. They've a strong batting line up and a balanced attack. Admittedly we let them off the hook yesterday and you can't really afford to do that against top teams. Reading somewhere in this thread that Bairstow isn't a test batsman, wow. Consistent recent performances would suggest otherwise.
Its all relative isn't it? And shows how poor test cricket is that India are the best side in the world, by ranking. They've played a large number of home tests of late, where they are very strong due to the flat bounce and turning nature of pitches. They showed in the first innings they are poor at playing a swinging ball. As did we. Again. We've collapsed for the millionth time in a row, and again failed to make 300 on a pretty benign pitch that's not doing a lot. I like Bairstow, but his technique is similar to Buttler, Stokes and the other ODI hitters. See ball, hit ball. When the ball starts to swing or seam, he struggles. I'd have him in the test team for sure, we do need a hitter. But we don't need everyone below the openers to be hitters and that's what we've got. An imbalance of left handers too. We've lost to just about every nation, often heavily the last 4 years, and when you look at some of them, they've been around quite a while. Was surprised Bairstow has over 50 caps now. I'm not sure where the test players are at county level. (Another drop by Malan) But if we keep playing this team anywhere in the world, as proven, we'll lose many more than we'll win.
Picked up a ticket at the last minute for today - very glad I did. Completely absorbing day, for reasons both good and bad. I'll be back down tomorrow morning to see how it all unfolds.
Gripping but it'll be over by lunch at the latest. I feel sorry for those who got tickets for today or tomorrow and lose out on a good day's play even if they get refunds.